Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Thursday slammed Mike Pompeo, who served as U.S. secretary of state beneath then-President Donald Trump, over his allegations on Türkiye in a not too long ago launched guide, calling his claims “unreal information.”
In a press convention within the capital Ankara, Çavuşoğlu mentioned: “First of all, there is unreal information, as I might say in diplomatic language, or you might also define it as a lie. There’s an exaggeration, there’s a double standard.”
On U.S. help for the terrorist group YPG/PKK in northern Syria-a longtime bone of rivalry in Turkish-U.S. ties-Çavuşoğlu added: “The support they have given to terrorism, which is a serious crime in the US, I think there is also serious disinformation in order not to face a judicial process.”
The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by Türkiye, the European Union, and the U.S., and is chargeable for the deaths of 40,000 folks, together with girls, youngsters, and infants. The YPG is the terrorist PKK’s Syrian department.
The U.S. claims it companions with the YPG to struggle Daesh/ISIS, whereas Türkiye says utilizing one terrorist group to struggle one other is not sensible.
Criticizing Pompeo’s declare that the Turkish Armed Forces lack the power to defeat Daesh/ISIS, Çavuşoğlu mentioned: “For one thing, this is not a fact, (the idea) that we first engaged with the PKK/YPG during the Trump administration. It started during the term of (President Barack) Obama. Therefore, that was not their decision first and foremost.”
“Secondly, the only NATO army which took part in hand-to-hand fights against Daesh/ISIS terrorists is the Turkish army. We eliminated more than 4,500 Daesh terrorists both in Syria and Iraq,” Çavuşoğlu mentioned.
As the Turkish military was eliminating Daesh/ISIS terrorists, “the US during the term of Pompeo, together with YPG/PKK terrorist groups, sent Daesh/ISIS members to Afghanistan by first getting them on the bus in Raqqa and that region and then on the planes,” he mentioned.
These are the “ones responsible for the terrorist attacks in Afghanistan today, so I’m talking about the attacks of Daesh/ISIS and al-Qaeda,” he mentioned, including the Turkish military cleared an space of 8,000 sq. kilometers (3,089 miles) of the terrorist teams YPG/PKK and Daesh/ISIS to help the territorial integrity of Syria.
ERDOĞAN’S 2019 MEETING WITH PENCE TO DE-ESCALATE SITUATION IN SYRIA
Speaking about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan‘s assembly with the U.S. then-Vice President Mike Pence in October 2019 to de-escalate the state of affairs in Syria, Çavuşoğlu mentioned they got here to Türkiye to ask it to pause Ankara’s cross-border operation towards terrorists.
Erdoğan first held a one-on-one assembly with Pence earlier than the assembly between the delegations, he mentioned.
“While we were waiting with Pompeo in a different room, Pompeo was uneasy with the fact that the meeting was taking so long and he asked to enter the room, but I said to him that one of them is the president and the other is the vice president. So if they need us, they will summon us. So, due to the protocol, I warned him that it wasn’t appropriate to enter,” Çavuşoğlu mentioned.
Later, Türkiye and the U.S. reached a deal, he mentioned, including that it was additionally launched to the media. “But at the end of the day, they did not fulfill the responsibilities arising out of joint declaration and they have shown that they are not honest with their declarations,” Çavuşoğlu mentioned.
Ankara and Washington reached a deal on Oct. 17, 2019 to pause Türkiye’s Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria for 120 hours to permit the withdrawal of YPG/PKK terrorists from a deliberate protected zone, however Türkiye mentioned the U.S. didn’t fulfill its guarantees.
On Pompeo’s professed dislike for a video in regards to the defeated 2016 coup by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), Çavuşoğlu mentioned: “We experienced the images in the video that he called disgusting. The FETÖ terrorist organization killed 251 citizens that night.”
“We understand from his Twitter post on that night against our president which he later deleted that he supported the coup attempt. That’s why he’s uncomfortable with the video. Those images show how we defeated the putschists,” he mentioned.
The Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) and its U.S.-based chief Fetullah Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup, which killed 251 folks and injured practically 2,200 others.
Çavuşoğlu added that it was the U.S. which disrupted the U.S.’ coverage of stability on Türkiye and the U.S., saying Pompeo “put forward these allegations to get votes from the Greek lobby in the U.S. when he hopes to run for president in the next elections.”
Commenting on Pompeo’s 2020 go to to Türkiye to solely meet with Patriarch Bartholomew I, the Istanbul-based chief of lots of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Çavuşoğlu mentioned Pompeo “asked me to meet him at the patriarchate in Istanbul. My answer was very clear that if you want to meet me, come to Ankara.”
Also highlighting Türkiye’s progress within the area of spiritual freedoms, he mentioned: “We always give all kinds of support to the patriarchate.”
Source: www.anews.com.tr
