Defense Minister Yılmaz Says He Is Informed About Kobani Decision

Turkish Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz has dismissed claims that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has not been informed about the Turkish government's decision to assist peshmerga to cross into Kobani to fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

“I am the minister in charge of the Turkish Armed Forces, and I have been informed about the decision,” said Yılmaz speaking to journalists on Tuesday.

His statement came after a journalist asked him what he thinks about the claims that the TSK has not been informed about Turkey's decision on facilitating peshmerga to cross into Kobani via Turkish territory.

In a major policy shift, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced on Monday that it is assisting peshmerga forces to cross into Kobani to fight against the radical ISIL forces. The statement came after the US air-dropped weapons and medical aid to the Kurdish fighters in Kobani over the weekend.

A spokesperson for the TSK, Brig. Gen. Ertuğrul Gazi Özkürkçü, told Today's Zaman on Tuesday that the armed forces are not the addressee for the questions regarding the peshmerga crossing, because the statement has come from the Foreign Ministry and the questions should be addressed to the Foreign Ministry, rather than the armed forces.

“We never wanted Kobani to fall,” said Çavuşoğlu during a joint press conference with visiting Tunisian Foreign Minister Mongi Hamdi in Ankara on Monday.

Clarifying the news reports about a statement by the TSK allegedly saying they have not been informed about the Turkish government's decision on assisting peshmerga in advance, Özkürkçü said, “We have never made such a statement.”

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)