Deutsche Welle reports that “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman accused the US military on Thursday of legitimizing a terrorist group after it re-tweeted a statement from a Kurdish-Arab alliance fighting against the self-styled ‘Islamic State.'”

“The US backs the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a multi-ethnic force dominated by Kurdish fighters battling IS in northern Syria.”

“The SDF is led by the powerful YPG militia, which Ankara considers to be the same as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) waging a more than three-decades-long insurgency in Turkey. The US, EU and Turkey classify the PKK as a terrorist organization, but the West has diverged with Turkey over the nature of the Syrian Kurds’ ties to the PKK.”