President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife, Emine Erdogan, came to the White House. US President Trump and his wife welcomed President Erdoğan and Emine Erdoğan. Trump made the first statements before the interview. US President Trump said “We’ll talk about trade agreements here. We want to develop trade relations with Turkey significantly. Along with Turkey, we can get it up to $ 100 billion. We will organize our relations and we want to improve our trade relations for our countries. ” President Erdogan and US President Trump’s meeting at the White House ended. The interview lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes. Speaking after Trump at a joint press conference, President Erdogan said they are determined to open a new chapter in relations. Erdogan criticized the “Armenian Genocide” decision in the House of Representatives and told him that he had declared his discomfort to President Trump. President Erdoğan shared the latest numbers of suspects caught in the fight against ISIS and said the source countries should take back foreign fighters. Erdogan stressed that 40 billion dollars have been spent on Syrian refugees, but the EU has transferred only 3 billion euros to Turkish NGOs. Erdogan also said at the press conference, “We once again emphasize our demands and expectations for the termination of FETÖ’s presence in the United States.”
Trump explainin that as a result of the agreement between Turkey and the USA, the ‘cease-fire’ in the northeast of Syria is still preserved and said “I understand their (YPG-PKK and Turkey) problems. Many people lost their life in the region we discussed. We have to do something about it. This is not a one-way road. ” Trump stressed that they will talk to President Erdoğan about the S-400 and F-35.
The leaders then passed to a bilateral meeting. The meeting, which was closed to the press, took 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Erdogan, regarding the safe zone, “between 6 months and 2 years, we can place 1 million refugees in the Safe Zone. 1 million in the region of Raqqa and Deirzor.” Stating that the investment of Turkey for Syrian refugees is 40 billion USD said that “What we get from Europe is unfortunately only 3 billion USD.”
US President Trump saying that Turkey is hosting 4 million Syrians and said that from this moment, Europe has to take responsibility in this subject.
Trump- Erdoğan meeting also got an effect in US press. ABCNews, used the statement “Trump welcomes Erdogan as a friend despite US-Turkish tensions”
The Washington Post newspaper reported the visit; ‘Trump thanked Erdogan at the White House for the cease-fire in Syria.”
The British Guardian said Erdogan’s visit to the US was critical: Syria, Russia and sanctions are on the agenda.
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