In response to a U.S. executive order, Türkiye on Thursday reiterated its call to Washington to end its engagement with separatist terrorists in Syria.

"There is a mentality in the U.S. that has lost enough foresight to down an armed Turkish drone fighting terrorists in Syria. How can the U.S. do such a thing to its NATO ally? How can you justify it by claiming you weren’t aware of it?" President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Thursday.

The president was tearing into the U.S. for the downing of a Turkish drone in northern Syria last week. The U.S. has termed it a "regrettable incident," but has not explained why its troops were near YPG/PKK terrorists in northern Syria after Turkish officials warned third parties to steer clear.

Similarly on Thursday, Ankara called on Washington to fulfill the provisions of a 2019 joint statement between the two countries prior to Türkiye's launch of Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria.

Stressing that the operation "bult an environment of peace and stability in the region," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç said it was carried out under Türkiye's right to self-defense in accordance with the U.N. Charter and other "relevant resolutions of the U.N. Security Council on the fight against terrorism."

According to a statement released by the ministry, Bilgiç said that the operation was "subjected to baseless allegations" in the executive order renewed by U.S. President Joe Biden.

The executive order claims Turkish military operations into northeast Syria "undermines" the campaign to defeat Daesh in Iraq and Syria, "endangers civilians and further threatens to undermine the peace, security, and stability in the region, and continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States."

Bilgiç said that instead of opting for such "unilateral acts," it would be more befitting the "deep-rooted and valuable relations between the two allies" if Washington lent its support for Türkiye's "stability-oriented policies toward Syria which prioritize the country's unity."

Türkiye launched Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria on Oct. 9, 2019, in order to secure Türkiye borders, aid the safe return of Syrian refugees, and ensure Syria's territorial integrity. It was preceded by two other offensives – Euphrates Shield in 2016, and Olive Branch in 2018. Turkish troops and Ankara-backed opposition groups routinely clash with terrorists in the border region.

The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S. and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children and infants since it launched a bloody terrorist campaign in southeast Türkiye over four decades ago.

Ankara wants to clear the region east of the Euphrates River of the terrorist PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the YPG, which took advantage of a power vacuum after the Syrian civil war broke out and invaded several Syrian provinces in 2015 with the help of Washington. Some 900 U.S. troops have been stationed in northern Syria since then.

The terrorists have also seized the region’s oil wells – Syria’s largest – and smuggle oil to the Syrian regime, despite U.S. sanctions, to generate revenue for its activities.

Defense Minister Yaşar Güler on Thursday was also critical of United States’ support for the terrorist group.

Güler told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels that there was "no excuse for supporting the PKK/YPG."

"We expect full solidarity and support from our NATO allies," Güler said.

He lamented that despite all the contributions Türkiye made to NATO, the limitations on the export of defense products by some NATO allies were not acceptable.