Hulusi Akar, the minister of national defense of Türkiye, met with Jeffry Flake, the US ambassador to Türkiye, on Thursday for a meeting, Anadolu Agency reported.
Türkiye’s desire to purchase contemporary F-16 fighter planes and F-16 modification kits, as well as US backing for the terrorist organization YPG/PKK in northern Syria, are among the defense-related concerns between the two nations.
Türkiye has long denounced this backing for a terrorist organization that poses a threat to its borders, despite the US’s claims that it works with the YPG/PKK to combat Daesh/ISIS. According to Turkish officials, using one terrorist organization to combat another is pointless.
Following an earlier this month bombing in Istanbul that left six dead and over 80 injured, Türkiye this week began airstrikes on YPG/PKK and PKK terrorist sites in northern Syria and northern Iraq, close across the Turkish border.
The PKK, which is recognized as a terrorist group by Türkiye, the US, and the EU, has carried out a more than 35-year terror campaign against that country and killed upwards of 40,000 people, including women, children, and babies. In Syria, it has a terrorist offshoot called the YPG.
