Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday told U.S. Secretary of Defence James Mattis that Turkey felt unease over U.S. support for Kurdish militant group YPG, presidential sources said.
In a statement following meetings between Mattis and Turkish officials, the sources said the two sides emphasized the importance of maintaining the territorial integrity of Syria and Iraq, as Kurdish northern Iraq gears up for an independence referendum in September.
Both Turkey and the United States have voiced concerns over the referendum, with the former’s Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, saying earlier on Wednesday he would ask Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani to cancel it.
Ankara (AFP) – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday told visiting Pentagon chief Jim Mattis of Turkey’s uneasiness over Washington arming a Syrian Kurdish militia viewed as a terror group by Ankara, a policy which has strained ties between the NATO allies.
Mattis made the one-day visit after stopping in Iraq to review progress in the campaign against the Islamic State group, urging coalition partners to prevent other political issues from disrupting the growing momentum against the jihadists.
He met with Erdogan at the presidential palace after talks with Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli in Ankara.
Turkey, an important NATO ally of the United States and part of the coalition fighting the IS militants, is incensed that Washington has been arming the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the assault on the jihadists’ stronghold of Raqa, in northern Syria.
Turkey regards the YPG as the Syrian affiliate of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), but Washington has been impressed with its ability to combat IS on the ground.
In May, the Pentagon said it had begun transferring small arms, including AK-47s, and vehicles to the YPG to support its role as a leading player in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-Syrian Arab alliance fighting IS.
During the meeting, Erdogan told Mattis that Turkey was “uneasy over the US support” for the YPG, presidential sources said.
The Pentagon said Mattis addressed Turkey’s “legitimate” security concerns in the meeting and both men expressed a shared interest for their countries “to create conditions for a more stable and secure region.”
· ‘Whatever the price’ –
Erdogan has repeatedly vowed that Turkey will thwart any attempt by the YPG to carve out a Kurdish state in northern Syria, leaving open the possibility of a cross-border operation to prise the town of Afrin from Kurdish control.
“Turkey will not allow a terror corridor reaching the Mediterranean in northern Syria,” Erdogan told reporters on his plane back from a visit to Jordan.
“Whatever the price, we will conduct the necessary intervention,” he said, quoted by the Hurriyet newspaper on Wednesday.
Last August, Ankara launched a cross-border operation in northern Syria aimed at clearing the border zone of both YPG fighters and jihadists.
Complaining about Washington’s arming of the YPG, Erdogan said up to 1,000 trucks had crossed from Iraq to Syria carrying weapons for the SDF, which Turkey fears will reach the PKK.
The rise of jihadists in the Syrian northwestern province of Idlib has also caused concern in Ankara, Moscow and Tehran.
Erdogan alluded to plans for Idlib, controlled by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadist alliance, but would not elaborate, only saying: “What is there now? There is Idlib.”
