Turkey on Wednesday rejected claims by the United States, which said Turkish forces had reached an agreement for a temporary pause with the Kurdish militia in northern Syria.
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He said he could understand Turkey’s concern about protecting its borders and fighting the Islamic State group, but criticized actions against Kurdish rebels allied with the US -led coalition against the extremists.
By supporting the rebels, mainly Arabs and Turkmen fighting under the loose banner of the Free Syrian Army, Turkey is hoping to drive out Islamic State militants and check the advance of USA -backed Syrian Kurdish fighters. “It cannot be equated with a terrorist organization”, EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik told state-run Anadolu news agency, adding this meant there could be no “agreement between the two”. He said Kurdish commanders had made “commitments” that they would hand over captured areas to local forces and that Washington expected the Kurds to stand by those commitments. US officials have also said it has mostly withdrawn its forces to the east of the Euphrates, a natural boundary cutting through northern Syria.
Last week Turkey sent tanks, fighter jets and special operations forces across the border into northern Syria to fight the Islamic State.
Turkey recently initiated Operation Euphrates Shield, a cross-border military offensive in which Turkish tanks and soldiers entered Syria to secure Turkey’s southern border in response to Islamic State attacks.
The extremist group has suffered a string of defeats in recent weeks, including in Syria’s northern Aleppo province, where Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels drove IS out of the border town of Jarablus last week.
However, the US-led anti-ISIS coalition has been backing the YPG with training and equipment.
The Pentagon says Kurdish forces have already moved east of the Euphrates, in compliance with Turkish and us demands. As well as driving out the ultra-hardline Islamists, it also wants to prevent Kurdish forces taking territory that will let them join up cantons they control in northeast and northwest Syria.
A member of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the border town of Jarablus in Syria.
Ankara has said it killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” in strikes on YPG positions on Sunday – meaning the two US-backed partner forces are now fighting each other.
Turkey views the Syrian Kurdish fighters as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey and is viewed as a terrorist group by Turkey and the U.S.
At Antiwar.com, Jason Ditz reported that in addition to a United States admonishment of the Turks for invading northern Syria, where Rojava is located, the Russians have also “Called on the Turkish military to stop all attacks on Syria’s Kurdish YPG, as well as on any other factions which are now involved in fighting against ISIS”.
A U.S. defense official said the US-backed Kurdish forces had pulled back to east of the Euphrates river over the past day or so, as demanded by Ankara. Erdogan will discuss the issue during the G-20 summit in China, he said.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim yesterday said the operation would continue “until terror elements are completely neutralised and threats to our border, soil and citizens are over”.
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Turkey s operation against the YPG has raised tensions with Syrian Kurds in other areas.
