Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Washington on May 16, according to the White House. President Trump will meet with the Turkish leader at the White House during his visit.
“The two leaders will discuss how to further strengthen our bilateral relationship and deepen our cooperation to confront terrorism in all its forms,” according to the White House statement.
Erdogan earlier Wednesday strongly criticized Trump’s decision to arm Syrian Kurds in the fight against ISIS.
“I hope that this mistake will be reversed immediately,” he said of the move. “We want to believe that our allies would prefer [to] be side by side with ourselves rather than with the terror groups.”
U.S. officials announced Tuesday that Trump signed off on a plan “to equip Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces.”
The SDF will reportedly receive small arms and equipment for the fight to retake Raqqa from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The group is a coalition of Arab and Kurdish fighters that has been working to isolate the city, which ISIS considers its de facto capital.
Ankara considers Syrian Kurds terrorists and an extension of outlawed Kurdish insurgents in Turkey.
A referendum broadening Erdogan’s presidential powers narrowly passed in Turkey last month.
Erdogan’s opponents cast the move as pushing Turkey, a democracy, closer to authoritarianism.
The White House said last month that Trump’s phone call to Erdogan congratulating him on the referendum’s passage was not an endorsement of the measure.
……
- Discussion
-
Turkey's Erdogan to visit Trump at White House next week https://t.co/GHnGwvHL8T pic.twitter.com/7Zyxjvh1jf
— The Hill (@thehill) May 11, 2017
“The White House said last month that Trump’s phone call to Erdogan congratulating him on the referendum’s passage was not an endorsement of the measure.”
Then why was he congratulating him? I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump called OJ and congratulated him after his trial. Not that he was saying he was innocent or anything…
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.