“A third issue concerns the use of the Incirlik airbase which is “… controlled by the Turkish and USA air forces”, according to Abet, and which should be addressed while Biden is in Turkey.
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It comes as the United States and Turkey combine to recapture a key Syrian border town from IS.
In a press conference at Çankaya Palace following his meeting with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim earlier in the day, Biden said the USA was committed to helping the Turks bring to justice those responsible for the coup attempt. While the comments were received positively from Yildirim, they immediately stoked anger among USA -backed Kurdish allies in the region. Turkey accuses Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric in self-exile in Pennsylvania, of leading the coup plot.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Biden, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey and the United States should never allow incidents to harm their relations, but said Ankara expected the legal process for the extradition Gulen to be conducted without delay. “They can not – will not – under any circumstance get American support if they do not keep that commitment”. Join us in a conversation about world events, the newsgathering process or whatever aspect of the news universe you find interesting or important.
“The people of the United States are saddened by what happened”. “We did not support [the coup]”.
Biden met today with Turkish officials in Ankara.
The Ankara government is adamant that Syrian Kurdish forces must not fill any void left close to the Turkish border by IS fleeing. Turkey and the Gulf states insisted he must step down before any settlement, while Russian Federation and Iran demanded that he stay in power. “It is going to take some time”, he said.
Under the pretext of “strengthening Turkey’s security by clearing terrorist groups from the border and maintaining Syria’s territorial integrity”, the Turkish army launched a major escalation of the war in Syria on Wednesday with a cross-border operation codenamed Euphrates Shield.
Turkey’s surprise incursion Wednesday to capture the town of Jarablus was a dramatic escalation of Turkey’s role in Syria’s war.
A total of 265 people were killed in an attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by sections of the military.
YPG units crossed the Euphrates in a US-supported offensive to liberate the Isil stronghold of Manbij earlier this month, and had also made moves towards liberating Jarablus before the Turkish intervention.
Kurdish-led forces in Syria have withdrawn to the east of the Euphrates river, American and Turkish officials said on Thursday, after Vice President Joe Biden publicly threatened to pull US support if the fighters stayed on in areas Turkey says pose a threat to its national security.
Turkey’s admission that it hasn’t sent evidence about Gulen’s activities related to the coup may have been prompted by an op-ed written by Biden in Turkey’s Milliyet newspaper on Wednesday.
However, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that only a small number of Kurdish fighters had moved eastward across the river by Thursday evening. Even if approved by a judge, an extradition request would still have to go to the U.S. Secretary of State, who can consider non-legal factors, such as humanitarian arguments.
During his one-day visit, Biden visited parts of the Parliament that were destroyed in the failed coup.
Henri Barkey, a Turkey expert at the Wilson Center, said Turkey may have chose to jump the gun in demanding Gulen’s extradition in order to corner the U.S.in the “Turkish public eye”.
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When the USA backed a group of fighters, mostly Syrian Kurds, in retaking the city of Manbij, not far from Jarablus, it was on condition that Kurdish forces withdrew back across the river after the city was won – something that has not happened.
