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US says its troops will leave Syria. But why is Turkey angry?

By RFI
Middle East Reuters
JAN 8, 2019 LISTEN
Reuters

John Bolton, the US National Security Adviser, met Turkish officials on Tuesday to discuss the surprise announcement that it plans to withdraw its troops from Syria.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, initially hailed the decision as the right call.

But he became furious after Bolton said the US move was conditional on the safety of US-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.

US president Donald Trump caused a political storm last month when he called for the pullout because the battle against the Islamic State (IS) group had been won.

He has since rowed back, vowing that the withdrawal will be done in a prudent way.

Tensions erupted ahead of the Ankara talks after Bolton said the retreat was also conditional on the safety of US-backed Kurdish fighters, considered terrorists by Turkey.

Ankara immediately hit back at his claim that it would target Kurds.

Erdogan said Turkey was the only country with the power and commitment to stabilise Syria after the US pullout, in an opinion column published in the New York Times on Tuesday.

Hurriyet newspaper reported that Turkish officials were asking for Washington to either give Turkey all of its bases in Syria or destroy them.

The Kurdish media outlet Rudaw reported that Bolton conditioned the talks on Turkey agreeing to protect the Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) in Syria. However Turkey considers the group to be linked to the insurgent Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK).

Meanwhile, Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, also fell foul of the Turkish leadership when he said Washington will ensure Ankara does not slaughter Kurds in Syria as American troops withdraw.

His comments came ahead of his arrival on Tuesday in Jordan on a Middle East tour. Pompeo said that IS would not be allowed to regroup following a string of battlefield defeats.

After setting off on the trip to eight Arab capitals, Pompeo told reporters: "The United States is still committed to all the missions that we've signed up for over the past two years."

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