Bolton’s comments a grave mistake, says Turkish president
ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday condemned comments by a key US envoy over the future of a US-allied Syrian Kurdish militia as a “grave mistake”, as tensions flared over Washington’s planned withdrawal from wartorn Syria.
Erdogan’s comments came shortly after US National Security Adviser John Bolton held talks in the Turkish capital with Erdogan’s adviser Ibrahim Kalin, in a key meeting focusing on the surprise US decision to withdraw its troops from Syria.
But it was comments made by Bolton on Sunday in Israel that had already raised hackles in Ankara, when he suggested the retreat was conditional on the safety of US-backed Kurdish fighters, considered terrorists by Turkey.
“John Bolton has made a grave mistake on this issue,” Erdogan said in Parliament.
US President Donald Trump caused a political storm last month when he announced the troop pullout, claiming to have succeeded in the battle against the Islamic State (IS) group.
Fighting continues however, with Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying IS suicide attackers had hit the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria late on Sunday, killing 23 of its fighters.
The pullout was hailed by Erdogan as the “right call” in a column published on Tuesday in The New York Times.