Turkey urges US to crack down on Antifa in Syria

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, following US President Donald Trump's announcement on Sunday that he'd be designating Antifa as a terrorist organisation, urged the US to take a similar stance against Antifa militants who are embedded with YPG/PKK terrorists in Syria.

"When Antifa draws its weapons on Turkish soldiers in Syria and operates with the PKK/YPG to stage attacks on us, allies like America must show the same sensitivity," Cavusoglu said on Wednesday in an interview with 24 TV.

"Are they only a terror group when they touch you? But when its Turkey or another country nothing needs to be done? This is not the right approach. If you are declaring Antifa as a terrorist organisation you should do same with YPG also," Cavusoglu added.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday said that he’d be designating Antifa as a terrorist organisation in wake of the violent protests that have swept many American cities. 

Trump and the US Attorney General William Barr have blamed Antifa members for hijacking peaceful protests, which started after a black man, George Floyd, was killed by a white policeman in Minneapolis. 

Antifa traces its origins to the anti-Nazi movement in the 1940s. It was mostly dormant for many years until Trump’s election and rise of the ‘alt-right’. 

Last year, Trump made a similar call to designate the group a terrorist organisation. 

Since 2014, hundreds of foreigners have travelled to northern Syria to join the ranks of the Marxist-Leninist YPG, which has relied on savvy PR machinery, utilising social media to find recruits. 

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. 

The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.