Turkey says the US just agreed to more of its demands as Ankara sees expanded power in Syria
Source: CNBC
President Donald Trump's administration may have just handed Turkey's President Recep Erdogan another win.
Less than a week after Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, Turkey's foreign minister said Tuesday the U.S. has agreed to complete its previously established "roadmap" to remove all Kurdish militia fighters from the Northern Syrian town of Manbij before U.S. forces clear out.
Ankara has been waiting for this guarantee for a while, complaining since its agreement in June that Washington was dragging its feet on the deal. The U.S. has been supporting the Syria-based Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG) as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces fighting the Islamic State (IS), but the Turks view those fighting Kurds as linked to a Kurdish terrorist group that's carried out a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.
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With the impending departure of U.S. troops from Syria, Turkey will have vast sway to push out Kurdish forces, who now say the feel they are being abandoned by their American partners. Turkish troops have amassed along the Syrian-Turkish border and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels are grouping around Manbij. The Kurds have reportedly begun digging ditches and trenches in anticipation of the offensive, prompting Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar to say Thursday, "they will be buried in their ditches when the time comes."
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/12/25/turkey-says-the-us-just-agreed-to-more-of-its-demands-regarding-syria.html
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