Turkey wants a stable, prosperous and a terror-free Middle East region, a senior advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, underlining that the People's Protection Units (YPG) is Turkey's "red line."
In a televised interview with CNN International late Friday, Gülnur Aybet, a professor of international relations, flagged a number of issues, which strained the U.S. and Turkey relations recently.
"Turkey would like to see a stable Middle East where the conflicts are ended," Aybet said, noting that U.S. arming the YPG, the armed wing of PKK terrorist group's Syrian offshoot Democratic Union Party (PYD), causes the conflict to remain unsolved since the group is being armed.
Aybet's comments came after U.S. President Donald Trump told Friday his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that Washington will not provide the YPG with weapons anymore, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
"Mr. Trump [...] clearly stated that weapons will not be given to YPG anymore and said that essentially this nonsense should have been ended before," Çavuşoğlu told reporters in a joint news conference with Congolese Deputy Prime Minister, and Foreign and Regional Integration Minister Leonard She Okitundu in capital Ankara.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan welcomed Trump's clear indication, saying on Twitter, "I had a fruitful phone conversation with the U.S. President Donald Trump today."
Aybet noted that it was Trump who called Erdoğan, saying that the phone call followed Turkey's determination against YPG at the Syria talks between Turkey, Russia and Iran in Sochi. She said the presence of YPG elements in Syria is a vital point blocking a solution, as it is "an absolute red line" for Turkey.
The PKK terrorist network has waged war against Turkey for more than 30 years. Since the PKK launched its terror campaign in Turkey in 1984, tens of thousands of people have been killed.
Noting that the PKK is also designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. and the European Union, she said that the YPG displaying the PKK's flag and posters of its jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan after Raqqa's capture from Daesh was a "clear indication as to how much they are linked together and they are one and the same."
Aybet said that Trump's remarks on ending arms supplies to YPG was a concrete answer for Turkey noting Turkey should carefully follow up the process of YPG's return of these weapons.
Aybet was asked whether Turkey is looking more to the East rather than to the West when it comes to its Middle East policy and foreign affairs. She responded: "World is changing, the region is changing. Turkey […] as a rising power, has to calculate these relations to take care of what it was to see as a stable environment, especially when there is a lack of leadership."
On Turkey and the European Union relations, she said European leaders should understand Turkey's situation, adding: "A country that has suffered a coup and also is facing terrorist threats from three terrorist organizations at the same time, Gülenist movement, as well as the PKK and Daesh. That is why emergency measures have to be in place."
"Instead of criticizing, Turkey's allies have to help Turkey to overcome this period where it needs to stabilize the security situation," Aybet said.
She said that Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) leader Fetullah Gülen's extradition and the visa issue have been on the table in the talks between Turkey and the U.S., and she thinks that those issues were also covered in the phone call between Trump and Erdoğan.