The United States and Turkey agreed on Wednesday to create a safe zone in northeastern Syria that would allow Turkey to protect its borders from Syrian-Kurdish forces that it regards as a terrorist threat and provide Syrian refugees in Turkey a safe space to return home, The New York Times informs.
Defense officials from both countries issued separate but similar statements after three days of talks in Ankara, the Turkish capital. The statements gave no details on the size of the zone or how it will be policed, which may still be undecided, but the agreement was presented by Turkey as a meeting of its demands.
Turkey’s defense minister, Hulusi Akar, told Turkish media outlets on Wednesday morning that the discussions were “fairly positive.” “We gladly observed our interlocutors coming closer to our views,” the NTV television channel quoted him as saying.
The agreement announced on Wednesday appeared to be aimed only at ensuring that Turkish and American forces, who are NATO allies, do not come into conflict.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had threatened a military incursion into northeastern Syria to secure the border region from Syrian-Kurdish forces. Turkey regards those forces as a threat because of their links to the P.K.K., which is waging an insurgency in Turkey. Turkey and the United States both have labeled the P.K.K. a terrorist organization.
Erdogan had also proposed a safe zone under Turkish control to allow many of the Syrian refugees in Turkey an area within Syria that would be free of Syrian government control.
The United States, which has military forces in the area and cooperates with the Syrian-Kurdish forces, or S.D.F., in operations combating ISIS, has warned Turkey against taking any unilateral action in the region.
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