Turkey, US in new security cooperation on Syria

Murat Yetkin murat.yetkin@hdn.com.tr Frank Ricciardone, the U.S. Ambassador to Ankara made important remarks regarding “national security” of both countries in the farewell lunch given to him by Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) in Istanbul on June 5.

Mentioning the need of working together, Ricciardone listed the area’s need the cooperation of both countries as Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Iran in the context of nuclear program, are seeking a lasting solution for Cyprus and the normalization in Turkish-Israeli relations for “peace and stability in the eastern Mediterranean”.

Then he said the work on those fields is carried out with the means of “diplomacy, law enforcement [for example Turkey’s borders], intelligence and security.”

Then came the important sentence. The ambassador underlined that they “would not give details on intelligence” matters, but “important national security cooperation” was “going on.”

Ricciardone indeed did not give any further detail.

But all indications on the Turkish and American sides show both countries have started a new and extensive security/intelligence cooperation regarding Syria and especially the “foreign fighters” problem sourcing from the three-year-old civil war in the country.

Right after U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech at the West Point Military Academy on May 28, in which he pledged to “ramp up support” to opposition groups in Syria, the Tayyip Erdoğan government in Turkey announced on June 3 that al-Nusra was included in the “terrorist organizations” list of Turkey.

This was something the U.S. and a number of NATO governments have...