Jul 14, 2017

WASHINGTON — Turkish officials offered to provide "tens of thousands of troops" to support the US-led fight against the Islamic State (IS) during high-level talks last year regarding potential military cooperation in Syria, Turkey's envoy to the United States said today.

Ambassador Serdar Kilic told Al-Monitor that Turkish officials met with Pentagon commanders in July 2016, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Joseph Dunford, about military collaboration in Raqqa and throughout Syria. Kilic made the comments at an embassy press conference marking the first anniversary of last year's failed coup, which Ankara blames on US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the Donald Trump administration — like its predecessor — has so far declined to extradite.

"Each and every time we made the [troop] proposal, we received the same arguments,” Kilic said, adding that the Pentagon preliminarily asked for 80,000 troops for the Raqqa operation, more than Turkish officials believed was needed. “We did not give any troop numbers because we did not get to the planning stage."

Defense Department officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Kilic also chastised the United States for arming and equipping the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have been spearheading the battle to liberate the IS stronghold since it was launched in November 2016. Kurdish fighters make up about 40% of the SDF force, US commanders say, and Turkey strongly opposes the regional Kurdish push for an independent state.