PYD Leader Muslim To Meet US Officials In Washington

Salih Muslim, the head of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) -- the main Kurdish group in Syria -- will soon meet with US officials in Washington, D.C., Today's Zaman has learned.

Muslim's high-level meetings in the US capital will disturb Ankara because Turkey considers the PYD to be an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

That Muslim will meet with top US officials is another visible sign of the deepening fault lines between Turkey and the US. The US airdropped weapons, ammunition and other aid in late October to support the PYD, which had been putting up a strong fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Syrian town of Kobani. Turkey expressed its displeasure about the airdropped assistance; the PYD maintains links with the PKK, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the European Union.

The US has been pushing Turkey to contribute more to the coalition against the terrorist threat of ISIL. With the Kurdish PYD forces in Kobani proving themselves to be one of the groups showing the strongest resistance against the ISIL advance over the past few months, the US has pushed Turkey to help armed Kurdish groups in Syria -- but to no avail.

The Turkish military lined up tanks at its border overlooking Kobani and deployed about 10,000 troops to the area but refrained from getting involved. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at the time that he didn't understand why Kobani is important to the US. US officials then issued public statements clarifying that under US law, the PKK is a terrorist organization but not the PYD and that given the urgency of the situation, the US was justified in providing support to the PYD.

Now, the PYD leader will be visiting Washington and is expected to meet with US President Barack Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken. Obama recently nominated Blinken to the position of deputy secretary of state at the US State Department; Blinken needs to be confirmed by the Senate before assuming the position. Such a high-level reception for the PYD leader will almost certainly result in a critical reaction from Turkey.

Despite the public comments by US and Turkish authorities denying there are substantial differences on the Syria policies of the two countries, the two allies have not been able to overcome differences and reach an agreement on the issues such as allowing the US-led coalition forces increased access to İncirlik Air Base in Adana -- which is in close proximity to ISIL targets in both Syria and Iraq -- or making the removal of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a priority, as desired by Turkey.

US Vice President Joe Biden was not able to overcome the differences while in Turkey last week, and his visit only helped to underscore the differences between the two countries. A senior US administration official who was travelling with the journalists covering Biden's visit to Turkey said -- while discussing the US aid to the PYD -- that US officials had told their Turkish counterparts: “If you're not crazy about the PYD -- and we get that -- let's figure out a way to allow reinforcements and resupply from Iraqi-Kurdish peshmerga, transiting through Turkey, to resupply those fighting against ISIL.”

After the US started airdropping aid to the PYD, in a major policy shift, Turkey announced that it was going to assist Kurdish peshmerga forces in crossing into Kobani to fight against ISIL. Erdoğan claimed at the time that it was his idea to help peshmerga transit into Kobani.

On Oct. 20, the Financial Times ran a story about these developments, saying that Turkey had yielded to US pressure and opened its territory for Kurdish peshmerga to relieve the besieged Syrian town of Kobani “in a striking U-turn.” The US official added: “It's a win-win. Because it continues to support the fighters fighting ISIL and because it balances out some of the concerns you're worried about on the PYD side of the equation. That was the deal.”

Since then, Turkey has helped several hundred peshmerga fighters cross into Syria to help fight against ISIL. In addition, Turkey and the US are negotiating over the terms for Turkey to provide military training to moderate Syrian opposition groups.

Deniz Arslan (Cihan/Today's Zaman)