WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday sidestepped disputes snaring US relations with fellow NATO member Turkey, instead telling visiting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he is a “fan.”
On a day when Congress was holding its first nationally televised hearings in the impeachment probe against Trump, the US president spent several hours meeting at the White House with Erdogan and claimed to be paying no attention to his domestic crisis.
“I would much rather focus on peace in the Middle East,” he told a joint press conference with Erdogan, describing the impeachment as a “hoax” and a “joke.”
But Trump steered equally clear of controversy over Turkey, which is rapidly becoming one of Washington’s most problematic partners in a tinderbox region.
Relations have been under severe strain following Erdogan’s ordering of an October offensive against US-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
Trump insisted on his close ties to Erdogan, saying: “We have been friends for a long time.”
And at the press conference, where openly friendly reporters from both countries were chosen to ask softball questions, Trump doubled down.
“I’m a big fan of the president,” he said.
There was no indication of major progress on any of the growing disputes between the two countries after the Trump-Erdogan get-together.
On top of the Syria mess, Turkey’s role in NATO is in question following Erdogan’s decision to buy the Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile system.
Washington has excluded Turkey from the F-35 stealth warplane program over the purchase, creating even more tension in the troubled Western alliance. Erdogan has responded by suggesting he could instead buy Russian warplanes as well.
“Hopefully we will be able to resolve that situation,” Trump said at the press conference, without further explanation.
Trump — who needs to maintain Republican loyalty to avoid conviction in the Senate if he as, as expected, impeached by the House of Representatives — wants to avoid antagonizing lawmakers further. He invited several Republican senators to the White House to meet with Erdogan.
The House showed its displeasure with Turkey in October by voting to recognize the mass destruction of the Armenian community in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
Modern-day Turkey continues to deny the accusation of genocide, saying Armenians were merely among the many other victims of World War I. The vote infuriated Erdogan who said Wednesday that it cast a “deep shadow.”
There is tension to spare between the two countries even beyond the fate of the Syrian Kurds and the S-400s.
Washington is angry over the long-term detention of Turkish citizens working for US consulates, while Ankara continues to push hard for the extradition of the Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan claims engineered a failed 2016 coup.
Another point of contention was the ugly scenes during Erdogan’s last Washington visit, in 2017, when his bodyguards beat up protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence. — NNN-AGENCIES
