ISTANBUL: Turkish Pre­s­i­dent Recep Tayyip Erd­ogan expressed anger over a US official’s visit to a Kurdish militia group controlling the Syrian town of Kobane, urging Washington to choose between Turkey and the “terrorists” there.

A delegation including senior US diplomat Brett McGurk, special envoy to an international coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq, last week met members of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), a powerful militia that is in control of Kobane.

The meetings come after the YPG’s political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), was excluded from new peace talks in Geneva being organised by the UN. Ankara had threatened to boycott the talks if PYD was invited.

“He visits Kobane at the time of the Geneva talks and is awarded a plaque by a so-called YPG general?” Erdogan told reporters on his plane returning from a trip to Latin America and to Senegal.

“How can we trust (you)?” Erdogan said. “Is it me who is your partner or the terrorists in Kobane?” His comments were carried by Tur­kish media on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2016