Lately, relations between Turkey and the United States have been exacerbated as a result of the war in Syria, the confrontation between Turkey and the Kurds of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), long engaged in a separatist struggle with Turkey, and initiative of the American government to create a security force, for the fight against international terrorism, on the Turkish-Syrian border with the participation of militias opposing the government of Damascus. These problems would risk ending up in a heated confrontation between Ankara and Washington.
According to the Turkish government, among the armed groups involved, there would also be units linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - considered a terrorist organization by the Turkish government, the United States and the European Union -: the protection of the people (JPY), the militias of the Democratic Union (Pyd) party,
Following the initiative of the American government, aimed at creating a security force on the Syrian Turkish border, Turkey has deployed its troops on the border with Syria, announcing also a possible intervention in the Syrian regions of Afrin and Manbij to prevent the formation of a "corridor" of terror used by Pkk, Pyd and Ypg.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in an attempt to calm the mood, denied that Washington is creating a "border security force", severely criticized by Turkey, during a speech given at Stanford University on Wednesday 17 January. calling the news on the Turkish-Syrian initiative "rash statements". The same added that the United States will continue to work with allies such as Turkey and take into account Ankara's concerns about the PKK. What appears to be a denial of the US initiative on the border between Turkey and Syria also came from the Pentagon on Wednesday 17 January. The US Defense spokesman, Eric Pahon, has, in fact, stated that no army will be formed with the YPG, nor a conventional border guard, later specifying that the United States will continue to train local militias to prevent a return of the Islamic state.
Both the statements of the Pentagon spokesman and the statements of Tillerson suggest, therefore, a misunderstanding between Ankara and Washington, after the threats of the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan to let the Ankara army enter Afrin to prevent training of the "corridor of terror" which threatens the security of Turkey. In a speech delivered on January 15, the Turkish president said: "the United States has announced that it has set up an army of terrorists on our borders. Our duty is to strangle this army even before it is born".
The US support for Pyd and Ypg is putting a strain on relations with Turkey, allied in NATO. The proposed military cooperation in Syria by the head of the Turkish state also seems to involve the Syrian rebel forces allied to Ankara, which make up the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and is parallel to the request, long put forward by Ankara in Washington, of suspend aid to Pyd and Ypg. According to the Turkish president, in fact, "it is not right to cooperate with a terrorist organization to fight another." However, Washington has repeatedly replied that cooperation with the Syrian Kurds is strictly limited to operations against the Islamic State and that aid is provided based on the military needs of Pyd and Ypg.
The tension remains high. Turkey seems to be worried about the possible establishment of an independent Kurdish state in northern Syria that could have serious consequences for Ankara in south-eastern Turkey, where, for some time, the PKK has led a separatist struggle.