Erdogan heads for Washington, where Trump's hands already full
Turkey’s president is on his way to Washington in a bid to salvage battered ties, but despite his positive chemistry with the US president, the Turkish leader is likely to hit a wall.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took off for Washington today where he will be meeting President Donald Trump in a bid to salvage battered ties. But few expect that the encounter will resolve any of the issues bedeviling relations between the NATO allies that have hit an all-time low in the wake of Turkey’s Oct. 9 assault against a US-backed Syrian militia. Coming on the day that impeachment proceedings against Trump will start, it could even make things worse.
Erdogan told reporters before his departure that Fethullah Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based Turkish cleric accused of masterminding a failed 2016 attempt to bloodily overthrow the Turkish leader, would top the agenda. “Turkey took several steps and will continue doing so for the extradition of the terrorist leader in Pennsylvania.”
Despite his positive chemistry with Trump that has helped to tide over relations so far, the Turkish leader is likely to hit a wall. Turkey has been pressing for Gulen’s extradition, but the evidence it's provided to support the coup claims have failed to persuade the Justice Department.
Gonul Tol, the director of the Middle East Institute’s Turkey program, told Al-Monitor, “I don’t expect much to come of this meeting. The US side will pressure Turkey to scrap the [Russian] S-400 missile deal. But it doesn’t seem likely that Turkey will change its position. At most it can delay delivery of the [remaining] batteries or activation of the system.”
