MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : ERDOGAN VISITS WASHINGTON / TOP SOURCES & EXPERTS

November 13, 2019
Top of the Agenda

Turkey’s Erdogan Visits White House
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with (Anadolu) U.S. President Donald J. Trump in Washington today. A bipartisan group of lawmakers has opposed the visit (Politico), citing Turkey’s recent incursion into Syria.

Ahead of the meeting, Trump reportedly offered Erdogan (WaPo) a $100 billion trade deal and exemption from U.S. sanctions over Turkey’s purchase of a Russian missile defense system. The offer is seen as an incentive for Ankara, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally, to maintain a cease-fire in northern Syria that was agreed to about a month ago. Human rights groups have warned (AP) of rights abuses and possible war crimes by Turkey-backed forces in northern Syria since the start of the incursion.
Analysis
“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,” Amberin Zaman writes for Al-Monitor.

“A sanctions-induced economic calamity for Turkey will not be good news for the United States. Turkey would likely respond by moving further away from Western institutions and even completely breaking from them,” CFR’s Henri J. Barkey writes for Foreign Affairs.

“In sending its forces into Syria, the Turkish government seems to have four primary goals: make the establishment of a Kurdish-controlled territory in Syria impossible, boost Erdogan’s popularity, destroy the YPG, and resettle Syrian refugees,” CFR’s Steven A. Cook writes in Foreign Policy.