US, Turkey return from brink, aim to normalize ties US

The United States and Turkey pulled back from the brink of a potentially disastrous crisis today, agreeing to normalize badly strained relations over Syria and other issues that had threatened the NATO allies longstanding ties.
However, details of the rapprochement were vague as the two sides agreed in principle only to form working groups that will begin meeting within the month to examine points of contention and try to resolve them.
After talks in Ankara, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced the creation of new "mechanisms" to improve the relationship, starting with the question of American support for Kurdish rebels in northern Syria.

Those talks followed a lengthy meeting of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Cavusoglu and Tillerson late Thursday at which a broad range of disagreements were covered.
In addition to Syria, those included Ankaras complaints against a US-based Turkish cleric whom Erdogan accuses of fomenting a failed 2016 coup, US concerns about the state of Turkeys democracy and opposition to Turkeys planned purchase of a Russian air defense system.
"We brought forward proposals on how we can address all of the critical issues that are standing between our countries," Tillerson said during a joint news conference with Cavusoglu. He said joint working groups would take up specific issues including troop deployments to address Turkish border security concerns before the middle of March.

Turkey is riled over Washingtons support to the YPG, the top US ally in the fight against the Islamic State group. Turkey considers it a "terrorist" group linked to Kurdish rebels fighting inside Turkey.