Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan , Ankara, January 8, 2019. Photo: AP
ANKARA,— Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday urged the US to hand over the top commander of a US-backed Kurdish-led force that fought against IS, insisting he was a “wanted terrorist”.
Ties between the United States and Turkey are particularly strained over years-long American support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, viewed as terrorists only by Ankara.
Much of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who fought against the Islamic State extremist group backed by US air support are Kurdish fighters from the YPG.
Mazlum Abdi Kobani is the Commander-in-chief of the SDF forces — the de facto army of the autonomous Kurdish administration in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava).
“This codenamed Mazlum is a terrorist sought with a red bulletin (issued by Interpol),” Erdogan said in an interview with state TRT broadcaster. “America must hand over this man.”
A group of senators including Lindsey Graham this week urged the US state department to fast-track a US visa for Kobani to enable a visit where he can speak to officials on the situation unfolding in Syria.
US President Donald Trump, said in a tweet Thursday that he had talked with Mazlum Abdi Kobani and “really enjoyed” the conversation.
“He appreciates what we have done, and I appreciate what the Kurds have done,” the US president said.
Erdogan said he criticised Trump directly in a phone call earlier this month over a letter from Kobani sent with a much derided letter from the American head of state.
“I said to him, ‘it was not at all appropriate, I condemn this attitude'” the Turkish leader added.
But Erdogan said he still planned to go to the US to meet Trump on November 13.
Relations between the US and Turkey worsened after Ankara launched a cross-border offensive against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia on October 9.
Despite an initial green light from Trump, the US president under pressure from a united Congress sanctioned Turkey and agreed a deal with Ankara on October 17 to end its operation in exchange for the YPG’s withdrawal from a 120-kilometre (75-mile) zone.
Following a visit by US Vice President Mike Pence, Turkey agreed to suspend the offensive for five days while YPG fighters withdrew.
The operation then ended with a 120-kilometre long area between Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain under the control of Turkey and its Syrian proxies.
Erdogan also said during the TRT interview that Turkey would have “observation” zones in the border town of Kobane and the city of Manbij in northern Syria.
The Syrian regime deployed recently in Kobane and Manbij after the Kurdish fighters sought help from Damascus during Turkey’s military operation.
The Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ, considered the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and U.S. has provided them with arms. The YPG, which is the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces SDF forces, has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.
The Kurdish forces expelled the Islamic State from its last patch of territory in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz in March 2019.
11,000 Kurdish male and female fighters had been killed in five years of war to eliminate the Islamic State “caliphate” that once covered an area the size of Great Britain in Syria and Iraq.
The US pullout has largely been seen as a betrayal of Syria’s Kurds.
Syria’s Kurds have established a semi-autonomous region in northeastern Syria during the country’s eight-year war.
In 2013, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD — the political branch of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — has established three autonomous Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016, Kurdish and Arab authorities announced the creation of a “federal region” made up of those semi-autonomous regions in Syrian Kurdistan.
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