Relations between the United States and Turkey are improving after a period of lost trust between the two nations, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the staff at the diplomatic mission in İstanbul on Monday.
"I think our relationship here in Turkey, which has been under some stress for some time, I hope we are beginning to put it on the mend. I think we are beginning to rebuild some of that trust that we lost in one another. They lost our trust, to a certain extent; we lost theirs," Tillerson said.
His comments came a day after he met Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan for talks on regional security issues, including U.S. backing for Kurdish Syrian YPG militants. Turkey views the YPG as a branch of the PKK, the outlawed Kurdish group that has been waging an insurgency in southeastern Turkey since the 1980s.
Tillerson said that since becoming Secretary of State he had met Erdoğan three times "and I think each meeting things are getting a little better in terms of the tone between us". “We're making some progress down in Syria. We're hopeful that we can replicate that with Turkey, on some areas in the north part of Syria," he added.
He noted that Turkey’s strategic location, economic potential and the security situation in the region make the country an important US ally. "(This) is why we must put the relationship on the mend... and I think we're taking the first steps in that regard," Tillerson said.
US-Turkish relations deteriorated after the failed July 2016 coup. The Trump administration has persisted in resisting Turkey’s demand that it extradite U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, one of the masterminds of failed coup attempt.
Ankara was infuriated last month when Washington, which has designated the PKK a terrorist group, announced that it would continue the Obama administration’s policy of arming the YPG, although U.S. officials insist that the United States will retrieve the weapons once Islamic State is defeated.
A decision by U.S. prosecutors last month to charge a dozen Turkish security and police officers after an attack on protesters during Erdoğan's visit to Washington also angered Ankara.
