Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be meeting with President Obama in the Oval Office on May 16. On his first visit to Washington since 2009, Erdogan and Obama have much to discuss. The Syrian crisis with all its ramifications will overshadow all other issues. As can be expected, the president’s public and behind-closed-door comments are likely to be quite different. He will need to assuage a nervous, yet supremely self-confident, leader facing a number of challenges ahead of him.
Here is an exercise in imagining what these might look like: