Erdogan-Trump: The most unsuccessful Washington visit ever
History will record Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent visit to Washington as the most unsuccessful presidential visit ever to Washington.
“The mountain gave birth to a mouse” is a well-known Turkish saying for describing the disappointing results after big expectations.
For hours, I had been contemplating whether the White House encounter between US President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan can be described by this saying. After all, following a soured relationship between Erdogan and former President Barack Obama, the Turkish president apparently had extended a mea culpa to Trump.
Even Trump signing a decree to directly arm the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) could not undo the high hopes pinned for the May 16 White House summit. Erdogan’s reaction had been that when he would come face to face with his American counterpart, he would be able to persuade him to change his mind: The United States under Trump would dump the “terrorist” YPG for its staunch NATO ally, Turkey.
Erdogan’s White House meeting with Trump was trumpeted as a “turning point” in Turkey’s relations with the United States. There are three major issues to assess the success of the visit and thereby come to a conclusion of whether it was a turning point:
