Tulsi Gabbard slams 'Islamist megalomaniac' Erdogan over Syrian proxies
Hawaii rep takes jab at Turkish leader as US-Turkey relations strained over action in northeast Syria
US lawmaker and presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard minced no words as she took a jab at Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, slamming him as an "Islamist megalomaniac."
In a Twitter post, the Hawaii representative slammed the Turkish leader for using former al-Qaeda (AQ) and Islamic-state fighters as the proxies in his incursion in Syria's northeast.
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Earlier, US lawmakers approved a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide, drawing Ankara's ire as it summoned the US envoy.
Turkey has long been aligned with the Syrian groups operating in Syria's north east, including those aligned with the National Front for Liberation and the Syrian National Army (SNA).
The latter was formerly known as the Free Syrian Army and positioned itself as the military backbone of the Syrian opposition, also enjoying US support until 2017.
Some of the groups in these ragtag alliances have a grim past: for example, Ahrar al-Sharqiya, listed as part of the SNA by the Anadolu agency, is said to be mostly comprised of ex-members of the Nusra Front (AQ offshoot in Syria) and Ahrar al-Sham, a Salafist terrorist group.
Furthermore, some of the reports coming from the areas captured by the Turkish proxies in Syria suggested that the Turkey-backed groups engaged in wide-spread abuse of civilians.
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