YPG and FETO issues continue to mar Turkey-US ties
Donald Trump's emergence as US president raised hopes in Turkey that relations would improve. But a year later, several issues continue to hurt relations between the NATO allies.
US President Donald Trump meets with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey during the UN General Assembly in New York, US on September 21, 2017.
When Donald Trump became president of the United States, there were high hopes in Turkey that relations would improve.
"We support Turkey in the fight against terror and terror groups like ISIS (Daesh) and the PKK and ensure they have no safe quarter," Trump said a year ago.
Issues such as the extradition of US-based Fetullah Gulen and the YPG terror group in Syria had caused divisions between the two sides under Barack Obama's presidency.
But the US still hasn't handed over Gulen, a businessman and cleric in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.
Turkey says that Gulen heads Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) which is behind the defeated coup in 2016 that caused more than 250 lives.
Speaking last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, "One of the most problematic topics with the US is the extradition process of FETO and the US arming of the YPG in Syria. These are the major issues poisoning our relations. If the US doesn't correct its mistakes, relations may get worse."
Be it the US unilateral decision on Jerusalem or the conviction of a Turkish banker in the US, both sides have maintained diverging positions.
TRT World's Alican Ayanlar has more on Turkey-US relations during a year of Trump's presidency.
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