ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey on Monday summoned U.S. ambassador Jeff Flake to convey its discomfort about the top U.S. general’s visit to northeast Syria over the weekend, a foreign ministry source said.
Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the unannounced visit on March 4 to review a nearly eight-year-old U.S. mission to an area controlled by the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The SDF, the primary ally of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, played a key role in defeating Islamic State jihadists across Syria, but U.S. support for the group has been a source of tension with Turkey for years.
Turkey sees the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the spearhead of the SDF, as the Syrian wing of the outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and considers both as terrorist organisations.
The United States and the European Union have also designated the PKK as a terrorist group, but not the YPG.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever and Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk)
