Defense Secretary Ash Carter leaves Thursday for Turkey, amid increasing tension between the key NATO ally and Iraq, which the U.S. is supporting in its effort to liberate Mosul from Islamic State control.
Carter’s visit comes as Turkey has reportedly bombed U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northern Syria, underscoring the divide between Ankara and Washington over who is the enemy.
The Turkish military confirmed its warplanes targeted positions of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in three villages northeast of Aleppo that have recently been captured from the Islamic State.
The U.S. in the past has urged Turkey and Kurdish YPG militias to avoid fighting each other and instead focus on defeating the Islamic State, a common foe in Syria.
But Turkey has a longstanding antipathy for the YPG, a group that it says has links to the PKK, which both Turkey and the U.S. consider a terrorist group.
Carter insists the U.S. relationship with Turkey is rock solid, and that the U.S. is grateful for the success Turkish military forces have had securing Syria’s northern border.
“Our partnership is very strong in the counter-ISIL campaign,” Carter told reporters. “We are working with them very successfully.”
Carter said he will meet with his Turkish counterpart several times over the next week, first in Turkey, and then at a meeting of the counter-Islamic State coalition countries in Paris, and finally at a NATO defense ministerial in Brussels next week.
The U.S. is still gathering facts about the reported bombing of Kurdish YPG fighters, Carter said, but added “our partnership in general is very strong.”
In addition to sorting out the situation in northern Syria, Carter also finds himself in the middle of a heated dispute between Turkey and Iraq.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has bristled for being excluded from the Iraqi and Kurdish invasion force assaulting the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, insisting it has a “regional responsibility” to be involved in northern Iraq.
Turkey has some 500 troops in northern Iraq, which Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says are there without permission and should be withdrawn; Erdogans insist they should have a role in liberating the city.
This week demonstrators outside the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad chanted for the end of the Turkish “occupation” of northern Iraq. Carter expressed sympathy for Baghdad’s position. “Anybody who operates in Iraq, it needs to do with respect to Iraqi sovereignty. We do that.” But Carter added he expects his meetings with Turkish officials this week and next would help resolve the dispute.
“We work through issues as they arise. We have managed to do that successfully, and I expect that will continue,” Carter said.
Turkey argues it has had historic ties to Mosul for centuries, and has a responsibility to protect the interests of the city’s Sunni majority and large ethnic Turkmen community, from Baghdad’s Shiite-dominated central government.
