Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Russia of providing anti-aircraft weaponry and rockets to militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), government officials said yesterday, confirming reports in local media.
Speaking to reporters on board his airplane after a visit to the southeastern province of Diyarbakir over the weekend, Erdogan accused Moscow of transferring weaponry to the PKK via Iraq and Syria, the pro-government Star newspaper said.
“At this moment, terrorists are using anti-aircraft guns and missiles supplied by Russia. The separatist terrorist organisation is equipped with these weapons. They have been transferred to them via Syria and Iraq,” the newspaper reported Erdogan as saying.
The “separatist terrorist organisation” is a Turkish government term for the PKK, which has waged a three-decade-long insurgency against the state that has left more than 40,000 people dead, mostly PKK militants, in the largely Kurdish southeast part of the country.
Two Turkish government officials confirmed Erdogan’s comments, but Russia said that Turkey must show proof for its claims.
While Erdogan has previously castigated Russia for its support of Kurdish fighters in Syria, the latest comments appear to be the first time he has accused Moscow of supplying weaponry  to the PKK, which is seen as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and Europe.
In response, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying: “When someone says something, let them show evidence.”
However, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus was relatively upbeat yesterday about the outlook for relations with Russia, a rare departure from months of tough rhetoric after the Turkish air force shot down a Russian warplane last year.
“Neither Russia nor Turkey can afford to sacrifice their relationship with each other,” Kurtulmus, the government’s official spokesman, told a news conference.
“I wish such tensions had never emerged, but I believe that Turkish-Russian ties can be fixed in a short while. These two countries have no problems that cannot be overcome. I hope that these issues will be solved through dialogue.”
He did not directly address Erdogan’s comments about Russian military support for the PKK.
Ankara also considers the Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters to be terrorists and has been enraged by both Russian and US backing for the militia in its battle with Islamic State in Syria.
Nato member Turkey is part of the US-led coalition against Islamic State (IS) in Syria and is also a vocal opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Moscow backs Assad but says it also supports the Syrian Kurds in the struggle against Islamic State.
Relations between Ankara and Moscow hit their worst point in recent memory after Turkey shot down the Russian plane over Syria last year, prompting a raft of sanctions from Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in April promised support for Syrian Kurds, saying that they were a serious force in the fight against terrorism.
Moscow has accused Ankara of hindering Kurdish forces in their battle against Islamic State and of using the fight against terrorism as a pretext to crack down on Kurdish organisations in Syria and Turkey.