Turkey seeks US help for offensive in Syria
Syrian Kurds make deal with Assad troops over deployment in Afrin
ISTANBUL— Turkey has asked the United States to persuade its Kurdish allies to give up Afrin in northern Syria and withdraw 125 kilometers east and beyond the Euphrates river, a Turkish official said on Friday.
The official, who asked not to be identified, said the proposal was made to US State Secretary Rex Tillerson during his talks with Turkey President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday.
The proposal means the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia would also have to give up control of Manbij, 98 km east of Afrin, where Turkey would station troops together with US forces that are already there.
Sensitive agenda
Tillerson arrived in Ankara on Thursday for discussions on relations that have frayed over a number of issues, including US support for the YPG militia.
Reflecting the sensitivity of the talks between Tillerson and Erdogan, only Turkish Foreign Minister Melvut Cavusoglu, serving as translator, was included in the three-hour meeting.
Ankara considers the YPG to be an arm of the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group waging an insurgency in Turkey and considered a terror group by Turkey and other countries.
But Tillerson, in a news briefing after talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, urged Ankara to show restraint in its military operation against Kurdish militia in Afrin.
Another meeting
The two countries, however, have agreed to “establish mechanisms” to normalize relations and will hold another meeting by mid-March.
Tillerson called on Ankara to “show restraint in its operation” while insisting that Turkey and the United States “share the same objectives in Syria.”
Turkey invaded Afrin last month to drive the YPG from the area and threatened to push its troops to Manbij, but Turkey-backed troops met stiff resistance from the Syrian Kurd fighters.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are hiding from bombs and airstrikes in caves and basements nearly a month into Turkey’s invasion of Afrin, the Associated Press reported.
Civilians killed
A slow-moving ground offensive, the assault on Afrin threatens to become a protracted standoff, deepening an already dire humanitarian situation.
Nearly 80 civilians in Afrin, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and 31 Turkish soldiers have been killed.
But the Sputnik news agency reported that Syrian Kurds have made a deal with the Syrian government on the deployment of Syrian Armed Forces in Afrin, Lebanese media reported on Thursday.