Turkey Attempting To Fill Void Left By U.S. In Syria

Erdogan says only Turkey has power to 'shoulder the heavy burden' of Syria

In an op-ed published by The New York Times on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syria and said that Turkey “is the only country with the power and commitment” to protect the interests of Washington, the international community and the Syrian people.

In the opinion piece published ahead of Erdogan’s meeting with US national security adviser John Bolton, the Turkish president cautioned that the US pullout “must be planned carefully and performed in cooperation with the right partners,” before noting that Turkey, with NATO’s second largest standing army, was best suited to the task.

“Turkey is committed to defeating the so-called Islamic State and other terrorist groups in Syria,” Erdogan wrote, before clarifying that “militarily speaking, the so-called Islamic State has been defeated in Syria. Yet we are deeply concerned that some outside powers may use the organization’s remnants as an excuse to meddle in Syria’s internal affairs.”

Erdogan said coalition operations in Raqqa and Mosul were “carried out with little or no regard for civilian casualties,” before detailing his military and security forces’ experience with fighting IS.

The Turkish president also referred to the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units, or YPG, as a terrorist group, Turkey’s longtime position, and rejected any role for Kurdish fighters in restoring peace to the war-torn region.

Erdogan proposed in his op-ed to stand up a “stabilization force featuring fighters from all parts of Syrian society” to safeguard northeast Syria once American troops leave, though he said an “intensive vetting process” will exclude fighters with “links to terrorist organizations,” which in his government’s view includes the YPG

“Turkey is volunteering to shoulder this heavy burden at a critical time in history. We are counting on the international community to stand with us,” Erdogan concludes.

Bolton did not immediately respond to the op-ed, but such an offer would appear unlikely to be acceptable to the US. Bolton had said the protection of US allies in Syria, including the YPG, was among “the objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal” of US forces.

One day after White House national security adviser John Bolton announced the US pullout would not be as immediate as Trump had initially declared, US allies on Monday sought clarification from American diplomats. The Kurds, who have fought alongside US forces against the Islamic State group and fear an assault by Turkey if the US withdraws, were still asking publicly for an explanation from Washington.

Bolton said the US would first seek assurances from Turkey that it would not harm the Kurds — for the first time adding a “condition” to the withdrawal. He arrived Monday in Turkey to seek those guarantees from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but there was little reason for optimism.