Erdogan lauds Trump for 'sincere' efforts to fix ties with Turkey
The Turkish president received a warm welcome in Washington despite launching a military operation in northeast Syria that has upended US regional policy and defying NATO to acquire Russian weapons.
ISTANBUL — President Donald Trump is “sincerely” trying to settle a litany of disputes between the United States and Turkey despite efforts by his political opponents to destroy the relationship, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday, a day after clinching a meeting with the American leader at the White House.
Although neither president said they had resolved their countries’ many differences after a 1.5-hour meeting on Wednesday, Trump’s warm welcome for Erdogan during a low point in Turkey’s ties with the United States still marked a diplomatic triumph for the Turkish leader. The meeting also coincided with the first day of televised hearings in a congressional impeachment inquiry against Trump.
Erdogan outraged most of Washington, including lawmakers in Trump’s own party, by launching a military operation last month in northeast Syria to fight US-allied Kurdish militants in the People’s Protection Units (YPG). The incursion forced American troops to hastily withdraw and allowed Russia and President Bashar al-Assad to assert control over territory that Kurdish and US forces had captured from the Islamic State.
The United States and Turkey have also clashed over Erdogan’s decision to buy Russian-made missiles that NATO fears will undermine alliance security, a criminal lawsuit in New York against a Turkish state bank for allegedly helping Iran dodge sanctions and the United States’ refusal to extradite a Turkish cleric that Erdogan accuses of plotting to topple him in an attempted 2016 coup. Turkey has imprisoned Turkish staff working at American diplomatic missions.
