The statements contained in the book of former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Turkiye do not reflect the realities of the region and are a manifestation of double standards, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a joint press conference with Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai on January 26 in Ankara, Report informs referring to Anadolu Agency.
“In diplomatic language, the allegations contained in Pompeo’s book have nothing to do with reality. You can call it a lie. There is inflating the facts and double standards,” Cavusoglu said.
He reminded that on the night of the coup attempt in Turkiye (July 15, 2016), the former US secretary of state shared a scandalous tweet, which he then hastily deleted. “This publication spoke of Pompeo’s support for the actions of the terrorists of Fethullah Gulen,” the head of Turkish diplomacy said. According to him, under the laws of the US itself, supporting terrorist structures is a serious crime.
Regarding Pompeo’s statements that the Turkish army is not capable of eliminating terrorists, Cavusoglu reminded that it was the Turkish army that liquidated more than 4,500 Daesh terrorists in Syria.
“The strength of the second most powerful army in NATO was seen by the whole world when Turkish troops cleared the territory of Syria with an area of 8,000 square kilometers from the militants of two terrorist organizations YPG and Daesh at once,” the Turkish minister said.
At the same time, he drew attention to the close interaction of the US authorities with the Syrian wing of the PKK-YPG terrorists, which has been going on since the presidency of Barack Obama. “The current administration needs to correct the situation in Syria,” Cavusoglu stressed.
According to the foreign minister, while Turkiye was clearing the lands of Syria from Daesh terrorists, the US under the leadership of the State Department Mike Pompeo, together with the YPG/PKK terrorists, put Daesh fighters on buses, and then on planes and sent them to Afghanistan.
“They are the cause of the terror attacks in today’s Afghanistan. I’m talking about the actions of Daesh and Al-Qaeda,” the minister said.