Response from Istanbul

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan appears optimistic these days. He believes that with the election of Donald Trump, a new way of negotiation begins, which could lead to quick solutions for the serious problems facing Turkey, with the most serious, the Kurdish one. Speaking to Turkish journalists accompanying him on the flight back from Budapest, the Turkish president revealed that in a telephone conversation with the newly elected American president, he invited him to visit Turkey and, he said, he hoped he would accept.

The look in Kurdish

Turkish and international media are reporting that the new American leadership wants to withdraw the American force, which is in Syria and has been cooperating since 2015 with the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to prevent ISIS. The well-trained US-trained Kurdish army, which forms the military wing of the Kurdish Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria, holds about 25% of Syria. But, for Turkey, the SDF is nothing more than an extension of the PKK, a terrorist organization that plots against Turkey, and the Turkish military often conducts cross-border raids to hit its targets.

Trump’s next move against Kennedy

Rumors about the withdrawal of the Americans were strengthened after yesterday’s televised interview of Robert Kennedy Jr., one of the closest people to Trump, who revealed what the new president told him on the plane a few days ago about Syria:

“The other day, I was on a plane with President Trump and we were talking about the Middle East, and he took a piece of paper and drew on it a map of the Middle East with all the nations on it, and then he wrote the number of troops in each country . He was looking specifically at the border between Syria and Turkey and said: We have 500 men on the border between Syria and Turkey and they are in a small camp that is being bombed. There are 750,000 troops in Turkey and 250,000 troops in Syria. If they turn against each other, they will catch us in the middle. And Trump said to his generals: “What will become of these 500 men?” “They will become cannon fodder,” his general told him. And Trump said, ‘Get them out!'” always according to Kennedy.

The other side of the coin

There is no doubt that if Trump withdraws American forces from Syria, it will make the Turkish president very happy. But Erdogan has the same optimism about the Ukrainian issue, telling the journalists accompanying him that it can be resolved “very easily”, recalling the mediation role played by Ankara between Russia and Ukraine on the Grain Agreement.

But his optimism will stop there, as he will face difficulties on the Gaza issue if Trump immediately pushes through a peace plan that will likely not favor the Palestinian side, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.