BAKU. TurkicWorld :

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ankara to discuss the latest situation in Gaza, as well as regional and bilateral issues, reports TurkicWorld with the reference to Daily Sabah.

Blinken arrived in the Turkish capital following a tour of the Middle East focused on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

His first visit to Türkiye since Israel went to war in reprisal for the Hamas Oct. 7 attack did not include a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was traveling in Türkiye’s northeast, seemingly in a snub of Washington’s top diplomat.

The U.S. secretary of state made a surprise visit to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, where he met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. He also visited Iraq and the Greek Cypriot administration.

In the past week, he met counterparts in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he faced a chorus of Arab calls to support an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

During the meeting with Fidan, a group of anti-American demonstrators carrying Palestinian and Turkish flags protested Blinken’s visit and chanted slogans calling him “a murderer” and telling him to “leave Türkiye.”

Police intervened to disperse the crowd.

Israel says it could accept a “humanitarian pause” to allow in additional shipments of aid once Hamas frees the hostages it took on Oct. 7.

Blinken has supported the Israeli position while trying to assure regional players that Washington is focused on relieving humanitarian suffering.

He and Fidan are discussing the protection of civilians, establishing a mechanism for a lasting solution, and Türkiye’s offer of a guarantorship model where both Israel and Palestine would have guarantor countries, namely Saudi Arabia or Türkiye, as well as Western nations experienced in mediation.

Ankara is calling for Washington not to support Israel’s actions in Gaza and stoke the conflict to prevent it from spiraling into a regional issue.

Erdoğan said on Sunday it was “Türkiye’s duty” as a supporter of an independent Palestinian state to immediately stop the violence.

He said Ankara was “working behind the scenes” with regional allies to secure an uninterrupted stream of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

But he has cut off contacts with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called back Ankara’s ambassador to Israel in protest.

Erdoğan has also accused the West of double standards and losing its moral authority.

“Those who shed crocodile tears for the civilians killed in the Ukraine-Russia war are now quietly watching the killing of thousands of innocent children,” Erdoğan said last month.

The Health Ministry in Gaza on Monday said nearly 10,000 people had been killed, half of which were women and children, in more than four weeks of Israeli strikes in the blockaded city.

The war threatens to have broad repercussions on Washington’s relations with Türkiye, a NATO member with a muscular foreign policy and stakes in conflicts across the Middle East.

Critical files

Blinken’s closed-door talks with Fidan in Ankara would have been packed with problems even before Israel launched a relentless bombing and expanding ground campaign in Gaza.

Washington is anxious to see Türkiye’s Parliament finally ratify Sweden’s stalled drive to join the U.S.-led NATO defense organization.

And Ankara is upset that Congress is holding up the approval of a deal backed by U.S. President Joe Biden to modernize Türkiye’s air force with dozens of U.S. F-16 fighter jets.

Türkiye further has longstanding reservations about U.S. support for terrorist group PKK’s Syrian affiliate YPG, which has occupied the war-torn country’s northern regions near the Turkish border for years with Washington’s help. The terrorists have hideouts across the region from where they launch attacks on Türkiye and terrorize local residents.

The U.S. claims the YPG is its closest ally in combating Daesh, another terrorist group, despite Ankara’s documentation that the two are the same group.

Ankara has stepped up airstrikes against PKK/YPG terrorists in Syria and Iraq in reprisal for an October attack on the Turkish capital claimed by the PKK in which two assailants died.

The Pentagon downed a Turkish drone in northern Syria last month where U.S. troops were near YPG terrorists and refused to offer an explanation, drawing Ankara’s ire.

Fidan emphasized to Blinken that Türkiye regrets its NATO ally’s support to PKK/YPG terrorists across its borders and is keeping communication channels open to “prevent a repeat of the drone incident.”

The Russia-Ukraine war and the Black Sea grain initiative, which was brokered by Ankara and the U.N. last year to combat a global food crisis and Moscow quit earlier in July, were also on the agenda for the diplomats.

The pair also discussed the current situation in the South Caucasus, where ex-Soviet republics Azerbaijan and Armenia are struggling for peace over their three-decade conflict in the Karabakh region.

From Ankara, Blinken is headed to Tokyo, Seoul and New Delhi.