President Trump spoke Monday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, again warning him not to attack U.S.-allied Kurds in Syria after tweeting Sunday he would “devastate Turkey economically” if he did so.
Erdogan stressed during the phone call that he did not oppose ethnic Kurds, but rather the Kurdish People’s Protection Units militia, or YPG, the largest component of the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces, according to a Turkish government statement.
A White House statement said Trump emphasized a U.S. interest in protecting the YPG, however, noting “the importance to the United States that Turkey does not mistreat the Kurds and other Syrian Democratic Forces with whom we have fought to defeat ISIS.”
The U.S. currently has about 2,000 troops embedded with the YPG in northeastern Syria. The group is ideologically aligned with the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, that’s fought a long insurgency inside Turkey for Kurdish autonomy.
Trump committed to withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria during a December phone call with Erdogan, surprising advisers and prompting the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis. Trump backed off a previous withdrawal announcement in early 2018, and after the December call, national security adviser John Bolton said withdrawal would be slower than at first anticipated.
The Monday phone call addressed Trump’s tweeted threat, but also his proposal on Twitter to carve a 20-mile “safe zone” out of Kurdish held territory inside Syria, according to the Turkish government readout.
A White House readout of the call did not specifically address discussion of a safe zone, but said Trump “expressed the desire to work together to address Turkey’s security concerns in northeast Syria while stressing the importance to the United States that Turkey does not mistreat the Kurds and other Syrian Democratic Forces with whom we have fought to defeat ISIS.”
The White House said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford will discuss Syria with Turkish officials on Tuesday.
According to the Turkish government statement, Erdogan and Trump discussed creating a roadmap for the multiethnic city of Manbij near Aleppo, which is held by the YPG-dominated SDF. Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to seize the city, but the presence of U.S. troops has prevented it.
Trump and Erdogan have had a tumultuous relationship. After meeting with Trump at the White House in May 2017, the Turkish leader watched as his guards broke through a police line and attacked YPG supporters, many of them U.S. citizens, outside the Turkish ambassador’s home in Washington, D.C.
Although Trump never condemned the attack, it prompted congressional outcry, killed a U.S. arms deal, and resulted in criminal charges against Erdogan guards. Differences on Syria policy and political repression following a failed anti-Erdogan coup further worsened relations. For three months in late 2017, Turkey and the U.S. stopped issuing visas to each others’ citizens in a tit-for-tat after the detention of a U.S. consular employee.
Last year, Trump sanctioned Turkish government ministers over the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson, whose October release appeared to improve relations, with Trump repeatedly thanking Erdogan by name, smiling in photos during a November dinner in Paris.
