Turkey Summons Washington Ambassador Over Syria Visit

Ankara summoned its U.S. ambassador, Jeff Flake, on Monday to express its displeasure regarding a visit by a senior U.S. military official to northeastern Syria earlier this week, according to Reuters. General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made an unannounced visit to northeastern Syria on March 4 to oversee a U.S. mission that has been deployed to the area, which is controlled by U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces, for nearly eight years. The Syrian Democratic Forces, the main ally of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, played a crucial role in defeating the militants in Syria, but U.S. support for the group has remained a point of tension with Turkey for years. Ankara considers the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which acts as the spearhead of the Syrian Democratic Forces, to be the Syrian wing of the banned separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Both have been designated as terrorist organizations. The U.S. and European Union have classified the PKK as a terrorist group, but not the YPG.