Members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and U.S. soldiers gather in the Kurdish-held town of Al-Darbasiyah in northeastern Syria bordering Turkey on Nov. 4, 2018. (AFP photo)
ANKARA, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkey will not ease its stance on the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) to appease the United States, Turkish Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Wednesday.
Speaking at a press conference after a cabinet meeting chaired by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Kalin called YPG a Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is recognized as a terrorist organization by both Turkey and the United States.
"Every support given to the YPG is directly or indirectly given to the PKK," he said.
But the Turkish spokesman appreciated Washington's "belated" move to offer a bounty on three senior leaders of the PKK.
Turkey's basic expectation is that the United States, Turkey's NATO ally and strategic partner, could end its engagement with and support for the YPG group in Syria, Kalin noted.
A day earlier, the United States announced a bounty of 12 million U.S. dollars on clues leading to the "identification or location" of three senior leaders of the PKK, which has been fighting the Turkey government for decades.
