Erdogan’s high hopes for Trump

Amberin Zaman reports that US President Donald Trump’s congratulatory call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following the April 16 referendum to give Turkey's presidency greater powers may have only served to heighten differences over US support for the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).

The US State Department had been hesitant to congratulate Erdogan on the referendum, according to Zaman, based upon reporting from an observer group from the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Council of Europe. The group's statement said “fundamental freedoms essential to a genuinely democratic process were curtailed. The dismissal or detention of thousands of citizens negatively affected the political environment.” The head of the delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said, “The referendum did not live up to Council of Europe standards. The legal framework was inadequate for the holding of a genuinely democratic process.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry slammed the OSCE report as “politically motivated and accusatory” and reflecting a “biased and prejudiced approach.”