KhalaiMakhlooq
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Yesterday Trump tweeted this:
This is from the BBC today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-46877308
Syria war: Turkey ready to create 'safe zone' for Kurds - Erdogan
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he responded positively to Donald Trump's call for a "safe zone" along its border with Kurdish-held Syria.
The leaders spoke by telephone after Mr Trump threatened to "devastate Turkey economically" if it attacked a Kurdish militia when allied US troops withdrew.
Turkey regards the People's Protection Units (YPG) as a terrorist group.
On Tuesday, Mr Erdogan told Turkish MPs he had agreed that a 32km (20-mile) deep safe zone "will be created by us".
There was no immediate response from US officials or the Kurdish authorities who control more than 400km of the Turkish-Syrian border.
However, the US president tweeted on Monday night that he had spoken to Mr Erdogan to "advise where we stand" on the safe zone and efforts to eliminate the remnants of the Islamic State group in eastern Syria with the help of fighters from the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces alliance.
"Also spoke about economic development between the US & Turkey - great potential to substantially expand!" he added.
Why does the US want a safe zone?
Last month, the president announced that the US would begin pulling out its 2,000 troops from Syria because IS had been "defeated".
The US military has relied on the YPG fighters to battle IS militants on the ground in Syria
The move shocked allies and drew criticism from US lawmakers. Defence Secretary James Mattis and several other senior officials subsequently resigned.
Opponents of the withdrawal expressed fears that the Turkish military and allied Syrian Arab rebels would launch an offensive to drive YPG fighters away from the border, as they did in the predominantly Kurdish western Afrin region a year ago.
The Turkish government considers the YPG an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey for three decades. However, it denies any direct organisational links to the group.
On Sunday, Mr Trump tweeted: "Will devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds. Create 20 mile safe zone ... Likewise, do not want the Kurds to provoke Turkey."
He did not give any further details, but his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that the president's aim was to "make sure that the folks who fought with us to take down the [IS] caliphate... have security, and also that terrorists acting out of Syria aren't able to attack Turkey".
What is Turkey proposing to do?
On Tuesday, President Erdogan told his Justice and Development (AK) Party he had been "saddened by some messages from Mr Trump's social media account".
"We immediately acted and we discussed those issues with him on the phone again last night. It was a positive conversation."
Turkey's military has mounted two cross-border operations to counter the YPG
Mr Erdogan said he had reaffirmed Turkey's willingness to create a safe zone and that he believed he had "reached an historic understanding with Mr Trump".
He later told reporters that if the US and other allies could provide logistical support, Turkey "would solve [the issue of] such a safe zone while protecting the security of those people there".
He also dismissed the idea that the YPG could be involved in such a project. "They are terrorists. Can we leave the safe zone to terrorists?" he asked.
Turkish-backed Syrian rebels control a strip of territory between 13km and 30km deep that runs along the border from Afrin to the western bank of the River Euphrates.
It was captured in two cross-border operations that Turkey has mounted since 2016 as part of its efforts to counter the YPG.
What do Syria's Kurds say?
The co-chair of the largest Democratic Union Party (PYD) - whose armed wing is the YPG - said last week that Kurdish fighters were "getting ready confront Turkish threats through resistance".
30% of Syria is controlled by the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces alliance
"Until now there has been no [Turkish] military intervention but if it happens I believe we will be ready to face it, in addition to political and diplomatic work with all sides," Shahoz Hasan told the Associated Press.
The PYD and its allies have also been holding talks with the Syrian government and Russia in the hope of agreeing a deal for them to protect Kurdish-held areas.
--------
From the Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...hdrawal-troops-kurds-a8729126.html#r3z-addoor
Turkey says it will build 30km ‘safe zone’ inside Syria after reaching agreement with Trump
After threatening to devastate Turkey’s economy, the two leaders again appear on good terms
Turkish-backed Syrian opposition fighters near the village of Hamran, northwest of the Syrian town of Manbij, on Tuesday ( AFP/Getty )
Turkey’s president announced his country had won US approval to establish a 30-kilometre “safe zone” in Syria along its border to keep groups it regards as terrorists away from its frontier, a plan that could put Ankara into armed conflict with America’s Kurdish partners.
“A safe zone that will be created in Syria by us alongside the Turkish border,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech before parliament, saying he had won American co-operation for the deal during a 14 January phone call with US president Donald Trump.
