President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan received U.S. Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson at the Presidential Complex on Thursday. The meeting comes in a period while the relations between Ankara and Washington reached to an unprecedented low level in decades. The reason for deterioting relations is the U.S.’s support to the terrorist PKK-affiliated People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria.
Presidential sources declared that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “strongly and clearly” conveyed his concerns over the U.S. administration’s support for the YPG terrorists. It was also learned that Erdoğan explained Turkey’s priorities and expectations on Syria, Iraq, regional developments during the meeting with Tillerson.
Both the U.S. State Dept. Spokesperson and Turkish presidential sources said that the meeting was “positive” and “productive.”
Tillerson, had claimed earlier in Beirut before heading for Ankara, that his country had “never given heavy arms” to the YPG militia and therefore there was “nothing to take back.” This expression of Tillerson, however, was contradicting Pentagon’s earlier statements confirming the existence of heavy weapons in the YPG’s hands given by the U.S.
Tillerson’s visit plays an important role in as relations between two countries have been strained particularly on issues related to Syria. Tillerson has arranged his visit to Turkey as the fouth stop of his five-nation trip after Egypt, Kuwait, and Jordan.
