Erdogan responds to US, UN pressure

US Vice President Joe Biden said on Oct. 3 that "our biggest problem is our allies" in dealing with foreign fighters in Syria. He said that Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates “were so determined to take down [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-[Shiite] war. … They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad — except that the people who were being supplied were [Jabhat] al-Nusra and al-Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world."

Biden’s remarks, which provoked a sharp reaction from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came in the context of Biden describing the recent changes in the approach of US regional allies in dealing with terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq.

After allowing what Kadri Gursel called a “two-way jihadist highway” to develop between Turkey and Syria the past three years, Erdogan has begun a slow turnaround in his country’s approach to foreign fighters. This comes in response to increased pressure and scrutiny from the United States, including the US Congress, and the international community, as this column reported last month.