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| The Grand Turk | |
| Turkey says Trump told Erdogan won't give Syria Kurds more arms | |
| 2017-11-25 | |
Trump delivered the message during what the Turkish presidency called a "productive" phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday "Mr Trump said he gave a clear order and that after this, weapons would not be supplied to the YPG, essentially he said this nonsense should have been ended earlier," Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a press conference in Ankara. The YPG is the Peoples' Protection Units Kurdish militia in Syria, which the US has seen as the most effective fighting force on the ground against IS. "Naturally, we welcomed these statements," said Cavusoglu, adding: "Of course we want to see this put into practice." There was no immediate comment from the US side regarding the content of the telephone call between the two leaders. Relations between the US and Turkey have been strained since the administration of former President Barack Obama over its support for the YPG and the failure to extradite Pennsylvania-based Fethullah Gulen blamed for ordering last year's coup bid. Bilateral ties are at further risk of fraying over a scheduled trial in New York of Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab and Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the deputy chief executive of Turkish lender Halkbank, both accused of defying US sanctions on Iran. The trial is expected to start early next month but there are fears over possible fines against one or more Turkish banks in the event of a guilty verdict. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #3 Either Trump is an idiot, or Turkey is lying. People in DC who keep telling me they are far smarter than me have lost their asses betting on the former. I have a feeling it is the latter. Arm the Kurds in Kurdistan Iraq quite lavishly, and turn a blind eye when they wind up across a border that the Kurds do not recognize. |
| Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 2017-11-25 22:02 |
| #2 "Turkey... heritage of Byzantine plotting..." Most likely an attempt to lower the Kurt morale, Turkey is known to lie a lot if they think they can gain an advantage. Else what boomerc said... |
| Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance 2017-11-25 12:04 |
| #1 2017/11/25 @ 02:30 Turkey's call for the US not to support our allies in the region sounds like democrats constant call for Republicans to one-sidedly disarm and to concede on their national interests. If it is true Trump agreed not to supply arms to the Kurds what was Turkey's threat or what did Trump get in return for the concession. Why should only the US not support its ally in the region. The only group that helped protect the non-muslims from the terrorists in the region were the Kurds at risk of there own lives. Turkey, Iran and Russia arms their allies in the region and thereby exercise great influence. None of these countries have been our allies. These countries just met in Soche to decide the fate of the region apart from the US. Our secretary of state has not exercised any American influence in the region. Turkey is holding innocent Americans as hostages. Turkey did not do a thing about ISIS. Turkey only attacked our allies, the Kurds, as they were helping the US to defeat ISIS as if Turkey was saying ISIS was OK but the Kurds are not. So in other words Turkey, which is in alliance with Russia which is in alliance with Iran, is telling the US to butt out of the region. The US failed to support Kurdistan in the independence referendum and left it volnerable to the surounding powers of Iran, Turkey, Iraq, the Shiites and Russia. The best protection against Muslim domination and a Shia crescent is to support a free and democratic Kurdistan. Our goal should be to get Iran, Turkey, Russia, Hezbollah and the Shiite groups out of other countries. I hope Harriri is able to kick Hezbollah of his country and out of the region. My view is the Kurds are not the problem, but part of the solution. The Kurds know how to fight back unlike other victims of Muslims. When the US pulled out of Iraq all these foreign operatives came into the power vacuum. Somehow the US must prevent any axis of evil from taking over. The US is not providing any leadership or influence right now and will pay a price later. Somehow the US must continue to fight terrorism and not allow any to dig in and to take over. Now that ISIS is waning the Shia and other powers are taking over and we have no answer. |
| Posted by: boomerc 2017-11-25 05:38 |