[ad_1]
A senior Turkish official said Wednesday that his country expects a “good start” with US President-elect Joe Biden, but has set red lines that do not herald a calm in tension-dominated relations with Donald Trump.
“We believe that we can get off to a good start with the Biden administration,” Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said at a hypothetical conference organized by the German Marshall Fund for the United States.
Kalin, speaking from Azerbaijan, who is currently visiting, added that Joe Biden “knows our president personally … and understands the geopolitical and strategic importance of Turkey.”
He added that the crisis related to Ankara’s purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system, which has caused strained relations with Washington in recent years, is not insurmountable. “From a military technical point of view, this problem can be solved,” he added.
The United States considers Turkey’s access to this system from Russia to be inconsistent with the defense systems of NATO, which opposes Moscow and Turkey is a member, and under US law, sanctions are supposed to be imposed on Turkey in this sense, but President Trump has so far frozen his statement in the name of his “friendship” with his counterpart. Turkish.
Biden, who described Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a “tyrant” and takes a firm stance on Russia, is unlikely to be more flexible than Donald Trump on this issue, especially since the US Congress, with all its currents, is pushing for sanctions to be imposed.
Ibrahim Kalin said: “We also know that it is no longer a military technical problem and Congress is making it a political issue … but punishing Turkey for that will be counterproductive.”
A spokesman for the Turkish president highlighted “two important issues for the national security of Turkey”, as expected from the Biden administration.
The first problem with Washington’s Kurdish allies is the fight against jihadists in Syria, whom Ankara considers a branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey and the United States consider a “terrorist” organization. “We hope there will be a change in this policy,” Kalin said, while the Democrats made protecting their alliances one of their priorities.
The second issue is the “inaction of successive US governments” regarding “the existence of networks linked to the preacher Fethullah Gülen in the United States,” Kalin said.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan asks for the extradition of the preacher Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the United States, and the Turkish president accuses him of being the mastermind behind the attempted coup that took place in July 2016. But the Turkish president did not succeed.
