Blinken In Talks With Turkey’s Top Diplomat Over Syria

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began talks with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday, following reassurances from Ankara that it would remain steadfast in the fight against jihadists in Syria, particularly after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. Blinken’s meeting with Fidan started at 9:40 a.m. local time, according to a U.S. official.

Blinken arrived in Ankara late Thursday and had a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for over an hour at the VIP lounge at Ankara airport. During their conversation, Erdogan emphasized that Turkey would not ease its efforts against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, despite targeting the U.S.-backed Kurdish group, which is vital in containing the jihadist threat.

“Turkey will never allow any weakness to arise in the fight against ISIS,” Erdogan told Blinken, as stated in an overnight release from his office. The Kurdish YPG force, which makes up the majority of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), played a significant role in defeating ISIS’s self-declared caliphate in Syria in 2019. However, Turkey views the YPG and its political arm, the PYD, as extensions of the PKK, a Kurdish militant group that has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey. As a result, Turkey has labeled the SDF a terrorist organization.

This U.S. support for the SDF has created tension between the two NATO allies. As Syrian rebels, backed by Turkey, advanced on Damascus, the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) launched an offensive against the SDF, raising concerns about their conflicting interests in Syria. For Turkey, the presence of armed Kurdish groups near its southern border is seen as a major security threat.

While Washington acknowledges Turkey’s security concerns, Blinken emphasized on Thursday that the SDF plays a “critical” role in preventing the resurgence of ISIS. “Critical to making sure that doesn’t happen are the so-called SDF — the Syrian Democratic Forces,” Blinken stated, underscoring their importance in the ongoing fight against ISIS.