US, Turkey kick off comprehensive talks to explore improving troubled ties

The U.S. and Turkey are set to kick off comprehensive talks on Thursday to discuss if the NATO allies can move beyond deep rooted disagreements over issues such as Syria and Ankara’s close ties with Russia.
Senior U.S. and Turkish officials are set to meet at the State Department for several rounds of talks focusing on topics spanning Syria, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, defense cooperation, energy, counterterrorism and the Israel-Hamas war.
The conversations, dubbed the Strategic Mechanism, will set the stage for a meeting on Friday between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
Ties between the U.S. and Turkey have drifted away from a strategic partnership in recent years as disagreements between the two long-standing treaty allies have widened.
Turkey’s 2019 acquisition of Russian S-400 defense missile system triggered U.S. sanctions on Ankara and led to its removal from the F-35 stealth fighter jet program. Meanwhile, Turkey has remained deeply troubled over U.S. support in northern Syria to Kurdish militia that it sees as an extension of the PKK, a militant group it considers as a terrorist organization.