ERBIL, Kurdistan — For the first time, a NATO ally has been included on a list of countries using child soldiers by the United States, according to a newly released report on Thursday.
In its 2021 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, the US State Department noted that Turkey offered assistance in Syria to the Sultan Murad division, a Syrian militia group backed by Ankara, which Washington has accused of using child soldiers.
Every country in this report is placed on one of four tiers, as mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). This placement is based not on the extent of a country's problem, but on the extent of government efforts to eliminate human trafficking.
Unless a presidential waiver is granted, states placed on this list are restricted from receiving certain types of security assistance and commercial licensing of military equipment.
Despite the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s offer to get involved in Afghanistan, it is unclear if placing Turkey on this list would impact its negotiations to run Kabul's airport once the US withdraws.
Relations between Washington and Ankara have been thorny in recent years, caused in part by America’s recognition of the Armenian genocide on April 24, US support for Syrian Kurds, and Turkey’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 defense system.
Erdogan said he had a “fruitful and sincere” meeting with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the NATO leaders summit in Brussels in June.
“We believe there is no problem that cannot be resolved in Turkey-US relations," he said in a press conference after his first face-to-face meeting with Biden since his election.
Turkish forces have carried out three military operations in Syria against Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Kurdish-held areas of Syria, and have deployed armed Syrian fighters alongside their own personnel.
