ISTANBUL (REUTERS) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused the United States and Russia on Thursday (Nov 7) of failing to fulfill their part of a deal for Kurdish militia to leave a Syrian region bordering Turkey, and said he would raise this with President Donald Trump next week.
Turkey launched an offensive across its border with Syrian rebels a month ago, seeking to push out Kurdish YPG fighters it sees as a threat to its security.
After seizing control of a 120km swathe of territory, Ankara reached a deal with the United States to keep the Kurdish militia out of that area.
Erdogan is set to discuss implementation in talks with Trump in Washington on Nov 13.
Turkish officials confirmed on Wednesday that the visit would go ahead, after a phone call between the leaders.
"While we hold these talks, those who promised us that the YPG... would withdraw from here within 120 hours have not achieved this," Erdogan said ahead of a visit to Hungary, referring to a deadline set in last month's agreement.
Turkish officials said earlier this week that Erdogan might call off the US visit in protest at votes in the US House of Representatives to recognise mass killings of Armenians a century ago as genocide and to seek sanctions on Turkey.
After the deal with Washington, Ankara also reached an agreement with Moscow under which the YPG was to withdraw to a depth of 30km along the entirety of the northeastern Syrian border with Turkey.
But Erdogan said this deal had also not been fulfilled, with YPG fighters still in the border strip, adding that he would hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin soon after his meeting with Trump.
"Neither the United States, within the 120 hours, nor Russia within the 150 hours, were able to get the terrorists to leave the region," Erdogan told a news conference in Budapest.
Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist group because of its ties to Kurdish militants fighting an insurgency in south-east Turkey since 1984. It has been infuriated with US support for the YPG, a main US ally in the fight against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
A senior US State Department official said late on Wednesday there has been fighting in the area south-east of the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain. It "is somewhat in dispute"whether the area is covered by the US or Russian deals, the official said.
"The YPG and all armed forces have certainly withdrawn from the vast majority of our area," the official said.
"Erdogan is never all that specific in his broadside attacks on us or anybody else."
CLASHES IN SYRIA
On Thursday, Erdogan said clashes in Syria were continuing, with 11 fighters from the Turkey-backed rebel Syrian National Army (SNA) killed on Thursday. He said "many more" YPG fighters were killed in the clashes.
Under the two bilateral deals, Ankara stopped its offensive in return for the withdrawal of the YPG fighters. Turkish and Russian soldiers have so far held two joint patrols near the border to monitor implementation of their agreement.
Ankara began its offensive after Trump announced an abrupt withdrawal of 1,000 US troops from northern Syria in early October. The US president has since said that some troops will continue to operate there.
Late on Wednesday, Mazloum Kobani, the commander of the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said the group was resuming work with the US-led coalition against Islamic State in Syria after a serious of meetings with coalition leaders. Turkey has been outraged by some US lawmakers inviting Kobani, who it views as a terrorist, to Washington for talks on Syria.
Turkish sources say Trump and Erdogan have a strong bond despite anger in Congress over Turkey's Syria offensive and its purchase of Russian air defences, and despite what Ankara sees as the US president's own erratic pronouncements.
Those personal ties could prove crucial, given Nato member Turkey's purchase of Moscow's S-400 missile defence system, which under US law should trigger sanctions. Turkey has already been suspended from the F-35 fighter jet programme in which it was both joint producer and customer.
Erdogan said on Thursday he would discuss the issue of the S-400s and F-35s with Trump during his visit. He said he would also discuss the potential purchase of US Patriot systems if a suitable offer was made.
