I spent a quarter of an hour reminding Murat my student of why he should continue to learn English, despite his loss of motivation in this regard. US President Joe Biden and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan sounded upbeat after their first face-to-face talks on Monday, although they did not announce major breakthroughs in the relationship between the two allies, at odds over Russian weapons, Syria, Libya and other issues.
Despite their publicly optimistic tone, neither provided any details on how exactly they would mend the relationship or lay out steps that would help ease tensions between the NATO allies. Initially, Turkey condemned the Syrian government at the outbreak of civil unrest in Syria Syrian Revolution, part of the Arab Spring during the spring of The military operations have resulted in the Turkish occupation of northern Syria since August After a decade of relatively friendly relations with Syria during the prior decade, Turkey condemned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the violent crackdown on protests in and later that year joined a number of other countries demanding his resignation.
Tensions between Syria and Turkey significantly worsened after Syrian forces shot down a Turkish fighter jet in June , and border clashes erupted in October In , it facilitated the establishment of the Syrian National Army of the Syrian Interim Government, which it finances. The poll also found that Other reported war crimes include the mutilation of a female corpse by SNA fighters, the killing of civilians due to indiscriminate shelling by Turkish forces, the alleged use of chemical gas by the Turkish Army, and the indiscriminate shooting of refugees fleeing from the conflict area into Turkey by the Gendarmerie General Command.
Hundreds of people were arrested for demonstrating against the operation, and over social media users and nearly politicians and journalists were arrested for criticizing it.
Turkish police also arrested numerous leaders and high-ranking members of pro-Kurdish and left-wing political parties. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that a total of , Kurdish people have been displaced.
