Isik was speaking after a meeting in London with U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who told reporters that the YPG had indeed returned back across the Euphrates. We said this would not be a problem from our perspective, ” he said, stressing, “More discussions would follow”.
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There are a lot of reasons to criticize Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who’s increasingly behaving like an old-school autocrat and who has been arresting critics en masse, but he’s actually proving himself to be useful in Syria. The U.S. -backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition, which includes the YPG, seized the Syrian city of Manbij from Islamic State.
He said that Turkey defeated the July 15 coup attempt while it was fighting a terrorist organization that wanted to divide the country. Turkey has spent more than $10 billion on Syrian refugees.
On Tuesday, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he and USA president Barack Obama were seeking to work together to push ISIL out of Raqqa.
Last month, Turkey sent tanks across the Syrian border to help rebels retake Jarablus, a key IS-held border town, and to contain the expansion of a Syrian Kurdish militia.
“The Kurds remain the most combat ready allies for the United States, but in fact, the Kurdish militants and NATO’s ally Turkey now are fighting against each other”.
Erdogan also said Turkish and USA military officials could meet to discuss the issue, according to Turkish media. Erdogan made clear that any action against the Islamic State should also not benefit the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Marxist terrorist group that has also been fighting the Islamic State, but is at odds with the Turkish government and responsible for a string of terror attacks on Turkish police targets this year.
Responding to criticism from some groups who say that Operation Euphrates Shield may have violated global law, Erdoğan drew attention to the “cruelty” of Bashar al Assad.
Rebels backed by Turkish troops drove ISIS out of Syrian villages on the Turkish border. They’ve taken the territory strictly along the border, and have been pushing further south over the past few days, deeper into ISIS territory.
Through its large-scale incursion into northern Syria, Turkey has made itself a military player in the country.
Given Turkey’s hostility toward the YPG, it is hard to imagine a Turkish push on Raqqa without a significant amount of fighting against Kurdish forces.
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The continued hostilities between the YPG and Turkey place the U.S. in a diplomatic and strategic minefield as it tries to placate both of its key allies in the fight against ISIL.
