President Trump’s top foreign policy aide “has made a serious mistake” by demanding that Turkey not attack U.S. partners in Syria once the U.S. withdraws, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Bolton has made a serious mistake and whoever thinks like this has also made a mistake,” Erdogan said of Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton, according to Hurriyet Daily News. “It is not possible for us to make compromises on this point.”
Erdogan’s rebuke comes as Bolton is traveling in Israel and Turkey, following Trump’s abrupt announcement last month that he would withdraw the U.S. military from Syria.
It also touches on a key dispute between the U.S. and Turkey over partnership with Syrian Kurds. Turkey regards that group as a terrorist threat, while the U.S. has partnered with them for a multi-year offensive against the Islamic State.
“Very soon, we will act on neutralizing terrorist groups in Syria, and we will take out other terror groups that might try to prevent us from doing this,” Erdogan told parliamentarians.
Tense relations with Turkey is one consequence of a very complex conflict in Syria, particularly as the United States turned to a well-placed ethnic minority to furnish the ground forces needed to displace the ISIS caliphate. These fighters, known as the YPG, were the most capable ground forces available in Syria to fight ISIS, just as their brethren were in Iraq.
“[The United States will] make sure that the defense of Israel and our other friends in the region is absolutely assured, and to take care of those who have fought with us against ISIS and other terrorist groups,” Bolton said Sunday in Israel, according to Reuters.
Bolton met Tuesday with Erdogan adviser Ibrahim Kalin.
“They had a productive conversation of the president’s decision to withdraw at a proper pace from Northeast Syria, identified further issues for dialogue, and emphasized the strong bilateral relationship between the U.S. and Turkey,” Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said after the meeting. “The U.S. looks forward to the ongoing military-to-military consultations today on our cooperation in Syria.”
But Erdogan remains hostile to these Kurdish fighters because Turkey has been fighting for decades as against the PKK, a group of Turkish Kurds that wants to carve out an independent state.
“For Turkey, there is no difference between the PKK, YPG, PYD or [ISIS],” Erdogan said.
[Opinion: Bolton vs. Trump on Syria makes it clear that the US is a fickle ally]
