Turkish president calls for unity against terrorism

International cooperation is key to fighting terrorism, Turkey's president said Saturday in a statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the UN.

“To fight against terrorist organizations such as ISIL, al-Qaeda, the PKK, the YPG and the DHKP-C, all UN member states should be in solidarity,” Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said.

Turkey has been fighting a 31-year conflict with the Kurdish terrorist group the PKK and also considers its Syrian affiliate the YPG, to be a terror organization. The far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) has also carried out terror attacks in Turkey.

Both the PKK and the DHKP-C are designated terror organizations by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU. Turkey also proclaims the People's Protection Units (YPG) a terrorist group.

In the statement, Erdoğan accused the UN Security Council of failing to properly respond to recent conflicts.

“It is extremely important to reform the Security Council according to the present conditions so that it can become more representative, democratic, transparent, effective and accountable,” he said.

Erdoğan, in his speech at the Gaziantep-based university said on Saturday that the issue of the Syrian conflict has further come to the forefront of the international community's attention.

“But, their main goal is different. They actually aim to divide Turkey," Erdoğan said when addressing at Kalyoncu University's opening ceremony to mark the begining of the 2015-2016 academic term.

Touching on a disagreement between Washington and Ankara, Erdoğan reiterated that US administration says Syrian Democratic Union (PYD) is not a terrorist organisation under US laws while Turkey considers it a terrorist group.

In late October, United States announced that Kurdish groups fighting against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Kobani are not terrorist organisations under US laws. “The Democratic Union Party is a different group than the Kurdistan Workers' Party legally, under United States law," US Department of State deputy spokesperson, Marie Harf, said on Oct. 21.

The Turkish president does not agree. “PYD is a terrorist organisation, but they say it is a political organisation," he said.

“The PYD is the PKK's branch in Syria. It is a terrorist organisation. We do know that weapons have reached to PKK through PYD channels," he elaborated. “Currently, 1,400 PKK members are fighting along with PYD-linked militia."

After weeks of intense fighting ISIL, supported by US coalition airstrikes, the PYD gained control of Kobani, a predominantly Kurdish town on the border with Turkey.

“Weapons have been supplied to YPG by countries pretending to be friendly to Turkey. We do not approve the proposal that they have put forward for Syria because they represent a risk for Turkey," he said firmly.

The US military air-dropped tons of weapons, ammunitions and medical supplies to the PYD because White House sees the PYD as an important military asset on the ground in its US-led coalition's battle against ISIL. The Turkish government has said it would not support any kind of weapons transfers to the Kurdish fighters who are allied with the PKK in Kobani.

“Currently, there are plans to declare a canton in Tel Abyad. We would never accept their plan to change the demographical make-up in northern Syria," Erdoğan said, referring to PYD's political ambition to declare an independent Kurdish state.

Tel Abyad is vital for PYD's political plan, to link all Kurdish-held cantons to form an independent state with the support of US-led air strikes. The US-led bombing campaign is supposedly conducted to root out ISIL in Syria, but a Pentagon report indicates most of the strikes actually have supported PYD's Saleh Muslim to connect the cantons he has planned for the independent Kurdish state.

Touching on Syria's embattled President's suprising visit to Moscow, Erdoğan has criticised Russia's warm welcome to its closest ally in the Middle East. “Can you imagine that diplomacy would ever give a room for a red-carpet ceremony to someone who has has blood of 70,000 people on his hands?" he asked.

President Assad visited Moscow on his first trip abroad since the start of the war in 2011.The two leaders have discussed their joint military campaign, targeting Syrian rebel groups fighting against the regime forces, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

There are reports that Putin believes a solution may been reached soon in Syria, where Russian air forces have been carrying out air strikes since the end of September.