Erdogan says IS, PKK are the same

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group is not different from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday.

“For us, the PKK is the same as ISIL. It is wrong to consider them as different from each other,” Erdoğan told reporters in İstanbul as he criticized the pro-Kurdish politicians in Turkey, who have criticized the government for not helping the Syrian Kurds defend the Kurdish town of Kobani near the border with Turkey.

Kobani has been attacked by ISIL and the Syrian Kurds call for help, warning of a massacre if the town is seized by ISIL. The crisis in Kobani has sparked a refugee inflow into Turkey and sporadic clashes on the border between Turkish security forces and Turkish Kurds who want to cross into Syria to held Kobani’s defense.

Erdoğan criticized the pro-Kurdish politicians for linking the crisis in Kobani to Turkey’s efforts to resolve the Kurdish issue through talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan, saying those who try to end the process “will pay the price.”