Combined efforts to defeat the Islamic State (IS or ISIS) and address Turkey's legitimate security concerns involving the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) remain in tact, Pentagon spokesperson Eric Pahon has told Al-Monitor. “Our military-military relationship [with Turkey] continues unaffected,” Pahon said.

The State Department has also asserted that the shared determination in the fight against IS carries on despite Turkish-US relations facing the worst of times in recent history. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told Al-Monitor, “While we work to resolve other matters in our relationship with the government of Turkey, we have not seen any change in our shared determination to see [the Islamic State] defeated.”

These statements come as the US and Turkish militaries ramp up preparations for the final assault on IS in eastern Syria but also amid diplomatic tensions between the two NATO allies and professed strategic partners. Their partnership has been tested by a number of issues, including US support for the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers a “terrorist” offshoot of the PKK, Turkey’s purchasing of S-400 missile defense systems from Russia and now the trial of Andrew Brunson, an American pastor who has been detained for nearly two years in Turkey.

After President Donald Trump on Aug. 10 ordered the doubling of steel and aluminum tariffs on imports from Turkey over Brunson’s detention, the troubled Turkish lira took an additional hit. The lira has lost some 40% of its value since last year due to various factors. This has put Turkish businesses and consumers alike under pressure in a foreign-dependent economy with an inflation rate exceeding 15%. The current exchange rate is around 6.00 lira to the dollar, an improvement from its slide to 7.23 on Aug. 12.