Erdogan says US conditions for Syria withdrawal are a mistake
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday lambasted comments by US National Security Adviser John Bolton over the need for Ankara to guarantee the protection of Kurdish groups in Syria.
Mr Ergodan said conditions laid out by Mr Bolton regarding the withdrawal of US troops from Syria are unacceptable and a “grave mistake”, shortly after Mr Bolton met officials in Ankara.
Mr Erdogan refused to meet Mr Bolton, who landed in Turkey on Monday after visiting Israel, in an apparent snub over disagreements about Kurdish fighters in Syria.
National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis said US officials were told Mr Erdogan cited local election season and a speech to parliament for not meeting Mr Bolton.
The Turkish president spoke in parliament to criticise new conditions for a US withdrawal.
“It is not possible to accept or swallow the message given by Bolton from Israel,” Mr Erdogan told his party MPs.
Mr Bolton said while in Israel that the US would not withdraw troops from Syria until it could guarantee that its Kurdish partners would not be endangered by Ankara.
“We don’t think the Turks ought to undertake military action that’s not fully co-ordinated with and agreed to by the United States,” Mr Bolton said. “So that they meet the president’s requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered.”
The US backs the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – a Syrian Kurdish group that commands much of the country’s north-east and is the back-
bone of a US-backed alliance fighting ISIS in the country.
Mr Erdogan yesterday said that “despite the fact that we reached a clear agreement with Mr Trump, different voices have been raised from different echelons of the US administration”.
This was apparently a reference to Mr Bolton and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who have suggested longterm US involvement in Syria.
The Turkish president said “Mr Trump’s views on Syria and his determination to pull out remain our point of reference”.
He said he could not compromise on the issue of the YPG in Syria, which Ankara views as a terrorist organisation and part of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
“For Turkey, there is no difference between PKK, YPG … or Daesh,” he said.
“Very soon we will act to neutralise terrorist groups in Syria. And we will take out other terrorist groups that might try to prevent us from doing this,” he said, referring to ISIS and the YPG.
Also yesterday, Mr Bolton and Erdogan adviser Ibrahim Kalin had a productive discussion regarding the US decision to withdraw from Syria, the spokesman for the US National Security Council said.
Mr Marquis said the two sides had identified further issues for dialogue.
Mr Kalin said after talks with Mr Bolton that Turkey would not seek permission from allies to conduct a military offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters but was willing to co-ordinate operations.
He said US officials said during their discussions that the withdrawal could take place within “120 days”.
Mr Trump’s shifting timetable for pulling US troops out of Syria has left allies and other players in the region confused and jockeying for influence over a withdrawal strategy that appears to be a work in progress.