ANKARA, Turkey — The United States and Turkey agreed after marathon talks on Friday to a formal dialogue to resolve their differences over a Kurdish militia in Syria, averting a near collapse in relations, but without mending any of the deep fissures keeping them apart.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, after talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mehmet Cavusoglu, said a working group to tackle the differences will hold its first meeting by mid-March.
Tillerson’s main goal in Turkey was to calm waters roiled by two allies nearly at each other’s throats and he acknowledged how close they had come to a breakdown in relations.
“We find ourselves in a bit of crisis point in the relationship,” he said at a news conference.
“We’re not going to act alone any longer,” he added. “We’re not going to be the U.S. doing one thing and Turkey doing another. We’re going to act together from this point forward. We’re going to lock arms. We’re going to work through the issues that are causing difficulties for us and we’re going to resolve them.”
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Despite his determined words, however, both Tillerson and Cavusoglu spent much of the news conference repeating positions both have held for months — and which have led to the downward spiral in relations and threats from Turkey.
Cavusoglu expressed Turkish anger that a cleric they suspect of being behind a 2016 attempted coup is living in Pennsylvania. Tillerson said the United States would look at any evidence Turkey presents, which in the past has been judged by courts to be insufficient for the extradition Turkey wants.
The United States in turn is unhappy over Turkey’s arresting thousands of its own citizens as well as Americans and Turkish employees of the U.S. Embassy and consulates that it says were just performing their jobs.
But the sour state of bilateral relations deteriorated even more rapidly in the last month after Turkey launched an offensive against a Kurdish militia backed by the United States in northern Syria. Turkey fears the Syrian Kurds will provide arms to Turkish Kurds who have been waging an armed struggle against the government.
Both the United States and Turkey consider the Kurdish group in Turkey, known as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, to be a terrorist group. But their allies in Syria are seen by the United States to be the most effective fighters in taking on the Islamic State militants.
The long-standing difference threatened to spill into the open when Erdogan warned that U.S. troops around the Syrian town of Manbij would feel the sting of an Ottoman slap if they got in the way of Turkey’s troops there.
It was unclear whether both sides walked away with the same understandings. Cavusoglu said Turkey expects U.S. troops in Manbij to withdraw east of the Euphrates. Tillerson said U.S. forces are present to ensure the town does not fall back into the hands of militants, but he was short on specifics, saying these had to be ironed out by the working group.
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He described Manbij as a starting point to be addressed as part of a final push against the Islamic State stragglers.
“We agreed our objectives are precisely the same,” he said, citing the destruction of Islamic State stragglers and stabilizing the country to allow the return home of refugees and people uprooted within the country.
A joint statement, identical to a draft passed out by Turkish officials, seemed to have paragraphs catering to each country's interests. It mentioned their shared goals in the promotion of democracy, rule of law and individual freedoms throughout the world — all principles that have been strained under the state of emergency Turkey declared after the coup. It also said the United States “condemns the heinous coup” attempt, and expresses solidarity with Turkey's government.
The statement followed a lengthy series of meetings between Tillerson and the Turkish leaders, followed by more meetings between aides tasked with working out the details, that lasted till 2 a.m.
Tillerson continued the discussion over breakfast with his counterpart Cavusoglu.
With Tillerson coming to Erdogan’s home turf, the Turks appeared eager to demonstrate they were holding the upper hand. They insisted Tillerson speak to Erdogan alone, unaccompanied by aides or an American translator. Instead, Cavusoglu acted as the interpreter.
State Department officials said the arrangement was not unprecedented, though secretaries of state more commonly use their own interpreters and bring aides to dicey meetings to ensure the secretary’s words are properly translated and Americans can attest to what was said.
Tillerson’s visit came amid a rising tide of anti-Americanism in Turkey, which was on full display outside the historic Ankara Palais where he had breakfast with Cavosoglu.
A few dozen protesters from a marginal nationalist party gathered outside, waving Turkish flags and chanting harsh anti-U. S. slogans.
“Murderer USA,” they chanted, comparing the United States to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
“Murderer go home.
“Murderer Tillerson, get out of Turkey.”
They were dispersed by Turkish police, and Tillerson left the country to fly home a few hours later.
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