Can Trump, Erdogan pick up the pieces in Syria?
Putin gains from the fallout in US-Turkey ties and the Kurds are still counting on US influence with Ankara.
US President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meet in Washington on Nov. 13. For the sake of US-Turkish relations, or what remains of them, they need a "good meeting." Trump refers to Erdogan as his “friend” and a “hell of a leader.” The stakes are high. If bilateral ties worsen, the winner is Russian President Vladimir Putin and the losers are the Syrian Kurds, who are still counting on US influence with Ankara.
Time to talk
Both Trump and Erdogan operate by summit and personal connections. They know and like each other. Their bureaucracies and staff are mostly background noise until the two presidents meet or talk. Only then do things happen, for better or worse, depending on your perspective.
There is some urgency to this summit. US-Turkey relations, which have been bad for a while, are a train wreck after widespread criticism that Trump "betrayed" the Syrian Kurds by announcing a withdrawal of US forces from Syria on Oct. 6. Three days later, Turkey invaded Syria in a move it dubbed "Operation Peace Spring" to wipe out the Kurdish "terrorists" — who just happen be Washington’s on-the-ground partners against the Islamic State.
