Turkey confident US will stop arming Kurdish fighters in Syria
The administration of US President Donald Trump is considering making a series of “adjustments” to its strategy in Syria, which Turkish officials say might include an end to arming Kurdish fighters in the Arab country.
The White House on Friday stirred speculation in a cryptic statement about an earlier phone conversation between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Consistent with our previous policy, President Trump also informed President Erdogan of pending adjustments to the military support provided to our partners on the ground in Syria, now that the battle of Raqqah is complete and we are progressing into a stabilization phase to ensure that ISIS cannot return,” the White House statement said, referring to the recent liberation of the Syrian city that had served as the Daesh terrorist group’s de facto capital.
Later in the day, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters that the American head of state had actually pledged to stop arming the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
“Mr. Trump clearly stated that he had given clear instructions, and that the YPG won’t be given arms and that this nonsense should have ended a long time ago,” the Associated Press quoted him as saying at a news conference that followed the call.
Ankara views the YPG as the Syrian branch of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.
The Trump White House’s decision to stop arming Kurdish fighters is expected to eliminate what has become a major source of tension between Washington and Ankara, which is also a key NATO ally.
The military support first began under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, whose administration provided the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) with weapons and training.
The SDF, which opposes the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is controlled by the YPG.
Trump and Erdogan talked over the phone days after the Turkish leader attended a trilateral summit on Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Putin also talked to Trump ahead of the summit, emphasizing the “need to keep Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity intact.”
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