Erdogan seeks to send Trump stern message with attack on Syrian Kurds

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes to bring about a major U-turn in US Syria policy with its airstrikes on Kurdish fighters

US support for Kurdish groups in Syria will liklely dominate discussions when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets President Donald Trump
US support for Kurdish groups in Syria will liklely dominate discussions when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets President Donald Trump

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking to send a tough message to Donald Trump with its 25 April airstrikes on Kurdish fighters in Syria, in the hope of bringing about a major U-turn in US Syria policy.

Turkey last week bombed targets of the Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, earning the wrath of its NATO ally Washington, that said that the Combined Air Operations Centre received less than one-hour notice of the strikes. “This is certainly not coordination as you would expect from a partner and an ally in the fight against [the Islamic State],” a Pentagon spokesperson said.

The Turkish strikes killed 20 YPG fighters and, inadvertently, five or six Iraqi Peshmerga fighters in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The Iraqi Peshmerga are linked to the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, which has close ties to Ankara.
On Sunday, Erdogan warned more action could be imminent.

"We can come unexpectedly in the night," Erdogan said. "We are not going to tip off the terror groups and the Turkish Armed Forces could come at any moment."

The YPG has been seen by the United States as the best ally on the ground in the fight against Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Trump has inherited a policy from Barack Obama of actively supporting the group. But Ankara says the YPG is a terror outfit and the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who have waged an insurgency since 1984 inside Turkey that has left tens of thousands dead.

The US backed the formation of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), dominated by the YPG but also including Arab fighters, yet Ankara contends it is merely a front from the Kurdish group.

In an unusual move after days of border clashes between the Turkish army and YPG that followed the air strikes, the US sent military vehicles to the Syrian side of the frontier to carry out patrols in an apparent bid to prevent further fighting.

Erdogan said the sight of American flags in the convoy alongside YPG insignia had "seriously saddened" Turkey.

The Turkish president, fresh from winning the controversial April 16 referendum on enhancing his powers, has indicated that the rewards for Washington in breaking up with the YPG could be high by spurring Turkish involvement in a joint operation to take the IS fiefdom of Raqa.

Together the United States can "turn Raqa into a graveyard for Daesh (IS)," Erdogan said on Saturday.