Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will arrive to the White House tomorrow, there are two perspectives on what Turkish will discuss with Trump. On the one hand, Erdoğan uses the meeting as an opportunity to regret the Trump to arm Syrian Kurds who are fighting ISIS, Turkish aim is to prevent the establishment of a quasi-independent Kurdish realm there. On the other hand, Trump uses the meeting to change the perspective of Turkey and satisfy them with this decision even as Turkey Strongly Objects.
The US is looking forward to having a stable relationship with Turkey and eliminate the conflict of interest in Syria with Turkey. As the America claims that the Former President- Barack Obama – has favoured the idea of arming the Kurds; they realized that there is a power vacuum in Syria, however ISIS has already filled that vacuum. It should be mentioned that Kurds were and they are the only successful group in Syria that are able to fight ISIS.
Arming the Kurds was a shock move to Turkey and Turkish government is trying hard to draw a line between cooperation of the US and the Kurds. Furthermore, Turkey wants to engage and lead as regional players who are active in the changing the future of Syria and the government is trying to prevent any intentions of Kurds to have their own declared territory in the Middle East.
According to political experts, the US manoeuvre was controversial to Turkey’s political beliefs and after sixty years of cooperation and coordination between US and Turkey, there are no stable relationships between countries. Moreover, as Turkey is located close to the conflict zones in the middle east, and its political stability depends on how healthy is the region. Therefore, Turkey is trying to participate in its neighbour countries’ politics and developments, as a result there are both internal and external disputes towards Turkish politics. For example, Erdoğan has tried to oppose various parties and activists such as Fethullah Gülen (Turkish preacher, former imam, writer, and political figure).
Capturing Raqa, Mosul and end of ISIS is the main goal of the US in Syria and Iraq. The alliance between Turkey and US wouldn’t become a barrier to geo-strategic interests. Furthermore, it seems that current focus of US Diplomacy is on the non-state actors which would lead to security and stability of the region.
Edited by Yana Mayzenger
