Tag: Turkey

Pence announces Turkey has agreed to temporary ceasefire in Syria

Axios logoVice President Mike Pence announced from Ankara on Thursday that Turkey has agreed to cease its military operation in northern Syria for 120 hours so that Kurdish forces can withdraw from the area.

The big picture: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan previously said that he would “never” agree to a ceasefire, after the U.S. withdrawal from northern Syria paved the way for Turkey to begin a military assault on U.S-allied Kurdish forces that they view as terrorists.

The breakthrough came after five hours of negotiations between Pence and Erdogan and followed the authorization of sanctions against Turkish officials earlier this week by President Trump.

View the complete October 17 article by Zachary Basu on the Axios website here.

Democratic senator gives blow-by-blow account of Trump’s meltdown on Pelosi: ‘Belligerent from the get-go’

AlterNet logoSen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) gave a detailed account of the emotional meltdown that President Donald Trump had with congressional Democrats at the White House on Wednesday.

Appearing on CNN Thursday morning, Menendez broke down how Trump started raging at Democrats from the second he entered the room.

“The meeting started off with the president walking in and slamming down his files on the table,” Menendez said. “It was belligerent from the get-go… you have the president of the United States, who is supposed to bring our country together, particularly in times of challenges, [calling] the Speaker a third-rate politician.”

View the complete October 17 article by Brad Reed from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Turkey’s Erdogan ‘threw Trump’s Syria letter in bin’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan put US President Donald Trump’s letter “in the bin”, the BBC has been told.

In the letter dated 9 October, and sent after US troops were pulled out of Syria, Mr Trump told Mr Erdogan: “Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!”

President Trump was urging Turkey not to launch a military offensive against Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria, but Mr Erdogan ignored this request.

US Vice President Mike Pence is now in Ankara to push for a ceasefire.

View the complete October 17 article on the BBC News website here.

Donald Trump’s bizarre, threatening letter to Erdoğan: ‘Don’t be a fool’

President vows to destroy Turkish economy if Syria invasion is not resolved humanely, but brash language and diplomatic missteps draw confusion

Donald Trump warned his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “don’t be a fool” and said history risked branding him a “devil” in an extraordinary letter sent the day Turkey launched its incursion into north-eastern Syria.

The letter, first obtained by a Fox Business reporter, was shorn of diplomatic niceties and began with an outright threat.

“Let’s work out a good deal!” Trump wrote in the letter dated 9 October, whose authenticity was confirmed to various news outlets by the White House.

View the complete October 17 article by Vivian Ho and agencies on The Guardian website here.

Trump says Turkish offensive has ‘nothing to do with us’

The Hill logoPresident Trump said Wednesday that Turkey’s offensive against U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria has “has nothing to do with us,” defending his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the region amid criticism.

“It’s not our land,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella.

“If Turkey goes into Syria that’s between Turkey and Syria,” he added. “That’s not between Turkey and the United States, like a lot of stupid people would like you to believe.”

View the complete October 16 article by Morgan Chalfant and Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Mike Pompeo’s laughable defense of Syria withdrawal inspires fierce backlash: ‘Building foreign mobster ties is not a coalition’

AlterNet logoAs President Donald Trump continues to face widespread criticism over his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northeastern Syria and abandon the United States’ Kurdish allies, others in his administration find themselves defending the withdrawal — including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is being lambasted after posting a tweet that tried to put a positive spin on things.

The news coming out of northeastern Syria this week following the withdrawal is dismal. With an incursion of Turkish troops, the Kurdish forces who has been helping the U.S. are turning to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad out of desperation — and there are reports of captured ISIS fighters escaping in the chaos.

On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department tweeted an interview in which Pompeo told Nashville’s WZTV-TV that the U.S. was “leading from the front” to “build out coalitions that can effectively deal with some of the most difficult challenges facing the world today.” And it wasn’t long before Twitter was full of angry responses to that tweet.

View the complete October 15 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

‘Essentially Hostages’: US Nuclear Weapons At Turkish Airbase

When President Donald Trump pulled American troops out of northern Syria, virtually giving Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the green light to attack the region’s Kurds, he likely didn’t anticipate a key factor that might get caught in the crossfire: control of U.S. nuclear weapons.

Erdogan’s forces have been raining down terror on the Kurds, long considered to be key U.S. allies in the fight against ISIS, exactly the horrifying scenario that critics of Trump’s move predicted. Turkey even fired on an outpost of U.S. special operation forces. It’s a fraught scenario for the United States to find itself in, made all the more dangerous by the fact that Turkey, itself a NATO ally, is home to an estimated 50 American nuclear weapons. The New York Times reported:

And over the weekend, State and Energy Department officials were quietly reviewing plans for evacuating roughly 50 tactical nuclear weapons that the United States had long stored, under American control, at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, about 250 miles from the Syrian border, according to two American officials.

Those weapons, one senior official said, were now essentially Erdogan’s hostages. To fly them out of Incirlik would be to mark the de facto end of the Turkish-American alliance. To keep them there, though, is to perpetuate a nuclear vulnerability that should have been eliminated years ago.

View the complete October 14 article by Cody Fenwick from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

Trump authorizes sanctions on Turkish officials for Syria invasion

Axios logoPresident Trump signed an executive order on Monday authorizing the imposition of sanctions on current and former Turkish officials, senior administration officials told reporters Monday.

Why it matters: Trump’s removal of nearly all U.S. troops from Syria created bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill, prompting members of Congress to immediately prepare sanctions bills of their own in retaliation. As Axios’ Dave Lawler notes, Trump is now preempting those looming sanctions with steps of his own.

    • However, some Democratic lawmakers have already said that sanctions on Turkey alone are not enough.
    • Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said as much in a Monday statement, arguing that Trump must “correct course” and reverse the troop withdrawal.

View the complete October 14 article by Alayna Treene on the Axios website here.

Trump calls on Turkey to broker ceasefire

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Monday called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to negotiate a ceasefire with Kurdish forces amid violence in the region precipitated by a U.S. withdrawal from northern Syria.

Vice President Pence told reporters outside the White House that Trump “pressed [Erdoğan] very strongly” in a phone call earlier in the day to broker a ceasefire immediately.

Pence will lead a delegation to Turkey in the coming days to help broker a settlement between Ankara and Kurdish forces, he added.

View the complete October 14 article by Brett Samuels and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Five ways Trump’s Syria decision spells trouble

The Hill logoPresident Trump this week showed no sign of backing down on his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria, stoking fears in Washington of worst-case scenarios from abandoning a crucial defense partner.

Trump’s move, which has paved the way for Turkey to proceed with a long-planned offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces who were instrumental in the fight against ISIS, has far-reaching implications both at home and abroad.

Critics, including many from Trump’s own party, argue the president is irreparably damaging the country’s standing as a reliable partner by abandoning a U.S. ally, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to be slaughtered by Turkey as well as fueling mayhem in the region that could allow ISIS to regain its footing.

View the complete October 12 article by Ellen Mitchell on The Hill website here.