Turkey, US to form working group over PKK, FETÖ, S-400s: FM

ANKARA

Turkey and the United States will form a working group to tackle issues such as the Russian-made S-400 air defense systems and the U.S. support to the YPG and FETÖ, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said, noting that the idea of a joint group was floated by the Biden administration.

Speaking in the parliament’s Planning and Budget Commission, Çavuşoğlu on Nov. 4 said: “Contacts between Turkey and the United States are ongoing. The meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Joe Biden happened in a constructive atmosphere.”

“The U.S.’ cooperation with the PKK/YPG and attitude toward S-400s and FETÖ’s presence in the U.S. do not consort with the spirit of alliance,” the minister noted. “We will form a working group discussing all these issues.”

Saying that “such an idea was offered by Ankara before,” the minister highlighted that the “latest offer was made by the Biden administration.”

“As the second military force of NATO, we continue to the give our support to NATO within our national interests,” the minister said, referring to the country’s latest foreign policy movements.

“Our ties with Russia continue to grow. We have some differences of opinion, of course. The issue of Ukraine is one of them. But, we are in contact with many regions from Syria and Montenegro,” he added.

The minister also informed members of the commission about the latest developments in Afghanistan.

“We evacuated more than 1,500 people, mostly our citizens, from Afghanistan after the Taliban’s takeover. Like many countries, we continue to supply humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. We sent some 33 tons of food to the country,” he said.

“Turkey is the only country that did not close its embassy in Kabul during this time,” he added.

He highlighted that “Afghanistan is not a country that Turkey can leave out in the cold.”

About Syria, the minister underlined that with the steps taken, Turkey has prevented a terror corridor from emerging.

“With our presence in Idlib [province], we guard the civilians. Our basic target is a political solution,” he said.

Çavuşoğlu also expressed that the political process in Libya was started with a balance that Turkey has shown. “The era of dialogue in the country started. We continue our ties with all fractions of the Libyan public.”