Turkey condemned on Friday remarks by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in which he said that Washington wanted to keep Ankara from “slaughtering" Kurds in Syria as American troops prepare to withdraw pull out from the war-torn country.
A Foreign Ministry statement released Friday accused Pompeo of displaying "a worrying lack of information" for equating a US-backed Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) with Syria's Kurdish population.
Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its own borders. It has threatened a new cross-border offensive in northern Syria to drive out the YPG.
According to a US State Department transcript, Pompeo told Newsmax media outlet that "ensuring that the Turks don't slaughter the Kurds" was part "of the American mission set."
US support to the YPG caused friction between Washington and Ankara.
