ISTANBUL — Turkey and the United States appear to have sidestepped a confrontation over northeast Syria by agreeing to jointly establish a buffer zone after protracted negotiations had inflamed tensions, prompting Ankara to threaten to invade an area where US troops are present.
Details on the agreement, including the main sticking points of the zone’s size and which military force will command it, were scant in statements from the Turkish Defense Ministry and US Embassy in Ankara released late on Wednesday.
Turkey wants a “safe zone” to secure territory south of its border that is now largely controlled by a Kurdish militia that captured the land from the Islamic State, backed by American firepower. Ankara considers the militia, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a national security threat because of its ties to Kurdish insurgents who have waged a three-decade war for autonomy inside Turkey.
The agreement, which followed months of warnings by Turkey that it would unilaterally expel the YPG, appeared to forestall an imminent invasion by the Turkish military amid a large-scale troop deployment at its border. Turkey is outraged that the Pentagon has seemingly sought to protect the YPG, which it lists as a terrorist group, after President Donald Trump said in December he would withdraw American soldiers from Syria.
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