Turkey summons U.S. envoy over remarks on Syrian KurdsFebruary 10, 2016 - 10:14 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey summoned the U.S. ambassador to express its displeasure on Tuesday, February 9 after a State Department spokesman said Washington did not regard Syria's Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) as a terrorist organization, a Turkish foreign ministry official said, according to Reuters. Tensions between the two NATO allies have flared over the PYD, which Washington supports in its struggle against Islamic State militants in Syria. Ankara sees it as a sister of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), with which it has been embroiled in fierce fighting in southeast Turkey since their decades-old conflict reignited last July. Asked about the difference in opinion with Turkey on Monday, State Department Spokesman John Kirby said: "This is not a new concern, as I said, that the Turks have proffered. And we don’t, as you know, recognize the PYD as a terrorist organization." Turkey fears advances by Kurdish YPG militia, backed by the PYD, on the Syrian side of the two countries' 900 km border will fuel separatist ambitions among its own Kurds, Reuters says. President Tayyip Erdogan has previously hinted that Turkey may conduct military operations in Syria to halt the YPG's advance. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |