Turkey-US deal on Syria being violated, says FM Çavuşoğlu

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

Turkish foreign minister on Nov. 20 said that there are violations of the agreement done by Turkey and the U.S. over northern Syria and he communicated these to his U.S. counterpart.

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met with his U.S. counterpart Mike Pompeo in Brussels on the sidelines of NATO Foreign Ministers meeting.

In a press conference Çavuşoğlu held in Brussels, he commented about the content of his meeting with Pompeo.

Çavuşoğlu said there are violations of the agreement done by Turkey and the U.S. regarding northern Syria.

Ankara and Washington reached a deal on Oct. 17 to pause Turkey's Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria for 120 hours to allow the withdrawal of YPG/PKK terrorists from the planned safe zone.

Çavuşoğlu said he communicated to Pompeo about the violations and terror attacks that YPG/PKK is doing in northern Syria.

He said that the agreement has to be fulfilled.

On Oct. 22, Turkey also reached an agreement with Russia to allow the YPG/PKK terror group to withdraw from the safe zone.

Turkey wants to repatriate some two million Syrian refugees, which it is currently hosting, in the safe zone after clearing it of terrorists.

The U.S.-backed SDF, a group dominated by the YPG, has been controlling some 28 percent of the Syrian territories, including the most of the 911-kilometer-long Syria-Turkey border.

Turkey deems the YPG the Syrian offshoot of the illegal PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization also by the United States and the EU.

Çavuşoğlu said Turkey and the U.S. have different opinions over Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems.

"There will be a meeting over this issue in Ankara on Friday," Çavuşoğlu said.

Turkey's acquisition of the advanced Russian air-defense system prompted the Trump administration to remove Turkey from the F-35 fifth-generation joint strike fighter program in July.

The U.S. maintains that the system could be used by Russia to covertly obtain classified details on the jet and is incompatible with NATO systems.

Turkey, however, counters that the S-400 would not be integrated into NATO systems and would not pose a threat to the alliance.

Çavuşoğlu also met with his U.K. counterpart Dominic Raab, President of EU Parliament David Sassoli and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the sidelines of the meeting.

On his meeting with President of EU Parliament, Sassoli, Çavuşoğlu said that their meeting was longer than expected as they discussed various issues including Syria, migration, Cyprus and fight against terrorism.

“Terrorists including PKK members as well as FETÖ m embers are teeming in EU Parliament and we have shared our opinion on this issue with him,” he said.

Nevertheless, Çavuşoğlu later slammed Sassoli over the latter's claim about the content of their meeting.

After the meeting, Sassoli tweeted that he had raised concerns over the ongoing Turkish military operation in Syria.

Çavuşoğlu replied to the tweet saying that this issue was not raised during the meeting.

"Here is another example of insincerity and hypocrisy of the EU. The President of the European Parliament shared topics that were not said to my face. Appalled that the person who represents the European peoples distorts the content of the meeting," the Turkish top diplomat said.

FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup attempt of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people killed and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.