Turkey warned the U. that the deployment of an American-backed, Kurdish-led force in northern Syria along the Turkish border could cause irreparable harm to the countries’ ties.
A planned offensive against the Kurds will be expanded beyond its initial scope, the government in Ankara added. The growing prospect of a military confrontation with U.-backed troops weakened the lira further.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he told U. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during a meeting in Canada on Tuesday that the establishment of the border force could “seriously threaten our relations and we may enter an irreversible course.”
Measures taken against the Kurds “can’t be limited to Afrin, there is Manbij and east of the Euphrates as well,” Cavusoglu added, referring to border areas controlled by Kurdish forces to the east and west of the Euphrates River.
The tough talk builds on resentment that’s been percolating in Turkey for years over Washington’s support for Syrian Kurdish fighters who were instrumental in ousting the extremist Islamic State group from large swaths of territory it had seized in Syria.
Turkey says the Kurds have designs on its territory and operate hand-in-hand with the armed PKK group that’s been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey since the 1980s. It says a U.-backed plan to turn thousands of the Syrian Kurdish fighters into a border security force poses a threat to its territorial integrity, and it has been planning an offensive to push them out of the border area, beginning with Afrin.
Turkey moved more commandos, tanks and armored cars to the Syrian border on Tuesday as artillery units shelled Kurdish positions.
Cavusoglu said he also discussed Turkish operation plans with U. Defense Secretary James Mattis.
Separately, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg late Tuesday and said his country will take all necessary measures to counter any threats to its national security. On Tuesday he said talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the operation against the Kurdish forces were also underway.
Lira traders digesting the risk of a military clash with the Washington-backed militia have sent the currency plunging more than 1 percent against the dollar so far this week, compared to gains of about 1 percent for the Mexican peso and South African rand.
The currency was trading 0.4 percent lower at 3.8106 per dollar at 09:54 a. in Istanbul on Wednesday.
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