Kurd issue deepens US-Turkey fault line in Syria

ANKARA: Turkey’s recent airstrikes against Kurdish militias in Iraq and Syria despite US objections have complicated the fault line between the two major allies in the region.

Following the airstrikes, US forces have started to patrol part of the Turkey-Syria border in order to deescalate tensions between its two anti-Daesh partners.

In recent weeks, Turkey sent tough messages to the US by bombing targets of the Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) in Syria.

By warning that “we can come unexpectedly in the night,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan implied more steps could be taken.

“We are not going to tip off the terror groups, and the Turkish Armed Forces could come at any moment,” Erdogan said last week.

Speaking to the state-run Anadolu news agency, he added that Turkey is “extremely worried to see US flags in a convoy that has YPG rags on it.”

The YPG, which fights under the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is seen by the US as an indispensable ally on the ground in defeating Daesh in Syria that should be supported.

Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist organization that is the Syrian offspring of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has conducted a bloody insurgency in Turkey for more than three decades.

Turkey is worried that an autonomous Kurdish entity along its southern border may emerge, setting a precedent for its own 20 million Kurdish citizens.

Erdogan will hold his first faceto-face meeting with US President Donald Trump on May 16 in Washington, and the disagreement over the YPG is expected to be high on the agenda.