US-Turkish tensions remain high; no Turkish assurances over Manbij

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) – US officials this week continued to call on Turkey to limit its military offensive in the Kurdish canton of Afrin in northwest Syria, as they acknowledged they had yet to receive assurances that Turkey would not expand its military assault further east to the city of Manbij, where US forces are present.

State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters on Thursday, “We are urging Turkey to de-escalate” and “limit its military actions” in Afrin, while avoiding civilian casualties.

Earlier on Thursday, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag affirmed that the US should “stop supporting terrorists” if it wanted to avoid conflict with Turkey.

“Those who support the terrorist organization will become a target in this battle,” he warned.

Turkish officials have vowed to drive the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), out of Manbij and even areas further east.

On Wednesday, US officials including President Donald Trump, spoke strongly to their counterparts in Ankara about Turkey’s assault on Syria, while highlighting the risk of confrontation between US and Turkish troops if Ankara pressed its offensive toward Manbij.

The impact of Wednesday’s exchanges between US and Turkish officials, however, appears uncertain.

Asked on Thursday if the Turks had “given assurances of any kind” with regard to Manbij, Nauert replied, “I would not say that they’ve given assurances. We’re following this very closely.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, however, publicly reassured Damascus that Turkey would not attack Syrian troops, or so TASS, Russia’s largest news agency, reported on Thursday.

Citing Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, TASS reported that Cavusoglu affirmed Ankara’s commitment to Syria’s territorial integrity while adding that, “at the moment, [the Syrians] don’t attack us, and that is why we have no reasons to see them as a target.”

Turkey has provided no such guarantee to the US, and Moscow appears keen to exploit the tensions between the two NATO allies.

Dr. Aykan Erdemir, a member of Turkey’s parliament from 2011 to 2015 and now a Senior Fellow at Washington’s Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, suggested that in planning his next moves, Erdogan has “a large room for maneuver” domestically due to his “almost-complete control” of the media, and Turkish politics more broadly.

Russia has given Turkey a green light for the military assault, and “at this point, Erdogan cares more about Moscow’s opinion on Syria” than Washington’s, Erdemir told Kurdistan 24.

“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin seems to have greater leverage over the extent and future of Erdogan’s Afrin incursion than Erdogan’s NATO allies,” Erdemir concluded.

The strains between Washington and Ankara raise the prospect that Turkey could deny the US use of the Incirlik Air Base.

Asked by a reporter about that on Thursday, Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, Director of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, declined to speak specifically about Incirlik but responded in general terms.

“People like me are paid to study alternatives all the time,” he said. “We have alternatives for a broad variety of continuances, many of which we hope never occur.”

Germany had a dispute with Turkey last year when Ankara refused to allow German lawmakers to visit 250 German troops based at Incirlik who were participating in the coalition fight against the Islamic State.

Berlin responded by moving its aircraft to a base in Jordan, although only a small number of planes were involved.

Editing by Nadia Riva