Tillerson accepts oil industry lifetime achievement award in Turkey

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US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, attended the 22nd World Petroleum Congress on Sunday where he received a lifetime achievement award, recognizing his years as CEO at ExxonMobile.

Following the award presentation were lengthy meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to discuss the war in Syria, joint counter terrorism efforts and the Qatar crisis.

The state of US relations with Turkey has been affected over Washington's backing of the Syrian Kurdish group YPG in its fight against ISIL.

Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist group-aligned with outlawed PKK Kurdish separatists.

Ankara is concerned that the weapons the US sent to the YPG would later be used against them, although Washington has tried to re-assure Turkey that would not happen.

"It's important for so many reasons which is why we must put the relationship on the mend, re-establish it on the proper basis and then strengthen it going forward and I think we're taking the first steps in that regard," says Tillerson.

Though the Secretary of State has expressed eagerness to mend ties with Turkey, it is hard to see tensions between the two nations disappearing as long as Washington continues to support the YPG.

The Trump administration has also been opposing Turkey’s demand that it extradite Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who currently resides in Pennsylvania and is accused by the Turkish president of masterminding a failed military coup in July 2016.

Washington has also infuriated Ankara after a decision by US prosecutors last month to charge a dozen Turkish security and police officers after they allegedly attacked protesters during Erdogan's visit to Washington.

President Erdogan claimed his security personnel were protecting him from aggressive protesters.

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