The United States continues its quest to promote the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Unity Party (PYD) and its military wing the People's Protection Forces (YPG) as its main fighting force in Syria against the Daish militants.
It turns a complete blind eye to the fact that the PYD is a PKK creation, a Kurdish militant group that is waging a terrorist war in Turkey and is on the terrorist list in the U.S. and in Europe. It also turns a blind eye to the fact that the PYD hands over some of the arms and ammunition that the U.S. provides it to fight Daish.
Turkey on the other hand has shown the U.S. that it has the military potential to enter Syria, take on Daish fighters and sweep them away from its border, driving them to the south of the Turkish border in a matter of two weeks with the help of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the established forces of the opposition to the Assad regime.
Turkey has told the U.S. over and over again that it does not want YPG personnel anywhere west of the Euphrates River in northern Syria. This means the PYD forces that entered the town of Manbij as part of the Syrian forces have to withdraw from the town and go back to the east of the Euphrates River. Apparently there are nearly 1,000 YPG militants in the town at the moment.
Meanwhile the U.S. seems unhappy with the Turkish Armed Forces' (TSK) forceful drive south of the border to take the strategically important city of al-Bab and thus has started to create alibis to stall Turkey. The U.S. has put a carrot in front of Turkey saying it wants to join forces with our forces to retake the city of Raqqa, which is Daish's capital in Syria. The U.S., however, feels more troops are needed to take Raqqa and says it needs the help of the PYD to do the job. Turkey refuses to take part in any military action where PYD militants exist.
Turkey's strategy in northern Syria is to create a safe zone for the Syrian people that extends 91 kilometers across the Turkish border that is 45 kilometers deep. Turkey wants to house the people fleeing Assad's violence. Turkey's intentions are purely humanitarian and Ankara has no wish to land grab or settle on Syrian territory. Turkey already houses 3 million Syrians who have fled Assad and wants to house any new floods of migrants inside Syrian territory.
The PYD strategy on the other hand is not to fight Daish and liberate Syria. Their strategy is to gain as much territory as possible and establish a Kurdish state at our borders and thus divide Syria. The U.S. unfortunately knowingly or unknowingly are serving this aim.
Turkey has performed well in northern Syria until now with the FSA. Yet the drive to create the safe haven in northern Syria has entered a critical phase when we need more troops to strengthen the drive. Unfortunately the FSA does not have the human resources to provide this. It means Turkey has to send in more troops to bolster the drive.
The U.S. on the other hand wants to divert Turkey's attention to Raqqa and thus use any new forces not to liberate al-Bab but to concentrate on Raqqa. The U.S. is trying to tell Ankara that if it pushes too much into the southern areas of its border it will end up being a neighbor to the Russian military presence and Assad's forces.
Here of course the key is Russia. Thus Russian President Vladimir Putin's upcoming visit to Turkey on Oct. 11 has gained added significance.
