TURKEY AND THE US END DAY OF THREATS WITH MORE MEASURED TALK
▶ Nato allies try to ease tension with phone call after Ankara hits back at US president’s Twitter comments on ‘long overdue pull-out from Syria’
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US leader Donald Trump spoke last night to ease tension over American support for Kurdish groups in Syria.
Mr Erdogan told Mr Trump that Turkey would support the US as it prepared to pull troops out of Syria, the Turkish presidency said.
The two leaders also agreed that plans for the Syrian town of Manbij should be finished, referring to an earlier agreement to have Syrian Kurdish forces withdraw from the area. No details were given on the plan.
Earlier yesterday, Turkey hit back at US President Donald Trump after he said the US would “devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds”.
“Starting the long overdue pull-out from Syria while hitting the little remaining ISIS territorial caliphate hard, and from many directions,” Mr Trump tweeted. “Will attack again from existing nearby base if it reforms.
“Will devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds. Create a 20-mile safe zone,” Mr Trump tweeted on Sunday.
“Likewise, do not want the Kurds to provoke Turkey. Russia, Iran and Syria have been the biggest beneficiaries of the long-term US policy of destroying ISIS in Syria – natural enemies. We also benefit but it is now time to bring our troops back home. Stop the endless wars.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu responded yesterday, saying: “We have said repeatedly we are not scared of and will not be intimidated by any threats.
“Economic threats against Turkey will get nowhere.”
Mr Cavusoglu also said that “strategic partners” should not communicate through social media, in a clear jab at Mr Trump.
Despite his comments, Ankara is well aware of the cost of strained ties with its Nato ally.
The Turkish lira slid as much as 1.6 per cent against the dollar yesterday. A diplomatic crisis last year, when Mr Trump imposed sanctions on two Turkish ministers and raised tariffs on Turkish metal exports, helped push the lira to a record low in August.
Relations between Ankara and Washington have soured over threats by Mr Erdogan to attack territory controlled by US-backed Kurdish groups.
Turkey views Washington’s primary partner in the battle against ISIS in Syria – the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – as a terrorist group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and the US.
Turkey’s presidential communications director said yesterday that Turkey did not have any issue with Kurds, only with the PKK “terrorist group” and its affiliates in Syria.
“The Republic of Turkey is not an enemy of Kurds but a protector,” Fahrettin Altun said on Twitter.
Mr Altun said that “national security” was essential for Turkey.
“Terror is terror and it must be eradicated. What Turkey is doing in Syria is exactly that,” he said.
On Sunday, Mr Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin addressed Mr Trump on Twitter, saying that “terrorists can’t be your partners and allies. Turkey expects the US to honour our strategic partnership and doesn’t want it to be shadowed by terrorist propaganda.”
He said it was a “fatal mistake” to equate Syrian Kurds with the “PKK, which is on the US terrorist list, and its Syria branch PYD/YPG”.
“Turkey fights against terrorists, not Kurds. We will protect Kurds and other Syrians against all terrorist threats.”
Mr Erdogan said that a cross-border operation against the YPG in north-east Syria would happen soon.
Ankara has carried out two military campaigns in north Syria against ISIS and the YPG since 2016.
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was optimistic Syrian Kurds could be protected while also assuring Turkey of its right to defend itself against terrorists.
“We are confident we can achieve an outcome that achieves both of those,” Mr Pompeo said in Abu Dhabi.
Mr Pompeo is on a Middle East tour to reassure allies that the US withdrawal from Syria will not affect the war against ISIS nor efforts to restrain Iranian regional influence.