October 16, 2015•Update: October 16, 2015
ANKARA
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that no country should make a distinction between terrorist organizations and action must be taken against all such groups without bias.
Addressing the Woman20 Summit in Istanbul on Friday, Erdogan said: "Standing against terrorism is a moral stance. It is unacceptable for a country -- which has these morals -- to differentiate between terrorist organizations."
He reiterated that Turkey was taking action against all terrorist groups, including PKK, Daesh, PYD and YPG.
The Kurdish Democratic Union Party's (PYD) is considered a Syrian extension of the terrorist PKK organization. The People's Protection Units (YPG) is the armed wing of the PYD in Syria.
"Turkey is against all terrorist organizations, regardless of their name, aim, discourse and method," Erdogan said.
The Turkish president also warned against backing specific terrorist groups.
"Those who do not support Turkey in its fight against terrorism but rather give under-handed support to these organizations, [they] should know that they are dragging the region and the entire world to a calamity," he said.
Without taking the name of any specific country, the Turkish president criticized countries behind delivering weapons to terrorist organizations in the fight against Daesh.
"There is an organization called al-Nusra, which is also fighting against Daesh. You see it as a terrorist organization, but why don't you consider others as terrorist organizations?" Erdogan asked.
The U.S. distinguishes between the PYD and PKK, and considers the PYD as a reliable partner in its fight against Daesh. It provided ammunition to the group last year while militants fought to retake the Syrian town of Kobani from Daesh militants.
"They consider [terrorism] as good and bad. Can we talk about good and bad terrorism?" the president added.
Refugee issue
In his speech, Erdogan also elaborated on the logistical and financial costs for hosting massive numbers of refugees on Turkish soil.
"There are now 2.2 million Syrian and 300,000 Iraqi people in Turkey. Turkey is hosting now 2.5 million refugees in its camps. The whole financial support [for the refugees] comes from us," he said.
He added that Turkey had so far spent $8 billion on refugees, while support from other world countries amounted to only $417 million.
Millions of Syrian refugees have fled their country since war broke out more than four years ago. The UN said in June that the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide has "for the first time in the post-World War II era, exceeded 50 million people".
