Pre-presidency, during Erdogan’s early years as Prime Minister of Turkey, the USA highlighted the country as an example of a functioning Islamic State.
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The latest round of Syria peace talks are planned to begin on Monday in Geneva but are at risk of being delayed partly because of a dispute over who will comprise the opposition delegation.
The White House has said a political resolution to the conflict in…
The fact that the Syrian Kurds are engaged in the fight against Daesh on the ground does not legitimize the group, he said ahead of talks with Biden.
Nonetheless, Erdogan is a vital partner for both Washington and Europe in efforts to combat Islamic State, end Syria’s civil war, and curb the flow of migrants and refugees.
American Vice-President, Joe Biden, landed at the Istanbul Ataturk airport overnight for a two-day official visit to Turkey during which he will meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Premier Ahmet Davutoglu.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday he was confident Syria peace talks would proceed, after he held talks with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states in Saudi Arabia.
ISIS “is not the only existential threat to the people of Turkey, the PKK is equally a threat and we are aware of that…it is a terror group plain and simple and what they continue to do is absolutely outrageous”, Biden said.
The region has witnessed security curfews and several towns have been cut off as the police and military battle the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Ankara has long seen the PYD, a political and military force based in northern Syria’s Kobani, as a Syrian branch of the PKK.
Davutoglu said on Saturday the YPG had become an increasing threat to Turkey.
Turkish media say Biden met the wife of a journalist jailed in November, 2015, for publishing footage alleging to show the state intelligence agency helping send arms to Syria.
The PKK, listed as a terror group by Washington and the European Union, has killed dozens of members of the Turkish security forces in attacks since a truce collapsed in July.
Biden said Turkey and the United States were coordinating ever more precisely on what is a “shared mission on the extermination of IS”.
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The prime minister’s office later released a statement saying the US and Turkey had reconciled on the question of Bashiqa camp in Iraq, where the Turkish troops are stationed.
