‘A very serious mistake’
Turkey slams U.S. request for assurances on Syrian Kurds
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the U.S. national security adviser of making “a very serious mistake” Tuesday by demanding that Ankara guarantee the safety of Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria before the U.S. withdraws its troops from the war-torn country. “We cannot make any concessions in this regard,” Erdogan said after John Bolton sought assurances of protection for Kurdish forces that fought alongside U.S. troops against the Islamic State group. The Kurds fear an assault by Turkey if the U.S. withdraws. Turkey’s presidential spokesman said Turkey would not seek permission from its allies to conduct a military offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters but was willing to co-ordinate operations. Erdogan said Ankara’s preparations for a new military offensive against what he describes as terror groups in Syria are “to a large extent” complete.
Bolton departed Turkey without meeting with Erdogan, with a spokesman for the U.S. official saying they were told Erdogan cited the local election season and a speech to parliament for not meeting with him. Trump abruptly announced last month he intended to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, and the U.S. has sent mixed signals over how soon that would be accomplished. Bolton’s trip to the Mideast was aimed at assuring allies it would not be done precipitously.
But Turkey’s president spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters after talks with Bolton there is no slowdown in the timetable for U.S. withdrawal from Syria. He said U.S. officials have said during their discussions that the withdrawal could take place within “120 days.”
Kalin said talks with Bolton focused on how the U.S. would collect the weapons that were given to Kurdish militia fighting Islamic States as well as the future of U.S. bases in Syria. He said he handed over two dossiers to Bolton - one on Turkish help to Kurdish populations in Iraq and Syria, the other on the Kurdish militias’ “criminal activities and human rights violations.” A Bolton spokesman, Garrett Marquis, said in a statement that Bolton and Turkish officials “had a productive discussion of the President’s decision to withdraw at a proper pace from Northeast Syria.”
But Erdogan, for his part, said Bolton had “made a very serious mistake. Whoever thinks this way is also mistaken. We cannot make any concession in this regard and those involved in a terror corridor” in Syria would “receive the necessary punishment.”
Trump’s shifting timetable for pulling U.S. troops out of Syria has left allies and other players in the region confused and jockeying for influence over a withdrawal strategy that appeared to be a work in progress. Trump faced widespread criticism that he was abandoning the Kurds in the face of Turkish threats. Officials said at the time that although many details of the withdrawal had not yet been finalized, they expected American forces to be out by mid-January.