Mr Trump in a tweet on Sunday threatened to “devastate Turkey economically” if it struck Kurdish militias that had fought alongside US forces in the four-year battle against Isis in Syria, but also called vaguely for a 20-mile safe zone.
The cities of Qamishli and Kobani and several other key population centres controlled by Syrian Kurdish forces lie within 20 miles of the Turkish border, and it remains unclear how the US or Turkey would convince them to vacate territories they won from Isis and the Damascus regime of Bashar al-Assad and want as part of their autonomous Kurdish homeland in Syria.
The US president’s tweets prompted angry responses from senior Turkish officials. But Mr Trump and Mr Erdogan were apparently friendly during a phone call the following day.
“Some messages given from Mr Trump’s social media account have upset me and my friends,” Mr Erdogan said on Tuesday.
“We immediately acted and we discussed those issues with him on the phone again last night. It was a quite positive conversation.”
The two leaders “exchanged views on the creation of a terror-free safe zone in northern Syria on the basis of Syria’s territorial integrity”, said a Turkish readout of the conversation provided to international journalists.
Following a 14 December phone call with Mr Erdogan, Mr Trump stunned Washington, the world and close US allies, including the UK and France, by declaring a withdrawal of 2,200 or so American troops and hundreds of private contractors from northeastern Syria.
But his aides, including the hawkish national security adviser John Bolton, have been trying to add conditions to the US withdrawal, including safety for the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, a Syrian Kurdish armed force loyal to Abdullah Ocalan, founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, that Ankara, Washington and the EU consider a terrorist group.
According to the Turkish readout of Monday’s phone conversation, Mr Trump and Mr Erdogan agreed “to deny opportunities to all elements that seek to stop the withdrawal decision from being implemented”.
Turkish officials were uncharacteristically understated in response to Mr Trump’s bellicose threat against their economy, perhaps growing immune to the US president’s Twitter eruptions.
“The phone diplomacy between Erdogan and Trump seems to have softened the air,” journalist Murat Takan wrote on Twitter. “Trump is like a bull in a china shop. Because Erdogan is aware of this, he immediately activated phone diplomacy.”
Mr Trump had numerous business dealings with key Turkish figures before he became president. After the threat to “devastate” Turkey’s economy, Mr Erdogan said Mr Trump agreed to triple trade between the two countries from $22.4bn (£17.5bn) to $75bn (£59bn), the official Anatolia news agency reported.
This is from the BBC today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-46877308
Syria war: Turkey ready to create 'safe zone' for Kurds - Erdogan
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he responded positively to Donald Trump's call for a "safe zone" along its border with Kurdish-held Syria.
The leaders spoke by telephone after Mr Trump threatened to "devastate Turkey economically" if it attacked a Kurdish militia when allied US troops withdrew.
Turkey regards the People's Protection Units (YPG) as a terrorist group.
On Tuesday, Mr Erdogan told Turkish MPs he had agreed that a 32km (20-mile) deep safe zone "will be created by us".
There was no immediate response from US officials or the Kurdish authorities who control more than 400km of the Turkish-Syrian border.
However, the US president tweeted on Monday night that he had spoken to Mr Erdogan to "advise where we stand" on the safe zone and efforts to eliminate the remnants of the Islamic State group in eastern Syria with the help of fighters from the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces alliance.
"Also spoke about economic development between the US & Turkey - great potential to substantially expand!" he added.
Why does the US want a safe zone?
Last month, the president announced that the US would begin pulling out its 2,000 troops from Syria because IS had been "defeated".
The US military has relied on the YPG fighters to battle IS militants on the ground in Syria
The move shocked allies and drew criticism from US lawmakers. Defence Secretary James Mattis and several other senior officials subsequently resigned.
Opponents of the withdrawal expressed fears that the Turkish military and allied Syrian Arab rebels would launch an offensive to drive YPG fighters away from the border, as they did in the predominantly Kurdish western Afrin region a year ago.
The Turkish government considers the YPG an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey for three decades. However, it denies any direct organisational links to the group.
On Sunday, Mr Trump tweeted: "Will devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds. Create 20 mile safe zone ... Likewise, do not want the Kurds to provoke Turkey."
He did not give any further details, but his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that the president's aim was to "make sure that the folks who fought with us to take down the [IS] caliphate... have security, and also that terrorists acting out of Syria aren't able to attack Turkey".
What is Turkey proposing to do?
On Tuesday, President Erdogan told his Justice and Development (AK) Party he had been "saddened by some messages from Mr Trump's social media account".
