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Trump and the Turks

Published by digby on November 14, 2019

Trump and the Turks

by digby

While career diplomats were testifying under oath about Trump’s crimes, he was hosting the leader to whom he gave a greenlight to ethnically cleanse the Kurds in Northern Syria, Turkish president Erdogan. And it was weird:

CNN:

A small group of Republican senators who traditionally focus on foreign policy issues attended a White House meeting with President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Ahead of the meeting, there had been limited information given to the Hill on what it was all about, two sources familiar with the meeting told CNN. But it was made clear it was a meeting Trump wanted amid significant Capitol Hill criticism of Erdoğan personally and Turkey’s recent actions in Syria.

It was being framed as an opportunity to “clear the air” and have a serious and frank discussion about the real fissures in the relationship, which also includes US outrage over Turkey’s purchase of Russian weapons systems, one source familiar with the meeting told CNN. But the source also acknowledged the meeting was very irregular and nobody was sure what to expect.

GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham, Jim Risch, Ted Cruz, Joni Ernst and Rick Scott all attended and reporters were invited in to see the lawmakers raise their foreign policy concerns with Erdoğan — specifically addressing the sale of Russian weapons to Turkey and Turkey’s conflicts with the Kurds.

“The purpose of this meeting is to have an American civics lesson with our Turkish friends. And there’s a pony in there somewhere if we can find it,” Graham said.

Risch, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also emphasized Turkey’s membership in NATO. But the two issues at hand, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said, were the S-400s and the Kurds, who were allied with US forces against ISIS in Syria.

“We do not want to see Turkey engage in offensive action against the Kurds,” the Texas senator said.

Erdoğan’s pushed back on Turkey’s conflicts with the Kurds, maintaining that the Kurdish forces in Syria are “terrorist organizations.

Apparently, Trump thought he could “mediate” between the Senators and Erdogan. He is stupid so of course, it didn’t work.

Here’s a nice backgrounder from the Washington Post about Trump and Erdogan:

— The president’s softness toward Turkey and his bromance with Erdogan is striking and, to some former Trump aides, suspicious. To wit: Former national security adviser John Bolton suggested during a private speech in Miami last week that the president’s approach to U.S. policy on Turkey is motivated by personal or financial interests, six people who were present for the remarks told NBC News.

“Bolton told the gathering of Morgan Stanley’s largest hedge fund clients that he was most frustrated with Trump over his handling of Turkey,” Stephanie Ruhle and Carol Lee report. “Noting the broad bipartisan support in Congress to sanction Turkey after [Erdogan] purchased a Russian missile defense system, Bolton said Trump’s resistance to the move was unreasonable … Bolton said he believes there is a personal or business relationship dictating Trump’s position on Turkey because none of his advisers are aligned with him on the issue.”

— Erdogan, then prime minister, cut the ribbon at the opening of Trump Towers Istanbul in 2012. Trump was there with his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. Both now work in the White House. The Trump Organization, which the president has never divested from, has received annual licensing fees for the use of the name on the skyscrapers.

— Trump has offered Erdogan a package of inducements to improve U.S.-Turkey relations, which will be up for discussion today, that is virtually identical to those the administration proposed last month in a failed effort to stop Turkey’s invasion of Syria. Karen DeYoung, Missy Ryan and Kareem Fahim report on the proposal: “In a new letter to Erdogan last week, Trump told the Turkish president that a $100 billion trade deal, and a workaround to avoid U.S. sanctions over Turkey’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile defense system, are still possible, senior administration officials said. The offer is likely to infuriate at least some of the overwhelming House majority that voted last month to impose sanctions on Turkey over its assault into Syria, and a bipartisan group of senators who introduced a similar bill. …

“In exchange for Trump’s revived offer, Erdogan would continue what the administration has said is its adherence to an Oct. 17 cease-fire agreement, negotiated with Vice President Pence a week after the invasion began, that limited the Turkish incursion. [There is dispute about the degree to which Erdogan has complied.] Turkey, a NATO [member], would also continue to actively support U.S. goals of preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State in Syria and establishing a stable and representative Syrian government. … Now, the administration’s red line is that the S-400s ‘do not become operational’ in a way that would allow them ‘access to our F-35 communications and defenses,’ said the senior official.”

— Meanwhile, the Syrian National Army, a Turkish proxy force, has been accused of widespread abuses, including summary executions, beatings, kidnappings and looting in areas under Turkey’s control. “U.S. military officials watched live drone feeds in October that appeared to show Turkish-backed Arab gunmen targeting civilians during their assault on Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria, attacks the Americans reported to their commanders as possible war crimes,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. “U.S. surveillance videos of two incidents were included in an internal report compiled by State Department officials laying out concerns regarding four credible cases of alleged war crimes…”

After saying he wouldn’t tolerate such behavior, Erdogan has not cracked down on these Turkish-backed forces. In fact, he’s defended them. Margaret Huang, the executive director of Amnesty International USA, has more about the ground truth in an op-ed for today’s paper: “As Erdogan visits the White House, remember the suffering in northern Syria.”

There’s a lot more at the link about Jared and the business ties. This relationship is almost as suspect and the one between Trump and Putin.

Check out how ridiculous he is:

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