Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that Turkey will take preventive measures against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the People's Protection Forces (PYD) and the Islamic State, which control parts of Syria, the Anadolu Agency reported, BTA reports.
Erdogan held an hour-long meeting with Blinken at Ankara airport last night.
Turkey considers the Washington-backed SDF and SZN to be offshoots of the PKK, which is recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the US.
The Turkish presidency's statement said that Erdogan and Blinken discussed bilateral relations, recent developments in Syria, as well as global and regional issues.
At the meeting, Erdogan recalled that Turkey is the only NATO country that has fought the Islamic State face to face. The Turkish president said that Ankara would not allow the PKK and its accomplices to exploit the situation on the ground for their own interests.
Erdogan stressed that Turkey has been committed to preserving the territorial integrity, unity and unitary structure of Syria from the very beginning, adding that the international community must work together to restore Syria's institutions.
The meeting was also attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, the head of the Turkish President's Communications Directorate Fahrettin Altun, Erdogan's foreign policy and security adviser Akif Çağatay Kılıç and the president's chief of staff Hasan Doğan.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, quoted by Agence France-Presse, said that at the meeting, Blinken stressed to the Turkish head of state "the need to ensure that the coalition (created) to defeat the group “Islamic State“ can continue to fulfill its mission, which is of critical importance“.
The US-backed, Kurdish-led forces in Syria have been a major part of the coalition fighting Islamic State.