ANKARA, Turkey: Turkey’s president has lashed out at the United States a week after a President Barack Obama’s envoy visited a northern Syrian town that is under the control of Syrian Kurdish forces, which Ankara considers terrorists.

In comments published Sunday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Washington should choose between Turkey and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, as its partner.

That came after envoy Brett McGurk’s visit to Kobani, where the PYD’s military wing, aided by US-led airstrikes, drove back Daesh militants a year ago. Turkey considers PYD a terror group because of its affiliation with Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

Erdogan said: “How can we trust you? Is it me that is your partner or is it the terrorists in Kobani?“



Iraqi Kurds protest against Turkey

In Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region of Irbil, protests against Turkey turned violent on Sunday, with three police officers wounded.

Hundreds of protesters gathered Sunday outside the United Nations compound in the northern city of Irbil calling for an end to Turkish airstrikes against Kurdish militants. Local media reported that three police were wounded.

Turkey began launching airstrikes in Iraq and Syria in July 2015 as part of the US-led coalition’s fight against the Daesh group. In Syria it has targeted the Daesh group, while in Iraq it has taken aim at the PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against Ankara.