Beirut – North-Press Agency
Khorshid Delli
The summit of the United States President Donald Trump and Turkish President Erdogan ended without reaching solutions to the many controversial issues between the two allied countries for nearly seven decades, perhaps the prominent thing of this summit, as it emerged during the joint press conference between the two presidents, is the magnitude of the compliments between Trump and Erdogan and their eagerness to appear as a political consensus contrary to the reality of the controversial issues, which drew attention to the personal relations and bilateral interests between them. On the eve of the meeting, the American media also spoke to the extent that, this phenomenon has become prominent in Trump's relations, policies and his attitudes, where the United States policy hasn't witnessed during the past decades.
Outstanding differences
The size of American concerns regarding the Turkish rapprochement with Russia was clear, especially in the case of Turkey's completion of the missile defense system S-400, as the U.S. is keen to push Turkey to get rid of this deal in order to preserve U.S.-Turkish strategic relations, and perhaps the American vision here is based on Turkey to don't operate this system and only store it in military bases after buying it from Russia. Washington realizes that, Erdogan can no longer retreat from this deal, due to the repercussions of such a step on his future, and it can be said that, Trump's efforts in this regard tend to convince Erdogan about a range of financial, military and political benefits in the relationship in order to make the decision not to operate the S-400 system, and perhaps Trump's talk of $100 billion in financial and business deals is in this context.
On the other hand, Erdogan, who has been investing in the Russian-American conflict on Turkey's position, is thinking carefully about the consequences of this step, as it will affect his credibility at home on one hand, and on the other hand on the future of his relationship with Russia, which is vital for his policy, especially towards the Syrian crisis and towards northeastern Syria and the Turkish agenda there more special. This may take us to the second controversial point, although Washington has reduced its military presence in the East of Euphrates, it was clear from Trump's statements as well as from the U.S. steps on the ground that, the U.S.-Turkish dispute will remain in place in this regard, as long as Ankara believes that the scale of the relationship with Washington in this regard depends on the latter's stopping its military support for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which explains Erdogan's insistence on the repetition describing these forces as terrorists during the joint press conference, while Trump, and then his Defense Secretary Mark Esper responded indirectly to continue sticking to the SDF alliance. As it was remarkable, Trump's positive talk about the Kurds when Erdogan launched a campaign against General Mazloum Abdi from the angle of terrorism, but what was remarkable here is Trump's attempt to market that the ceasefire agreement in northeastern Syria is going well, which is the opposite of the reality, as everyone is aware that, Turkish aggression and Turkish-backed armed opposition groups within the umbrella of the so-called National Army is still going on, although the pace has eased.
Beyond the S-400 system and the Kurds, the cases of Fethullah Gulen, Halk Bank, the U.S. House of Representatives' recognition of the Armenian Genocide and other controversial issues remained outstanding, despite Erdogan's attempts to mitigate their impact when he asserted that, legal and historical aspects would resolve these differences.
Deep fears
In fact, it is clear that, the U.S.-Turkish relations haven't witnessed such differences in history, which have become difficult to resolve through political courtesies or even rotating them, as long as Erdogan is being tweeted out of NATO policies and even go in political options which contradict the policies of NATO as in the case of the purchase of the S-400 missile system deal, and even the aggression on northeastern Syria, as the French President Emmanuel Macron spoke. Therefore, the theory of sanctions is strongly present in both the U.S. Congress and in Brussels, and this is what Erdogan strongly fears, as he knows that, taking real sanctions by these powers will be devastating to his country, not only in terms of the Turkish lira, but the overall economic, industrial and commercial structure, as long as the Turkish public structure was established and formed since the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, on the basis of association with the West and integration into its public security system, and it is suffice to mention here that, about %50 of the total Turkish military industrialization depends on American companies, and this applies to other commercial and economic areas, especially with the European countries.
In view of this reality, we can say that, the Trump-Erdogan summit has failed in terms of results despite the keenness of the two men on political marketing and showing compatibility between them, and thus the U.S.-Turkish relations entered the phase of waiting for the maturity of differences, whether to develop the relationship positively or pushed to clash. In the Senate, during the days of the vote on the Armenian Genocide after its approval by House of Representatives, with Erdogan's procrastination in the S-400 deal and his insistence on the continuation of the aggression in northeastern Syria, congressional voices calling for harsh sanctions on Turkey may find their way to the table, despite all of Trump's attempts to maintain the political marketing approach in managing the differences between the two countries.