June 28, 2018•Update: June 28, 2018
By Safvan Allahverdi
WASHINGTON
Ankara and Washington can now begin a “more productive conversation” as presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey over, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday.
Pompeo said U.S. and Turkey have reached an agreement, Manbij Roadmap, about how their forces would work together to resolve complicated issue between different ethnic groups in the northern Syrian city of Manbij.
"They will ultimately be part of political resolution there and an important part. And we need to recognize that and do our best of work alongside them," Pompeo noted.
The plan was announced after a June 4 meeting in Washington between Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Pompeo.
The deal focuses on the withdrawal of the PKK-affiliated YPG terror group from Manbij and on stability in the region.
The Turkish General Staff said in a statement Sunday that the two countries' forces conducted patrols separately in the area between the Operation Euphrates Shield region in northern Syria and Manbij.
The first patrols by Turkish and U.S. troops in the region began June 18.
Turkey on Sunday reelected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with more than 52 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results. Final results will be announced July 5.
Tensions have existed between Ankara and Washington because of the U.S. support for the PYD and its military wing the YPG. Differences have also centered around the U.S. for not taking sufficient legal action against Gulen, the U.S.-based leader of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO). Ankara accuses the group of being behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey.
Washington has called the PYD/YPG terror group a "reliable ally" in its fight against Daesh in Syria even though its mother organization, the PKK, is listed as a terror group by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU, having waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years, killing nearly 40,000 people.
