Both Turkey and the United States have tensions over Syrian crises. While the U.S. supports and arms Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, Turkey describes them as terrorists.
Rex Tillerson, the U.S. Secretary of State, visits Ankara and holds lengthy talks with leadership over Syrian crises. After meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Mr Tillerson said that,
“We have always been clear with Turkey that the weapons provided to the Syrian Democratic Forces would be limited, mission-specific, and provided on an incremental basis to achieve military objectives only.”
His Turkish counterpart added that the first meeting of this mechanism will be held no later than mid-March. Mevlut Cavusoglu said as well:
“We’ve reached an understanding to normalize our relations,”
but didn’t support the journalists with the details. So far, it’s not clear precisely what kind of understanding was reached in Turkish capital between the US Secretary of State and Turkish Foreign Minister.
The Syrian town of Manbij remains a point of contention between the two sides, with Ankara repeatedly demanding the retreat of the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) there and threatening to attack it after the conclusion of the current Afrin operation.
On February, 15, Mr Tillerson met President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for discussions amid deep problems in the strategic relationship between Ankara and Washington.
