Erdoğan hopes Trump will stop war in Middle East, Ukraine

Reuters & Duvar English

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Nov. 8 voiced his expectations of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, expressing confidence that Trump could "end" Israel's ongoing genocide in Palestine, as well as Russia's war in Ukraine.

Erdoğan hopes Trump will tell Israel to 'stop' war

Erdoğan said that he hoped Trump will tell Israel to "stop" its war efforts, suggesting a good start would behalting U.S. arms support to Israel.

"Trump has made promises to end conflicts... We want that promise to be fulfilled and for Israel to be told to 'stop'," Erdoğan told reporters on a return flight from Budapest, according to an official readout.

"Mr. Trump cutting off the arms support provided to Israel could be a good start in order to stop the Israeli aggression in Palestinian and Lebanese lands," he was cited as saying.

Turkey has fiercely criticized Israel's offensives in the Palestinian territory of Gaza and in Lebanon, and has halted trade with Israel as well as applied to join a genocide case against Israel at the World Court. Israel strongly denies the genocide accusations.

Trump's presidency will seriously affect political and military balances in the Middle East region, Erdoğan said, adding that pursuing current U.S. policies would deepen deadlock in the region and spread the conflict.

Erdoğan sees easy end to Ukraine war if Trump takes solution-based approach

War in Ukraine could end easily if the U.S. administration under Trump takes a solution-based approach, Turkish President was quoted as saying on Nov. 8.

"We can easily end this war if we see a Trump administration that approaches the issue with a solution-based perspective. More dialogue, diplomacy, agreement will open the door to peace, not weapons, bombs and conflict," Erdoğan said.

He added in an in-flight interview with reporters on his way back from Budapest that efforts by Western countries, led by the United States, to end war in Ukraine would accelerate a solution to the conflict.

Trump said during campaigning that he could bring peace in Ukraine within 24 hours if elected, but has given few details on how he would seek to end the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two.

The administration of President Joe Biden has given strong support to Ukraine throughout the war in the form of significant heavy weaponry, as well as broad security and financial assistance.

While supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity, condemning its invasion by Russia, and providing it with military support, NATO member Turkey has also opposed Western sanctions on Russia, with which it has important relations in defense, energy and tourism.

Since March, Turkey has been calling for a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine and offering to mediate, saying the negative impact of the conflict on the world needs to be mitigated.

"We are a country that has managed to bring both sides together around the same table. We have done this many times and can do it again. This war must end now. We have focused our efforts on peace and will continue to do so," Erdoğan said.

Erdogan is alone among NATO leaders in holding regular talks with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin, and he hosted talks between Moscow and Kyiv in 2022, positioning Turkey as a natural facilitator of future peace talks.

Eying reset in ties, Erdoğan invites Trump to visit Turkey

President Erdoğan also sought to reset Turkey's strained ties with the United States by inviting Trump to visit, and said president-elect spoke very positively about Turkey during a phone call.

Trump's election victory this week was generally met with cheer in NATO-member Turkey, with markets rallying and some officials cautiously optimistic about prospects for new U.S. economic policies.

Erdoğan told reporters that he hoped Trump would accept the invitation.

He said he hoped a visit would strengthen cooperation between Turkey and the U.S. and lead to a relationship "different from (Trump's) previous term", when clashes on a number of issues led to Washington imposing punitive tariffs that hurt Turkey's economy.

"We had a sincere call with Mr. Trump while he was at a family dinner (that included) Elon Musk and Musk's child," Erdoğan said of the Nov. 6 call, according to an official Turkish readout.

"He had very nice things to say about Turkey regarding the period ahead. We invited him to our country. I hope he accepts..."

Ankara's cooperation with Trump's White House could also help solve regional crises, added Erdoğan.

Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden did not visit Turkey during his term and Erdoğan's planned White House visit early this year fell through with little explanation, underlining the cool relations.

While Erdoğan and Trump had closer personal bonds in Trump's 2017-21 term as president, it was also a period of strained bilateral ties due to disputes over Washington's ties with Kurdish fighters in Syria and over Ankara's ties with Moscow.

An official in Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) told Reuters that Ankara expects the Trump administration to be more flexible and understanding of its security needs, especially against the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) in Syria and Iraq.

Trump's tense first term

After Trump's election win, Turkish lira touched its strongest level in weeks, while Istanbul stocks.XU100 have since risen more than 5%.

Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said on Nov. 7 he expected Trump to lower tariffs on Turkey's steel and textile exports, even as Trump has promised to levy 10% tariffs on all imported goods.

The fallout still lingers from clashes between Turkey and the United States during Trump's first term, when Washington was angered by Turkey's purchase of a Russian missile defense system and the jailing of U.S. citizens including a pastor.

The Turkish economy bore the brunt of the strains, including higher tariffs on metal imports imposed by Trump in 2018, contributing to the first in a series of lira currency crises that set off years of soaring inflation.

The strains grew in 2019 as Turkey launched an incursion against a Syrian Kurdish militia that Ankara calls a terrorist group but which is a U.S. ally against Islamic State.

At the time, Trump threatened to "totally destroy and obliterate" Turkey's economy over the operation. He sent Erdoğan a letter saying: "You don't want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don't want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy - and I will."

In the same letter Trump told Erdoğan not to be a "tough guy" or "fool." 

Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat and director of the Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM) said Ankara would probably be happy with a Trump victory in the short term, making it easier to open dialogue after the stand-offish Biden years.

But broader foreign policy differences on issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Syria could still become thorny in the long term, he added.

"Ankara will try to create an agenda aimed at a reset in Turkish-American ties. This can easily turn into a more transactional relationship that Trump can get on board with," he said. "What the United States' expectation will be of Turkey in such a relationship, that needs to be cleared up."