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Erdoğan rebukes Bolton about Syria and Kurds, saying he made a ‘serious mistake’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton on Tuesday for promising that Turkey will not attack the Kurds fighting the Islamic State in Syria.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton on Tuesday for promising that Turkey will not attack the Kurds fighting the Islamic State in Syria.

“We cannot accept Bolton’s messages given from Israel,” said Erdoğan, adding that Bolton made a “serious mistake,” according to Reuters.

The United States has been providing the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, weaponry, air support and other support to combat ISIS since 2015, with the militias experiencing thousands of casualties being in the U.S.-led coalition.

In The New York Times on Tuesday, Erdoğan praised U.S. President Donald Trump for deciding to withdraw forces from Syria. The decision has reportedly been scaled back amid backlash from Republicans on Capitol Hill, in addition to others on the national and global stage.

“Jews make up a small fraction of San Francisco’s population, yet anti-Jewish bias accounted for nearly half of all hate crimes reported so far this year,” Marc Levine, of the ADL, told JNS.
The nations agreed on a coordination mechanism for citizen services following Jerusalem’s prolonged humanitarian assistance deployment to the country.
The meeting “focused on strategies to strengthen Jewish safety and belonging, maintain candid lines of communication and collaborate on issues where we have shared values and goals,” Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the Mayor’s office to Combat Antisemitism, told JNS.
The diplomatic move joins a host of bilateral measures to immediately strengthen relations between Jerusalem and Bogotá.