美土總統白宮會晤避談庫爾德武裝

After meetings Tuesday at the White House, President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, praised the strength of the two countries' relations, while at the same time sidestepping their differences over strategies for confronting Islamic State extremists in northern Syria.

Both Trump and Erdogan described bilateral ties as strong. "We've had a great relationship," the U.S. president said, "and we will make it even better."

Neither leader mentioned Trump's decision last week to supply heavy weapons to Syrian Kurdish rebel militias, the YPG, who make up a key part of a U.S.-backed alliance preparing to march on the Islamic State's de-facto capital, Raqqa, later this year.

Turkey, which has battled Kurdish separatists since 1984 in its southeast, has voiced broad opposition to the presence of YPG fighters in the anti-jihadist coalition. Erdogan has argued that YPG's ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party make it likely that any U.S. weaponry supplied to the Syrian Kurds will eventually end up in Turkey, in the hands of the outlawed PKK.

Erdogan has called the decision to provide U.S. arms "contrary to our strategic relations to the U.S." But there were no public signs of friction Tuesday, as Trump and Erdogan struck public poses suggesting full agreement on the need to capture the IS stronghold at Raqqa.

"There is no place for the terrorist organizations in the future of our region," Erdogan said.美國總統川普和土耳其總統埃爾多安星期二在白宮舉行會晤之後，讚揚了兩國關係的堅強有力，但迴避了在敘利亞北部抗擊伊斯蘭國極端分子策略上的分歧。

川普和埃爾多安都稱雙邊關係牢固有力。川普總統說，“我們一直有着很好的關係，我們要讓這種關係變得更好” 。

兩位領導人都沒有提及川普上週向敘利亞庫爾德反叛民兵，即“庫爾德人民保衛軍”提供重型武器的決定。“庫爾德人民保衛軍”在美國支持下，將在今年晚些時候向伊斯蘭國自稱的首都拉卡推進的盟軍中發揮重要作用。

土耳其自從1984年以來一直在東南部與庫爾德分離分子作戰，因此，對反聖戰聯盟中出現“庫爾德人民保衛軍”明確表示反對。埃爾多安表示，“庫爾德人民保衛軍”和庫爾德工人黨有關，因此美國提供給敘利亞庫爾德人的武器，最終很可能落入土耳其境內被取締的庫爾德工人黨手中。

埃爾多安曾經稱，美國決定向YPG提供武器 “與我們和美國的戰略關係背道而馳”。但是星期二川普和埃爾多安兩人在公開場合露面時表示，雙方在有必要奪取伊斯蘭國設在拉卡的據點這一方面完全一致，因此並沒有看到公開的分歧。

埃爾多安表示，“在我們地區的未來中，沒有這個恐怖組織的藏身之地” 。