“Turkey will “do what is necessary” to prevent U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish rebels from declaring autonomy in the town of Tel Abyad near the Turkish border, including conducting further military operations, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.”

“NATO member Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Syria, but it sees advances by autonomy-seeking Kurds, led by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), as a threat to its own national security, fearing they could stoke separatism among Turkish Kurds.”

“Turkish jets recently hit the Syrian Kurds’ armed People’s Protection Units (YPG) targets twice after they defied Ankara and crossed west of the Euphrates River.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/28/us-mideast-crisis-turkey-kurds-idUSKCN0SM2V620151028

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan gives a speech during an inauguration ceremony of a water pipeline project linking Turkey to northern Cyprus, in Myrtoy October 17, 2015. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou