Turkiye rejected US condolences on Monday following the deaths of six people in an Istanbul bomb assault claimed on an outlawed Kurdish terrorist organization.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan frequently accuses Washington of sending weaponry to Kurdish forces in northern Syria, whom Ankara regards as “terrorists.”
“We reject the US embassy’s condolence message.” “We reject it,” said Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu in televised remarks.
Meanwhile, a Turkish official declined to comment on allegations of US-Russian discussions in Turkiye on Monday, but said Ankara was collaborating with other nations to combat terrorism, including the Istanbul bombing on Sunday.
Ankara blamed the Istanbul attack on Kurdish rebels, against whom it has conducted many operations in northern Syria. It used to notify Moscow and Washington ahead of time of its actions.
