ISTANBUL: Turkiye on Monday rejected US condolences over the death of six people in a bomb attack in Istanbul that Ankara blamed on an outlawed Kurdish militant group.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan often accuses Washington of supplying weapons to Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, deemed as “terrorists” by Ankara.
“We do not accept the US embassy’s message of condolences. We reject it,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said in televised comments.
Meanwhile, a Turkish official declined comment on reports of US-Russian talks in Turkiye on Monday, but said Ankara was working with some countries against terrorism, including a Sunday's blast in Istanbul.
Ankara blamed Sunday’s attack in Istanbul on Kurdish militants, against which it has carried out several operations in northern Syria. In the past, it notified Moscow and Washington ahead of its operations.
