Biden, fence-mending in Turkey, commits to ‘transition' in Syria

Vice President Joe Biden assured Turkey on Saturday that the U.S. plans to strengthen Syrian rebels and ensure a political transition “away from the Assad regime,” but he stopped short of committing to the regime change in Damascus demanded by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On a fence-mending trip to a critical but reluctant ally in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic extremists, Biden appeared to edge slightly closer to Turkey’s position, but not enough to clarify the central ambiguity in U.S. policy.

“On Syria, we discussed not only to deny ISIL a safe haven and roll back and defeat them, but also strengthen the Syrian opposition and ensure a transition away from the Assad regime,” Biden said after a four-hour meeting with Erdogan. (“ISIL” is the U.S. government’s preferred acronym for the Islamic State group.)

Before the meeting, a Turkish official said Ankara sought “a much more comprehensive approach” than Washington to the crisis in Syria and Iraq.

Erdogan took a step back from his own confrontational rhetoric, saying Turkey’s relationship with the U.S. is based on mutual trust and benefit and “is stronger than ever.” He said Turkey and the U.S. “have a consensus on several regional issues,” an apparent reference to rapidly expanding collaboration in Iraq.

It was a milder tone than on Wednesday, when Erdogan said the U.S.-led coalition “had not made the steps we asked them for.” Among the steps were setting up a no-fly zone and a safe area inside Syria to protect millions of internally displaced civilians, and decisive steps” toward training and equipping rebel forces.

Neither Turkey nor the U.S. can claim a consistent position. The U.S., which is talking about expanding training for moderate rebel forces, in fact has been parsimonious about support for fighters now in the field. Its failure to integrate them into its overall strategy contributed to a stinging setback in Idlib province at the hands of al-Qaida-affiliated rebels this month.

There are questions about Turkey’s commitment to a no-fly zone, and whether it would send its armed forces across the border to establish one.

Yet Biden’s visit here also brought forth the first signs of policy convergence. Midway through the discussion here, the Turkish government disclosed that it is willing to train and equip Iraqi government forces, a significant shift to support Iraq’s new prime minister, Haider Abadi, after years of tension with his predecessor, Nouri al Maliki. Turkey also disclosed it is training peshmerga militias under control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

This all seemed to have come about as part of the preparations for the Biden talks. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu pledged to train and assist national guard units that Abadi is setting up to fight the Islamic State, the Turkish official said. “We are always ready to give any kind of contribution” to the Iraqi authorities, said the official, who disclosed the policy changes on the condition of anonymity.

Before meeting with Biden, Davutgoglu visited Irbil, the capital of the largely autonomous Kurdish region, and a camp where Turkey has already begun training peshmerga forces, the official said. Just a few years ago, Turkey and the KRG were frequently at loggerheads over the KRG’s willingness to host armed Turkish separatists who were at war with the Turkish state.

Biden’s visit to Istanbul was his first since the blow-up last month that followed his public criticism of Turkey for “contributing to the rise” of the Islamic State. Erdogan said that if Biden didn’t apologize for his remarks, he will be “history to me.”

The White House said Biden had apologized to Erdogan, but early this month, Biden left things confused when he said in a CNN interview: “I never apologized to him.” The issue never came up here, for reporters weren’t allowed to ask questions of either Biden or Erdogan.

Biden defended his blunt style. “Friends don’t let friends wonder about what they are thinking,” he said after arriving here Friday night. He described the talks with Erdogan in similar terms Saturday: “We had a candid discussion, and we strategized together as allies and friends do.” He also summed up the often stormy relationship. “We need Turkey, and I think Turkey believes that it needs us as well.”

But before the meeting with Erdogan Saturday, Biden may have crossed another line with prickly Turkish leader, by indirectly criticizing his increasingly autocratic leadership style. “We believe in not three branches of government, but three equal branches of government,” he said to representatives of the Checks and Balances Network, a group of 185 civil society organizations supporting pluralistic democracy in Turkey.

“Our founders concluded that a concentration of power was the most corrosive thing that could happen in any system. We still believe that,” Biden said.

This story was originally published November 22, 2014 at 7:08 PM with the headline "Biden, fence-mending in Turkey, commits to ‘transition' in Syria."