ANKARA – Turkey says the United States has promised it for a second time tostop arming Syria-based Kurdish militants whom Ankara considers a threat toits security, as the American support for them risks pitting the two NATOmembers against one another.The Turkish Presidency said in a statement on Saturday that Ibrahim Kalin,a spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan, and US National Security AdviserH. R. McMaster had held a phone call a day earlier in which McMasterconfirmed the US would no longer provide weapons to the so-called KurdishPeople’s Protection Unit (YPG).
Turkey views the YPG as allies of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) group,which has been fighting a separatist war against Ankara for decades.
Turkey first deployed forces in northern Syria in 2016 to repel the YPGunder the banner of Operation Euphrates Shield, pressuring Washington tostop its provision of arms, training, and air support to the militants, whowere fighting Daesh at the time.
US President Donald Trump and Erdogan spoke on the phone on November 24last year, when, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu,Trump said the US would no longer supply arms to the YPG-led SyrianDemocratic Forces (SDF).
Three days after the call, Erdogan said Washington had failed to live up tomany of its promises to Ankara concerning Syria, apparently referring topersisting US support for the militants, and said the city of Afrin in thenorthern Syrian province of Aleppo had to be cleansed of the YPG.
Last week, Ankara deployed military forces to Afrin and began confrontingthe YPG anew. Erdogan on Friday threatened that the Turkish forces wouldlater be dispatched to the nearby city of Manbij, where American forces arepresent.
Turkey has warned Washington that there could be a confrontation betweenTurkish and American troops in northern Syria if Washington did not haltthe arms transfer to the Kurds.