Turkish Foreign Minister: We Reached Mutual Understanding with the U.S. for Normalizing Relations

One day after the U.S. Secretary of State met with the Turkish President, this U.S. official also held talks with his Turkish counterpart, which resulted in a 'mutual understanding for normalization' of relations. According to the Associated Press on Friday, February 16, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu stated that the two senior officials engaged in discussions 'with the aim of reducing tensions.' Following this discussion with Rex Tillerson, the U.S. Secretary of State, who is on a two-day visit to Turkey, Mr. Çavuşoğlu informed reporters about the agreement between the two countries on 'mechanisms' to resolve disputes. The Associated Press noted that the topic of the discussion was the U.S. plan to assist Kurdish militants in Syria and Turkey's strong objections to this plan and U.S. military operations on Syrian soil. Last month, Turkey launched an operation against the People's Protection Units (YPG) in the Afrin region of northern Syria, a militia force in Syria that Ankara considers a terrorist organization and part of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), with which it has been in conflict for over 30 years. Relations between Ankara and Washington have experienced various tensions over the years, evident during both Barack Obama's and Donald Trump's presidencies. However, Turkey's military operations against Kurdish militants in Syria, who are supported by the U.S.-led coalition, have escalated these disputes to a new level. The tensions reached a point where just a few days ago, the Turkish Foreign Minister officially stated that his country's relations with the United States had entered a very sensitive phase and that 'it will either improve or completely deteriorate.' Nevertheless, positive messages have been conveyed from Ankara in the past two days. In this context, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department stated on Thursday, February 15, that Rex Tillerson and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had a 'constructive and candid' discussion about reaching a mutually beneficial way to improve Washington-Ankara relations. The Associated Press reported that the conversation between the Turkish and American officials lasted more than three hours.