NEW YORK

Turkey said on Friday welcomed a recent UN report documenting crimes and human rights violations by the terrorist PKK/YPG, but said it would never accept any move seeking recognition or legitimacy for the terror group.

Addressing the UN Security Council, Rauf Alp Denktas, Turkey’s deputy permanent representative at the UN, called the findings in the report on children in armed conflict "quite worrying."

Ambassador Denktas underlined that the final report of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ;, also known as the PKK/PYD. 

"The PYD/YPG employs the same tactics as other terrorist groups operating in Syria, such as Daesh, Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra and other affiliated groups. As such, they deserve no less condemnation than either of these groups," he said. 

The ambassador added: "The PYD/YPG/PKK is a terrorist group with the blood of over 40,000 people on its hands. It should be treated as such. Its existence and its actions cannot and should not be given any legitimization for any reason."

At least 700 children -- most of them are Kurdish -- have been abducted by the PKK/YPG, according to Turkey's estimates, Denktas said. 

In 2017, the U.S., which considers the PKK a terrorist group, helped change the YPG’s name to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in order to dissociate it from the PKK.

UN pact with terrorist

Last month Turkey protested after a UN representative in Geneva signed a pact with a PKK/YPG terrorist supposedly in an effort to stop the recruitment of child soldiers, as part of a PKK/YPG plan to gain legitimacy.

“UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba’s meeting with PKK terrorist Ferhat Abdi Sahin, who commands the so-called ‘Syrian Democratic Forces’ dominated by the PKK/PYD/YPG terrorist organization, to sign an ‘Action Plan’ at the UN Office in Geneva without the knowledge of the members is a grave incident which we strongly condemn,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“There can be no explanation for the UN, which should be at the forefront in the fight against terrorism, to strike a deal with a terrorist organization. This act also constitutes a clear breach by the UN of its own resolutions on terrorism,” the statement added.

Turkey stressed that it is “utterly unacceptable” that “the UN has taken a terrorist organization with blood on its hands as an interlocutor to address this problem,” even as it affirms that the terror group commits crimes against humanity and international law.

UN report

The YPG/PKK terror group has recruited 313 children and used schools for military purposes, Guterres said in a report to the UN Security Council. 

According to the annual Children in Armed Conflict report, nearly 40% of children recruited by the terrorist group were girls, including 20 age 15 or younger. 

The report found that these children had received military training and that 119 girls took part in clashes. 

It revealed that the PKK/YPG terrorist group used 24 schools and hospitals as training grounds and 14 schools as ammunition depots.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG/PYD is the Syrian branch of the terrorist PKK.

The annual UN report was produced at the request of the UN Security Council.