ISTANBUL, Turkey – The leader of Syria's largest Kurdish group, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), whose fighters are battling an advance by Islamic State militants in the north of the country, has held talks with officials in the Turkish capital, local media reported.
Friday's visit by Salih Muslim was the first to Turkey in more than a year and could suggest a softening of Ankara's stance as it comes under increasing pressure to intervene militarily against jihadist militants who have laid siege to the Syrian town of Kobane near the Turkish frontier.
Turkish media reported the PYD leader had not met directly with the Turkish government but had held talks with officials from the country's intelligence agency.
Since Muslim's last visit to Turkey in July 2013, tensions between Ankara and the PYD, which has close links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey, have flared.
Turkey views the PYD as an extension of the PKK, which for three decades has fought the Turkish state for more autonomy, and says it is allied with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who Ankara wants to see overthrown. It is also wary of territorial gains made by Kurdish groups in northern Syria, fearing this could lead to eventual self-rule, emboldening Turkey's Kurds.
The PYD has accused Turkey of aiding Islamist militants inside Syria, a charge Ankara denies, and of obstructing efforts by Kurdish militias to defend towns along the Turkish border.
In an interview with Reuters last week, Muslim said he had called on Western states to provide weapons to his embattled fighters but that help had not arrived because, “Turkey and other countries are preventing this because they don't want the Kurds to be able to defend themselves”.
But the advance by Islamic State insurgents in recent days on Kobane, a largely Kurdish town sitting hard on the Turkish border, has heaped pressure on Ankara to act. Fighting around the town has sent around 180,000 mostly Syrian Kurds fleeing into Turkey and Kurdish officials have warned the town could fall without outside help.
The United States said it had carried out air strikes with other allies on Friday and Saturday against Islamic State targets in Syria, including four around Kobane, destroying insurgent vehicles and artillery positions. However, so far the strikes appear not to have halted the siege on the town.
While Turkey has said it will not let Kobane fall to the insurgents, it has been reluctant to take any concrete action, fearing this would strengthen the position of Assad and Kurdish militias linked to the PKK and could invite Islamist attacks inside Turkey.
Adding to pressure, the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, warned last week a peace process with Ankara would break down if the jihadists were allowed to overrun the town. Ankara has been engaged in talks since last year with Ocalan, imprisoned on an island south of Istanbul, to try and end an insurgency that has killed 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, since 1984.
Highlighting the precarious nature of the talks, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan dismissed suggestions the peace process was in danger but said Turkey viewed the PKK and the Islamic State as one, comments likely to further anger the Kurds who feel Turkey has abandoned them in their fight against the Islamists.
Erdogan also hit out at U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday, demanding an apology for comments he made last week that Turkey and other regional countries had supported extremist groups in Syria in a bid to topple the Assad government. Erdogan denied Turkey had supported extremist groups or allowed foreign fighters across its border into Syria.
The White House later issued a statement saying Biden had apologised to Erdogan for "any implication that Turkey or other allies and partners in the region had intentionally supplied or facilitated the growth of ISIL (Islamic State) or other violent extremists in Syria".
The incident underscored tensions between the two NATO allies, which have increased primarily over differing views over Syria.
Washington wants Turkey to take more concrete action against Islamic State and to allow its air bases to be used to launch attacks on the militants but, unlike Ankara, it no longer sees the removal of Assad as a priority. Washington has also shown little interest in Turkey's request for the United States to impose a no-fly zone in northern Syria and extend its air strikes to regime targets.
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