“Last night I spoke with U.S. President Trump on these issues. I discussed the same things with Putin two days ago. I told them: ‘We won’t take steps backward from here. We are on the side of the suffering and the oppressed,’” Erdogan said in an address at a meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Istanbul on March 23, Hurriyet daily reported.
Erdogan and Trump spoke on the phone late on March 22 about strained ties between Ankara and Washington, particularly troubled due to the U.S.’s ongoing partnership with the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria.
The Turkish military, along with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), launched “Operation Olive Branch” against the YPG in Afrin on Jan. 20, and Erdogan vowed that operations “will not end in Afrin. Next are Idlib and Manbij.”
Manbij, in northwestern Syria, is particularly important as it is still under the control of the YPG alongside U.S. troops. Turkey has long been urging the U.S. to let the YPG pull back from Manbij to the east of Euphrates amid threats that it will not hesitate to launch an attack on YPG positions even if American troops are present.
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