Speaking during a day-long visit to the Turkish capital Ankara, he said American officials were working alongside Turkish counterparts on the extradition case of Fetullah Gulen, the USA -based head of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization said to be behind the defeated coup.
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The offensive coincided with a crucial visit to Ankara by Biden and seemed timed to demonstrate that Turkey and the United States remain close allies in the war against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, despite the tensions that have erupted in their relationship since last month’s coup attempt in Turkey.
The two-day long talks between Turkish and US delegations over the extradition of Fetullah Gulen came to an end Wednesday, according to a source in Turkey’s Justice Ministry. The Syrian Foreign Ministry said it “condemns the crossing of the Turkish-Syria border by Turkish tanks and armored vehicles towards the town of Jarabulus, with air cover from the US-led coalition, and considers it a flagrant violation of Syrian sovereignty”.
Biden staunchly and repeatedly condemned the coup and also insisted, at times sounding angry, that the U.S. had no hand in plotting it, rebuffing conspiracy theories making the rounds in Turkey.
Turkey has launched a new operation inside Syria.
Turkey sees that group as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has carried out a three-decade insurgency in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus had said earlier this week that proposals to establish a “secure zone”, an internationally policed buffer area, should be reconsidered.
That doesn’t necessarily leave the USA out in the cold, so long as it can prevent a clash between its Kurdish and Turkish allies, according to Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, who runs the Ankara office of the German Marshall Fund, a think tank. “They are going to withdraw even further”. Turkey is also aiming to contain the expansion by Syria’s Kurds, who have used the fight against IS and the chaos of Syria’s civil war to seize almost the entire stretch of territory along Syria’s northern border with Turkey.
“Turkish people’s sorrow and disappointment on this issue will quickly turn positive if his [Gulen] extradition process speeds up and our cooperation continues increasingly in this regard”, Yildirim said. Washington has to take Ankara’s demands for extradition of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric based in the United States, into consideration, and so Washington recently sent delegations to Turkey for discussions on Gulen’s case, Ozulker said.
After meeting Biden, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey and the United States should never allow incidents to harm relations, but Ankara expected the legal process for the Gulen extradition without delay.
However, the aim of the Turkish invasion is not limited to clearing ISIS from Jarabulus.
Syrian Kurdish officials contacted by The Associated Press would not confirm or deny that their forces were withdrawing east.
Turkey blames Gulen’s supporters for the coup that killed 240 people.
“We have made it clear to Kurdish forces that they must move back across the river”, he said.
Skirmishes broke out between Turkish-backed Syrian rebels and the US -backed Kurdish fighters, raising the potential for an all-out confrontation between the two American allies that would also jeopardize the fight against the Islamic State group in the volatile area.
Also, if the Syrian Kurdish forces are distracted in clashes with the Turks and have to shift resources toward front lines with Turkey or with Turkish-backed opposition groups, that “buys (IS) some breathing space”, Kozak said.
Turkey is demanding Gulen’s extradition, and Erdogan has suggested that the failure to hand over the cleric is damaging the U.S. -Turkey security partnership.
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“The FSA leads the charge against the terrorists in northern Syria”.
