Turkish PM slams new 'party' of YPG/PKK terror group

ANKARA

Turkish Premier Binali Yildirim on Thursday criticized the creation of a new political party named "Syria's Future", launched as part of a U.S. initiative in parts of northern Syria occupied by the YPG/PKK terrorist group.

“We have always said that they [YPG/PKK terrorists] changed places and names. We come across them by another name in Syria, and another name in Iraq,” Yildirim said at Esenboga Airport in Ankara before leaving for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“We know them well. Whatever costume, whatever name they may come up with, maybe some of our friends can be temporarily fooled, but they cannot deceive the Republic of Turkey and our noble nation,” Yildirim said.

According to sources in Syria's northeastern Al-Hasakah province, U.S. officials helped establish the so-called "Syria's Future" at a Tuesday congress held in Al-Hasakah.

U.S. officials discussed the new party’s launch during recent meetings with YPG/PKK members, the sources said.

At Tuesday’s congress, Ibrahim al-Qaftan was made chairman of the new party. Al-Qaftan had been a member of Syria’s Ba’ath Party in Manbij before the Syria conflict erupted in 2011.

Al-Qaftan assumed the presidency of Manbij’s local council after the district was occupied by the YPG/PKK terrorist group.

Hefrin Halaf, who joined the YPG/PKK in 2016, was elected secretary-general of the new party.

Unlike other organizations launched by the YPG/PKK, "Syria's Future" does not have a co-president.

The party’s 81 executive board members include representatives from Raqqah, Tal Abyad, Ayn al-Arab (Kobane), Deir ez-Zor, Manbij, Afrin, Idlib and Aleppo.

Members of the party’s executive board appear to have been drawn from the ranks of the YPG and the PKK terrorist groups.

The YPG/PKK’s administrative structure in Syria consists of three “regions” and six “cantons”.

The group gives special importance to Raqqah, which remains under its control, and refers to the line linking Tal Rifaat to Manbij as the “Shahba Canton”.