Erdogan Says U.S. Is Undermining His Rule by Arming Syrian Kurds
Turkey Presses U.S. to Collect Heavy Weapons From Kurds in Syria
(Bloomberg) -- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the U.S. of arming Kurdish militants in Syria as part of an effort to topple his government, elevating tensions already strained over a Turkish missile deal with Russia.
Turkey is pushing the U.S. to collect heavy weapons it supplied to the Syrian Kurds, a key sticking point in a joint effort to create a “safe zone” across a section of northern Syria, according to a senior Turkish security official. Turkey wants to secure an area along its border to keep the Kurdish fighters away from the frontier.
“Do you know what their biggest goal now is?” Erdogan said. "‘How we can topple the AK Party from power,’ this is their matter. But they won’t be able to overthrow, their power would not be sufficient for that.”
Ties between the two NATO members remain strained over Ankara’s decision to purchase a Russian S-400 air defense system but they are trying to keep the issue of a safe zone, which would be off limits to U.S.-backed Kurdish militants, walled-off from those tensions. In a speech to lawmakers of the ruling AK Party, Erdogan said disagreements ranging from Syria to Russian missiles “can’t be seen as separate” from the threat by the U.S. to punish Turkey for purchasing the S-400s, which creates a risk to the country’s economy.
The Turkish leader also said again that there’s no going back on a decision to purchase the batteries from Russia.
The U.S. and Turkey remain sharply divided over the U.S.-backed Kurdish YPG militia, a vital component of the U.S.-led campaign to defeat Islamic State in Syria. For Ankara, the YPG is a group closely linked to the Kurdish separatist group PKK, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union, and the militia’s control of territory along the Turkish border makes it a mortal enemy.
Turkey wants the U.S. to get the YPG fighters to move at least 30-40 kilometers (20-25 miles) south of the Turkish border, collect American-supplied “heavy weapons” from them and place the safe zone under Turkish control, said the official, who asked not to be identified to discuss a sensitive diplomatic matter. The official ruled out any direct negotiations or contacts with the YPG.
The U.S. has sent “tens of thousands of truck loads of weapons and ammunition” to the militant groups, Erdogan said on Wednesday.
In March, Turkey warned that it would seek to enforce a safe zone in northeast Syria on its own if talks with the U.S. on the issue collapse. On Wednesday, Erdogan said Turkey “will destroy the corridor of terrorism” east of the Euphrates River in Syria.
James Jeffrey, the U.S. special representative for Syria engagement, said last week that there is “a general agreement in principle on the pullback and on the safe zone,” according to Al-Monitor. However, Jeffrey signaled that the U.S. was reluctant collect the weapons.
“In terms of the safe zone negotiations, we are continuing to look at various options to move forward on them, issues between us are the amount of territory that the YPG would pull back for its forces,” Jeffrey said at the Middle East Institute on June 4. “We certainly have a commitment by the people we’ve armed and trained that they will not use these weapons against anybody other than ISIS.”
A failure to reach an agreement over the safe zone could further trouble the relations between the U.S. and Turkey. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told his Turkish counterpart in a letter last week that the U.S. would end Turkey’s participation in the F-35 jet program by July 31 over the country’s decision to buy the Russian S-400 missile defense system.
Erdogan said on Wednesday that the missile system would be delivered next month. Turkey secured a promise from Moscow for the joint-production of the missiles when it signed the deal at the right price, the president said.
"I am not saying Turkey will buy S-400s,” he said. “It bought them, we’ve completed this job.”
Erdogan also vowed to retaliate against U.S. threats to expel his country from the F-35 program, saying “Turkey is not just a customer of the program but a production partner.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara at shacaoglu@bloomberg.net;Firat Kozok in Ankara at fkozok@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Paul Abelsky, Amy Teibel
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.