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Erdogan: US Siding with Terrorists after Turks Found Dead in Iraq

Dorian Jones

   ISTANBUL - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused fellow
   NATO ally the United States of supporting terrorists in the wake of the
   deaths of 13 kidnapped Turks in northern Iraq. He also said a U.S.
   statement about the killings, which Ankara blamed on Kurdish militants,
   was a joke.

   "You [the U.S.] said you did not support terrorists, when in fact you
   are on their side and behind them," Erdogan said Monday in comments to
   supporters. By terrorists, he was referring to the Kurdistan Workers
   Party, or PKK, which has been waging a decadeslong insurgency inside
   southeastern Turkey.

   Erdogan spoke one day after a U.S. State Department spokesman said in a
   statement that if the reports of the deaths of Turkish civilians at the
   hands of the PKK are confirmed, "we condemn this action in the
   strongest possible terms." The U.S., European Union and Turkey consider
   the PKK a terrorist organization.

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