Turkish retired Major General Ahmet Yavuz called it a certain geopolitical project, aimed at creating an autonomous Kurdish region in the north of Syria.
"Turkey often calls itsleft a strategic partner of the US, but we are no strategic partners. The US has been long using us in its confrontation with the Soviet Union. Afterwards, it did not need it that much," he said.
He further noted that now the US is trying to set up two military bases on the territories of Iraq and Syria and wondered why Turkey's so-called strategic partner would do it in Syria. This is also part of a large project, he suggested.
Turkey's mistake was to act jointly with the US in its pursuit to topple Syria's legitimate government. Now, Ahmet Yavuz, Ankara has "come to its senses."
He also commented on Turkey's relations with NATO, which it is a member of. After the end of the Cold War, he said, the alliance has turned into an organization which not only does not ensure any security of Turkey but which is posing a certain threat to Turkey. And Ankara should be well aware of it.
In a seperate comment on the US' arms supplies to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units or YPG, which Turkey sees as an extension of Kurdistan’s Workers Party (PKK) outlawed in Turkey, Turkish military analyst Koray Gurbuz, an expert at the Ankara-based Bilkent University, noted that both the US and Turkey are NATO member states legally bound by allied ties.
He also said that Turkey and the US have signed a number of bilateral agreements on strengthening cooperation in the fight against terrorism. However in practice all of these bilateral and multipartite NATO agreements are being blatantly violated.
The Americans are rendering a military-political and economic support to the YPG, which are part of PKK which the US also regards as terrorist organization, thus ignoring the Turks.
The arms supplied to the Syrian Kurds, he said, will be used not only in Syria but i n Turkey, and the US won't have any way to prevent it.
"The Syrian plans of the US are dangerous and unacceptable for the security of Turkey. In such conditions Ankara should reconsider its allied ties with the US and toughly respond to Washington's actions," he told continued.
Koray Gurbuz added that Iraq now serves as a very good example of what the US heavy arms supplies might lead to. And Turkey might well follow Syria, he said.
It was the highest level talks between the two nations since Washington on Tuesday announced plans to back the YPG militia in an assault on Raqqa.
"The Pentagon Chief voiced Washington's readiness to defend Ankara and claimed that the heavy armament which is going to be supplied to the Syrian Kurds won't be used against Turkey and that the Turkish borders will be secured. But how would it be done? As it shows, any weaponry supplied by the US and the EU to various groups operating in the region sooner or later is being used against Turkey and its citizens. It is almost impossible to control these weapons," he said.
The military analyst said that Daesh militants keep blowingup the explosives, made in the US and Europe, in Turkish territories and are using the US weapons against Turkish servicemen. Despite being the least available, there are plenty of arms on sale in the region. Instead of sending more arms to the area, the US should have used its efforts to stop and limit the shipments of arms, he said.
Thus, he said, the assurances of James Mattis bear no trust, there are no guarantees that tomorrow the arms possessed by the Syrian Kurds won't be used against the Turkish armed forces. There could be no guarantees against it, he concluded.
