30 April 2018•Update: 01 May 2018
By Dildar Baykan
ANKARA
The Syrian Turkmen Assembly (STA) on Monday said that a fake Turkmen foundation created as part of the YPG/PKK terrorist group’s smear campaign “has no relation to us”.
“The fraudulent foundation the YPG/PKK has founded in Manbij [northern Syria] has nothing to do with us. It’s a treacherous attempt and a part of their dirty game,” STA leader Mohamed Wajih Joma told Anadolu Agency.
“They want the people and the media to buy this. But they can’t be successful because people hate them,” Joma said.
He said the YPG/PKK posted a video on social media with the account of the so-called foundation, but the footage did not belong to Turkmens, but to terrorists in Qandil, northern Iraq, the headquarters of the terrorist PKK, the YPG/PKK’s parent group.
“The western media that believe in them are doing such things to create a perception in the U.S. and others who support the organization. But these things are certainly no longer valid for Manbij,” Joma said.
He added, “People now know what they are and their true faces. They want to get rid of them as soon as possible. First of all, I want it. I want to return home as soon as possible.”
Joma also said that the PYD/PKK is currently forcing people from their homes and racketeering in Manbij.
“At this moment, masked people with the PKK are sitting in my house, my father's house, and my brother's house. These masked terrorists speak neither Turkish nor Arabic,” he added.
Joma said, “The situation in Manbij isn't good at all, people are under very bad conditions. But at the same time, people have hope now. They are waiting for the Free Syrian Army and Turkish Armed Forces.
“Because after seeing [the liberation of] Jarablus, Azaz, Al-Bab and Afrin, they say they want to manage their own territories themselves.
“People from Qandil or from anywhere in the world don't want them to rule because they are armed.”
Joma said that they are getting many messages that Turkmens and Arabs are waiting for Turkey to “save them from these gangs, terrorists”.
On Friday, YPG/PKK terrorists captured 200 residential and commercial properties in Manbij owned by Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army members and their families.
The terror group has increased its checkpoints across Manbij, with one in almost every street.
The YPG/PKK seized Manbij in August 2016 from Daesh with the support of the U.S. military, straining ties between Ankara and Washington.
The U.S. has supported the YPG/PKK under the name SDF, seen by Ankara as the Syrian offshoot of the terrorist group PKK, which has waged a more than a 30-year terror campaign against the Turkish state, resulting in some 40,000 deaths.
