Trump Hosts Turkish President Erdogan Amid Diplomatic Tensions

President Donald Trump hosted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House Tuesday, just one week after the U.S. announced that it would arm a group of Syrian Kurds against ISIS that Turkey considers to be a terror group.

The two paid mutual tribute to the alliance — Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952 — with Erdogan stressing the "outstanding relations" and Trump praising the “unbeatable” relationship. Despite the pleasantries, however, there are several issues that are complicating U.S.-Turkey relations,

The Kurdish militia in question, the YPG, is considered by the U.S. to be the best fighting force on the ground in Syria and as a result committed last week to provide them with weapons and equipment in advance of their upcoming assault on the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa. Turkey takes a much dimmer view of the YPG, considering them to be an arm of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which the U.S., Turkey, and Europe all consider a terror group. The Turks have been fighting a Kurdish rebellion since 1978.

Erdogan also brought up the matter of Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania who the Turkish wants extradited for his alleged role in last summer’s failed coup against Erdogan’s rule, saying that he’d informed the U.S. he expects them to cooperate with the request. The preacher, Fetullah Gulen, is a former ally of Erdogan who now lives in exile and penned an op-ed published in The Washington Post Monday opposing Erdogan’s policies.

Since the attempted coup, Erdogan has cracked down on political opponents and detained more than 110,000 people and shuttered media outlets in a consolidation of power. That culminated with his victory in an April constitutional referendum that gave him broad new powers, including the ability to enact laws by decree and dismiss parliament. Those issues weren’t addressed during the open session of the meeting.

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— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: Kremlin_3.jpg) / Creative Commons)