Erdogan: ISIS and PKK united'in their fight against Turkey

[Anthea]

ISIS and PKK 'united' in their terrorism against Turkey, Erdogan's spokesman claims

The spokesman for Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erodgan, Ibrahim Kalin, said the US-led coalition strategy against Islamic State (ISIS) needs to be revised.

"The current strategy, which has focused primarily on airstrikes on Daesh [ISIS] targets in Syria and Iraq, has failed to stop the terrorist group from striking in Syria, Turkey, Europe and the US," Turkey's Anadolu news quoted Kalin saying at an Istanbul conference on violent extremism in the Middle East held on Saturday.

The ongoing war in Syria, Kalin stressed, is responsible for the continued extremism and terror threats. "The longer we let this war continue," he warned, "the deadlier Daesh terrorism will become. Daesh reached its current level of network and impact primarily because of the war in Syria and Iraq."

Kalin then sought to persuade his listeners that there is no essential difference between ISIS and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) when it comes to terrorism.

"Regardless of ethnic, religious or political motives terrorism is terrorism everywhere," he insisted, "It is neither logical nor moral to treat Daesh as a terrorist organization that struck in Paris and Brussels, but not the PKK that struck in Ankara twice over the last two months."

"As the recent Ankara and Istanbul attacks show," he added, "Daesh and the PKK, although coming from opposite ideological-political backgrounds, are united in their terrorism directed at Turkey."

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/10042016