川普总统授权为叙利亚库尔德人提供武器，引发土耳其愤怒一周后，他星期二将在白宫接待土耳其总统埃尔多安并举行会谈，预计会谈将集中在这一争端以及叙利亚冲突。
美国认为叙利亚库尔德武装“库尔德人民保卫军”是打击伊斯兰国并把该极端组织赶出其自称的首都拉卡行动中关键的组成部分。但是土耳其认为“库尔德人民保卫军”与库尔德工人党有关联，因此是恐怖组织。库尔德工人党在土耳其国内已经进行了30年的反叛活动。
埃尔多安称，美国向“库尔德人民保卫军”提供武器“与我们和美国的战略关系背道而驰”。
不过，他上周启程赴美前表示，他把即将对美国进行的访问视为“土美关系的新开端”。
A week after U.S. President Donald Trump sparked anger in Turkey by authorizing arming of Syrian Kurds, he is hosting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks Tuesday at the White House with an expected focus on that dispute, as well as the wider conflict in Syria.
The U.S. sees the Kurdish force, the YPG, as a key part in the fight against Islamic State and the effort to oust the militants from their de facto capital in Raqqa. But Turkey considers the YPG terrorists because of their links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party that has been waging a three-decade insurgency inside of Turkey.
Erdogan called the decision to provide U.S. arms “contrary to our strategic relations to the U.S.”
But he said last week ahead of the trip that he views his visit to Washington as “a new beginning in Turkish-American relations.”