BERLIN
Germany's foreign minister denied claims that Germany was planning to arm the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Thursday.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, answering questions through the social networking site Twitter on Thursday, wrote:
“There is no question of arming them as long as the PKK threatens Turkey with new violence.”
Germany is sending weapons to Kurds in northern Iraq but Chancellor Angela Merkel has denied supporting the PKK, a terrorist organization, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives in Turkey.
Turkey dead set against arming PKK
On Thursday, Turkish Minister for EU Affairs Volkan Bozkir voiced strong opposition to the idea that Germany send weapons to the PKK -- which is listed by Turkey as a terrorist group as well as by the U.S. and the EU -- to figth militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, in the Kurdish Syrian town of Kobani just a few kilometers from the Turkish border.
"It is out of question to send arms to some groups [in Turkey] secretly," Bozkir said.
He also criticized Germany for debating whether to accept 16 thousand refugees into the country, while Turkey has allowed nearly 200 thousand people from Kobani fleeing ISIL attacks.
Bozkir said that countries criticizing Turkey for not doing enough in the fight against ISIL should take action and send their troops to Syria.
The town of Kobani has been the scene of fierce battles between Kurdish groups and ISIL since mid-September.
The international coalition has been staging airstrikes on ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq since early August.
Turkey has been pushing the international community, including the UN to establish a no-fly zone and a safe haven for refugees inside Syria near the Turkish border.
Thousands of civilians from the Syrian border town of Kobani have fled into Turkey from ISIL attacks since mid-September.
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