WASHINGTON: Presidents Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdogan faced off byphone Wednesday as the American warned Turkey not to risk a clash with USforces and the Turk demanded Washington stop backing a Kurdish militia.
On the fifth day of a Turkish assault against a Kurdish enclave in northernSyria, and with rockets fired into Turkey claiming civilian casualties, theleaders of the two NATO allies finally got in touch.
Trump’s warning was stark. He asked Erdogan to “de-escalate” the attack onthe Afrin canton, which is defended by the US-backed YPG militia, andwarned him to “avoid any actions that might risk conflict between Turkishand American forces.”
But he also sought to reassure the tough-talking Turkish leader. A WhiteHouse statement about the call did not mention the YPG by name, and Trumpexpressed hope that the capitals could work to “address Turkey’s legitimatesecurity concerns.”
Turkey’s official account of the call noted that Erdogan had urged Trump tocut off all US support for the Kurdish YPG and insisted that “OperationOlive Branch” — the assault on Afrin — was an entirely legal defence ofTurkey’s national security.
As the two leaders spoke, violence continued, in both Afrin — formerly arelatively stable pocket amid the chaos of Syria’s ongoing civil war — andin a neighbouring region of Turkey, where rockets fired from Syria killedtwo people and wounded 11 more.
The rockets, one of which hit and damaged a mosque, were fired in the earlyevening in the border province of Kilis, an AFP correspondent at the scenesaid. The second fell on a house 100 meters (300 feet) away, Kilis GovernorMehmet Tekinarslan said.
One Syrian and one Turk was killed, the governor’s office said, in attacksthat it blamed on the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units or YPG, amilitia that Turkey sees as a Syrian offshoot of the banned PKK, which haswaged a three-decade insurgency inside Turkey.
Turkish artillery fire could be heard from the centre of Kilis.
Hours before the rockets, Erdogan said Syrian opposition fighters andTurkish forces were “step by step taking control of Afrin” and that: “Untilthe last terrorist is neutralized, this operation will continue.”
The United States supports Turkey’s fight against Kurdistan Works Party(PKK), a group which it too blacklists as an international terrororganization.
Indeed, in his call on Wednesday, Trump pledged that Washington and Ankaracould improve their “strategic partnership” to better fight Daesh,Al-Qaeda, and the PKK together.
But inside Syria, US troops have formed a close partnership with the YPG tofight Daesh and — in parallel and to Turkey’s disgust — the Syrian Kurdshave created autonomous governments in border cantons like Afrin.
Turkey’s NATO allies are now concerned that Ankara’s cross-borderincursions will impede the fight against the IS group and harm efforts tobring peace to Syria after a nearly seven-year civil war.
‘Fierce resistance’
With Turkey pressing the operation for the fifth day, an AFP correspondentsaw more tanks lined up on the Turkish side of the border, as soldiersmilled around, ready to head into Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkish jets struck borderareas in northeast and northwest of Afrin aiming to force the YPG to moveback and open the way for a ground advance.
The Observatory said there was “fierce resistance” on the ground from theKurdish fighters.
Three Turkish soldiers have been killed since the fighting began while theObservatory has said 48 Ankara-backed Syrian rebels and 42 US-backed SyrianDemocratic Forces and YPG fighters had been killed.
The SDF is an umbrella grouping composed mainly of YPG.
The Observatory has said at least 30 civilians have been killed but this isvehemently rejected by Turkey, which says it is doing everything to avoidcivilian casualties.
Two of the civilians were killed by SDF fire inside Syria, the Observatorysaid.
‘Get rid of this calamity’
This is Turkey’s second major military action in Syria after it launchedthe first between August 2016 and March 2017, targeting the YPG and IS onits border.
While Turkey is so far focused on the YPG-held enclave of Afrin, it has notruled out further expanding the operation.
The YPG also holds the key town of Manbij east of Afrin and a long strip ofterritory in northern Syria east of the Euphrates heading right up to theIraqi border.
Erdogan has also raised the prospect of an operation on Manbij, which couldbe much more tricky as there is a US military presence in the area. – AFP