Turkey has begun to openly signal its displeasure with US-backed peace talks between Syrian Kurdish rival groups, raising the specter of failure for the latest US attempt to fulfill what have so far proven irreconcilable goals: to pursue its partnership with the Kurds and to repair ties with its NATO ally, Ankara, which have been badly frayed because of it.
Turkish disgruntlement was palpable in a May 11 dispatch in Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency. It characterized the effort to unite disparate Syrian Kurdish factions as more of a conspiracy aimed at creating “international representation space” for the “terrorist organization in northern Syria.”