Russia blasts Turkey’s ‘provocative’ shelling of Kurds in Syria

Published by Ekurd, 15 February 2016

MOSCOW,— Russia said on Monday that Turkey’s shelling of Kurdish and Syrian regime positions in the north of the country was a “provocative” action.

“Moscow expresses its most serious concern about aggressive actions by Turkish authorities,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said Ankara was pursuing a “provocative line” that “is creating a threat to peace and security in the Middle East and beyond”.

Turkish artillery shelled Kurdish YPG militia targets in Syria over the weekend, after the group seized an air base north of Aleppo.

The powerful Kurdish YPG forces, PYD’s military wing, which the U.S. and Russia consider an ally in the fight against IS, is the most effective group fighting Islamic State (IS) in Syria, as the Kurdish militia has seized swathes of Syria from IS.

Turkey has been gravely concerned by the moves of the Kurdish fighters on Azaz and has so far defied calls from its Western partners to stop artillery bombardments of YPG positions.

Turkey which still denies the constitutional existence of its own Kurds fears the creation of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria — similar to the Kurdish region in northern Iraq — would spur the separatist ambitions of Turkey’s own Kurds numbering to 22.5 million of the country’s 78-million population.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday that Ankara will not allow the Syrian town of Azaz just across from the Turkish border to fall under the control of Syrian Kurdish fighters.