"We immediately acted and we discussed those issues with him on the phone again last night. It was a positive conversation."
Turkey's military has mounted two cross-border operations to counter the YPG
Mr Erdogan said he had reaffirmed Turkey's willingness to create a safe zone and that he believed he had "reached an historic understanding with Mr Trump".
He later told reporters that if the US and other allies could provide logistical support, Turkey "would solve [the issue of] such a safe zone while protecting the security of those people there".
He also dismissed the idea that the YPG could be involved in such a project. "They are terrorists. Can we leave the safe zone to terrorists?" he asked.
Turkish-backed Syrian rebels control a strip of territory between 13km and 30km deep that runs along the border from Afrin to the western bank of the River Euphrates.
It was captured in two cross-border operations that Turkey has mounted since 2016 as part of its efforts to counter the YPG.
What do Syria's Kurds say?
The co-chair of the largest Democratic Union Party (PYD) - whose armed wing is the YPG - said last week that Kurdish fighters were "getting ready confront Turkish threats through resistance".
30% of Syria is controlled by the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces alliance
"Until now there has been no [Turkish] military intervention but if it happens I believe we will be ready to face it, in addition to political and diplomatic work with all sides," Shahoz Hasan told the Associated Press.
The PYD and its allies have also been holding talks with the Syrian government and Russia in the hope of agreeing a deal for them to protect Kurdish-held areas.
--------
From the Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...hdrawal-troops-kurds-a8729126.html#r3z-addoor
Turkey says it will build 30km ‘safe zone’ inside Syria after reaching agreement with Trump
After threatening to devastate Turkey’s economy, the two leaders again appear on good terms
Turkey’s president announced his country had won US approval to establish a 30-kilometre “safe zone” in Syria along its border to keep groups it regards as terrorists away from its frontier, a plan that could put Ankara into armed conflict with America’s Kurdish partners.
“A safe zone that will be created in Syria by us alongside the Turkish border,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech before parliament, saying he had won American co-operation for the deal during a 14 January phone call with US president Donald Trump.
Mr Trump in a tweet on Sunday threatened to “devastate Turkey economically” if it struck Kurdish militias that had fought alongside US forces in the four-year battle against Isis in Syria, but also called vaguely for a 20-mile safe zone.
The cities of Qamishli and Kobani and several other key population centres controlled by Syrian Kurdish forces lie within 20 miles of the Turkish border, and it remains unclear how the US or Turkey would convince them to vacate territories they won from Isis and the Damascus regime of Bashar al-Assad and want as part of their autonomous Kurdish homeland in Syria.
The US president’s tweets prompted angry responses from senior Turkish officials. But Mr Trump and Mr Erdogan were apparently friendly during a phone call the following day.
“Some messages given from Mr Trump’s social media account have upset me and my friends,” Mr Erdogan said on Tuesday.
“We immediately acted and we discussed those issues with him on the phone again last night. It was a quite positive conversation.”
The two leaders “exchanged views on the creation of a terror-free safe zone in northern Syria on the basis of Syria’s territorial integrity”, said a Turkish readout of the conversation provided to international journalists.
Following a 14 December phone call with Mr Erdogan, Mr Trump stunned Washington, the world and close US allies, including the UK and France, by declaring a withdrawal of 2,200 or so American troops and hundreds of private contractors from northeastern Syria.
But his aides, including the hawkish national security adviser John Bolton, have been trying to add conditions to the US withdrawal, including safety for the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, a Syrian Kurdish armed force loyal to Abdullah Ocalan, founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, that Ankara, Washington and the EU consider a terrorist group.
According to the Turkish readout of Monday’s phone conversation, Mr Trump and Mr Erdogan agreed “to deny opportunities to all elements that seek to stop the withdrawal decision from being implemented”.
Turkish officials were uncharacteristically understated in response to Mr Trump’s bellicose threat against their economy, perhaps growing immune to the US president’s Twitter eruptions.
“The phone diplomacy between Erdogan and Trump seems to have softened the air,” journalist Murat Takan wrote on Twitter. “Trump is like a bull in a china shop. Because Erdogan is aware of this, he immediately activated phone diplomacy.”
Mr Trump had numerous business dealings with key Turkish figures before he became president. After the threat to “devastate” Turkey’s economy, Mr Erdogan said Mr Trump agreed to triple trade between the two countries from $22.4bn (£17.5bn) to $75bn (£59bn), the official Anatolia news agency reported.
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