DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — “What is the United States doing in Syria?” This is the question Turks have been asking since American soldiers showed up in Syria's civil war. This still-unanswered question has caused unprecedented deterioration in the US-Turkey connection. Tension in the already-strained relations reached a peak when the United States announced Jan. 14 that it was setting up a 30,000-strong border army in northern Syria — just as Turkey was about to launch its offensive on Syria's Afrin province.

The United States subsequently tried to soften its announcement, but that didn't calm the reactions. Naturally, the strongest reaction came from Turkey, which called the proposed force a new “army of terror.”

What is this "new army"?

According to wide-ranging research by Al-Monitor, this army exists — and it doesn’t. It exists because the United States — by arming the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), its ally against the Islamic State (IS) — had already created an armed force on the ground. But it doesn’t exist because, as notable locals insist, this is not a new army.