May 11, 2018•Update: May 12, 2018
By Nazli Yuzbasioglu
ISTANBUL
U.S. foreign policy concerning Syria and the terrorist PKK/YPG there is proving confusing, contradictory, and sometimes at odds with Turkey, making it an unreliable partner, argued international relations analysts.
The U.S. must change its policy toward the terrorist group PKK/YPG in Syria, especially if it sees its cooperation with Turkey as more essential, Joost Hiltermann, Middle East and North Africa program director for the Crisis Group NGO, told Anadolu Agency.
“If you are going to fight ISIS [Daesh] and you choose to do it with the help of the YPG that [is] obviously going to get [you] into problems with Turkey,” said Hilterman.
“The U.S. has a confused diplomacy in Syria, because it has been like this since the Obama administration, [and] it continues with the Trump administration,” he said.
The U.S. has called the terrorist PKK/YPG a “reliable ally” in its fight against Daesh, despite Turkish documentation that the group is actually the Syrian branch of the PKK, a terror group which has taken some 40,000 lives in Turkey.
Hiltermann added that the U.S. objectives in the region are unclear and sometimes contradictory.
“So is the purpose to fight ISIS [Daesh] or is the purpose to get rid of the Bashar-al Assad regime, or is the purpose to roll back Iranian influence?” he asked.
Also speaking to Anadolu Agency, David Hearst, the editor of online news portal Middle East Eye, said there was a “direct clash of classification and of interest” between Turkey and the U.S.
Hearst said that Turkey is concerned about its security along the Syrian border, as PKK/YPG terrorists are present there, all the way from Manbij to the Iraqi border.
“For America, exactly the same forces of the YPG are Western armed, Western trained and they form America’s footprint in Syria, which they are very unwilling to relinquish,” he said, referring to the U.S. supplying arms to the terrorist PKK/YPG, which Turkey has vociferously protested.
He added that these Turkish-American policy clashes could only be mediated through “a very very long and hard series of negotiation and some form of either not disarmament, but of guarantees that arms will not cross the border”.
“You could have a series of agreements which allow not for disarmament, but for security guarantees of the Turkish border,” he said.
- 'US proved it is not reliable partner'
“I think the Americans again have proven, about their relations with Turkey, that it is not a reliable partner,” Wadah Khanfar, head of the Istanbul-based Al Sharq Forum, told Anadolu Agency.
He added that the U.S. also showed that it does not understand the region or Turkey’s priorities.
Khanfar said the U.S. way of dealing with Turkey’s national security by supporting groups that directly threaten Turkey -- such as the PKK/YPG -- proves that they cannot become real partners in the long run.
He also said that Turkey’s response to U.S. foreign policy in the region was “justified”.
Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi political commentator, also told Anadolu Agency that Turkey has been very patient on this issue.
He said Turkey showed a slow and successful technique during its Operation Olive Branch in Syria’s northwestern Afrin region, which targeted the PKK/YPG terrorist presence there, adding: “They are not being very aggressive. They are negotiating with the Americans”.
Turkey launched the operation on Jan. 20 this year to clear the YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorist groups from Afrin, amid growing threats from the region.
“They know the Americans don’t have a very clear vision of their role,” he also said.
Stating that the U.S. sometimes talk about withdrawal, sometimes about having Arab troops in Syria, he added that Turkey’s way of dealing with the situation was “right”.
