Turkey 'can end US use of base if interests hurt'

Turkey could consider putting an end to the use of its İncirlik base by international coalition forces against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) amid a row between Ankara and Washington over U.S. relations with the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

 "İncirlik is not a NATO base; everyone should know this. [The coalition forces] are there with Turkey's permission. At this point, Turkey and the U.S. and the other coalition forces are in talks. If these talks come to a point that threatens Turkey's interests and a result cannot be reached, then Turkey will consider all options," Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Işık told Habertürk on Jan. 6. 

The United States made a mistake by cooperating with the PYD in the fight against ISIL, Işık said.
"The U.S. chose the PYD as a partner in the fight with DEASH [ISIL]. From the beginning, we have been saying that this is wrong," he said.

"We are saying to our counterparts: The PYD is the Syrian wing of the PKK [the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party]," Işık said.

He also added that the U.S. would also eventually pay the price for supporting the PYD.

"The U.S. made a strategic mistake. We are paying its price as the U.S. will also pay the price. All terror organizations have made their supporters pay the price," Işık said.

Reiterating Ankara's disturbance on the U.S.' supply of arms to the PYD, Işık recalled that weapons given to Syrian Kurdish groups have subsequently been found in the hands of PKK militants in Turkey, ISIL jihadists in Syria and even on the international arms market. 

"Arguing that 'the U.S. is doing this to increase terror in Turkey' would be exaggerated. We have no such evidence on it. But, at the end of the day, the U.S.'...