US Visit Gives Erdogan Certain 'Carrots' While Core Differences Remain Unresolved

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Washington eases tensions with the United States but leaves key bilateral contradictions - over the purchase of the advanced Russian weapons and Kurds - unresolved, despite a number of favors the Trump administration offered Ankara to woo it back to the "Western camp," experts told Sputnik

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th November, 2019) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Washington eases tensions with the United States but leaves key bilateral contradictions - over the purchase of the advanced Russian weapons and Kurds - unresolved, despite a number of favors the Trump administration offered Ankara to woo it back to the "Western camp," experts told Sputnik.

Erdogan visited the White House on November 13, a month after President Donald Trump sent him a high-profile letter to press the Turkish leader to stop the offensive against Kurds in Syria's northeast and "work out a good deal" with the US. Back then, the American president advised Erdogan not to be a "fool," warning that he did "not want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy."

Later, the two leaders somewhat reconciled their differences by agreeing on a five-day truce in the region in mid-October, with Trump removing sanctions slapped in light of the operation against Kurdish allies. Ensued Congress bills on the Armenian genocide and on new sanctions over Syria, however, prompted Erdogan to call his visit into question.

Yet, Erdogan did arrive in Washington and got a seemingly friendly reception from Trump. After the talks, Trump said that the two leaders had tasked their national security advisers with working on resolving the situation around Turkey's acquisition of Russian-made S-400s, which "creates some very serious challenges for us." Erdogan, in turn, said that Ankara might buy US Patriot systems, but ruled out the possibility of getting rid of S-400s.

Two days later, Turkey announced that it had begun work on a joint "mechanism" with the US to evaluate a potential effect of the S-400 purchase on the country's participation in the US F-35 multirole fighter program. At the same time, Ankara has stressed that it intends to activate the Russian systems, despite the US requests not to do so, stressing that only Turkish personnel will be involved in operating these air defense systems.

'NEITHER GREAT SUCCESS NOR GREAT LOSS' FOR ANKARA

Experts mainly agree that the visit has helped to mitigate tensions albeit failing to settle the principled disagreements that have recently been driving the two NATO allies further apart.

"It has indeed reduced the tensions between the two countries but not solved the existing different interpretations of a few hot issues like YPG [People's Protection Units] and Kurdish issue, Fethullah Gulen issue or S-400 and F-35 issues. The visit is for Erdogan neither great success nor great loss," Huseyin Bagci, a professor of international relations at middle East Technical University in Ankara, told Sputnik.

On the other side, the visit did let the sides reaffirm their respective stances on these matters; Erdogan declared readiness to buy Patriot systems; and the two sides committed themselves to boosting bilateral trade, the expert noted.

Zenonas Tziarras, a researcher at the PRIO Cyprus Center, agrees that there are still important issues to be addressed in US-Turkish relations following the visit before anyone could speak of normalization.

Yet, the expert pointed to a number of concessions the US offered to Ankara to win back its trust.

"On the other hand, [we see] Trump's support of Erdogan's various policies and arguments (e.g. regarding the Kurdish and refugees issues), the blocking of the congressional resolution that would have recognized the Armenian Genocide, the proposed 100 billion USD trade deal, and the prospect of Turkey purchasing the Patriot missiles are some of the 'carrots' that the US is giving Turkey in exchange for its return to the Western camp and the mitigation of its dependency on Russia," Tziarras said.

Indeed, hours after attending a meeting with Trump and Erdogan, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said that he had blocked the adoption of the resolution on the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire in the upper house of Congress. Speaking aboard a plane returning from Washington, Erdogan said that Trump was making efforts to find a solution to the situation around the bill.

SYRIA: BOTH STRIVE TO STAY THERE PERMANENTLY

During the joint press conference with the Turkish leader, Trump said that he was a "big fan" of Erdogan. He also noted that the Syrian ceasefire, "while complicated is moving forward, and moving forward at a very rapid clip."

He also reiterated that the US would keep small group of forces in northeastern Syria to retain control of the oil fields there.

Bagci of Middle East Technical University in Ankara suggested that both countries intended to remain "careful" not to harm each other's interests and keep their presence in the region permanently,

Trump's statement about "keeping" Syrian oil is, meanwhile, "typical of his imperialist vision and reflects the nature of US engagement in the Middle East," M. V. Ramana, the Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia, told Sputnik.

"It is not conducive to peace in the region," he added.

As for the F-35 deal, its fate remains open after the Erdogan-Trump talks. The US suspended Turkey's participation in the jet program over the S-400 deal back in July, saying that the country would be completely removed from the project by late March 2020.

"There is still no any concrete decision to stop the delivery of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. There is still hopeful expectation by the Turkish side that it will be at the end of the day delivered," Bagci said.

Ramana of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia, however, doubted that the sales of either Patriot or F-35 are "going to go through easily," given the Congressional opposition toward Erdogan.

In addition, he questioned that Turkey should purchase any of these types of weapons, saying "they are all diversions of money from more productive uses."