29-03-2024 12:06 PM Jerusalem Timing

PKK Urges Turkey’s Kurds to Join Fighting ISIL in Syria

PKK Urges Turkey’s Kurds to Join Fighting ISIL in Syria

The PKK Kurdish group called on Kurds in Turkey on Monday to cross into Syria and fight the militants of the so-called ’Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) terrorist group besieging a town near the border.

Kurdish flagThe PKK Kurdish group called on Kurds in Turkey on Monday to cross into Syria and fight the militants of the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) terrorist group besieging a town near the border, the pro-Kurdish agency Firat reported.

"The day of glory and honor has arrived," the group said in a statement calling for mobilization.

The appeal urged young Kurds in Turkey to join the fight against ISIL terrorists around Ain al-Arab, known as Kobane in Kurdish, the third biggest Kurdish population center in Syria and until now a safe haven.

“We call on our entire people, as well as our friends, to step up the resistance,” the PKK statement read.

Meanwhile, a PKK leader, Dursun Kalkan, appealed for “all Kurds to unite their forces,” accusing the Turkish government of “collaboration” with what he called "the ISIL radicals."

Ankara has been criticized for indirectly encouraging the formation of ISIL through its support of extremist elements within the Syrian armed opposition against the national government.

About 130,000 people, many of them Kurds, have fled across the Syrian border into Turkey, the UN refugee agency said on Monday.

Earlier on Sunday, Turkish police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse angry crowds of Kurds.