A list of requests for him has been prepared by , with the character of “urgent”, ready for a new “bargain” with the American leader whom he believes he managed to “decode” during his first term in the White House and with whom he still maintains open channels communication. Greece is absent from Ankara’s list, but Cyprus is present.
The four requests
At the top is the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) but also the abstention of American troops from the conflicts there. The Turkish president is expected to press for immediate results, although at the same time he is “running” the process of political normalization with the Kurdish factor, through the disarmament of the PKK.
A second Turkish demand is the complete lifting of US sanctions imposed on the Russian S-400 air defense missile systems procured by Ankara, a constant point of US-Turkish friction.
A third demand is the return of Turkey to the F-35 program, from which it was expelled due to the S-400. Alternatively, Ankara requests the return of 1.5 billion. euros she paid for her participation in the program.
Erdogan’s last request to Trump concerns the lifting of the arms embargo to the pseudo-state of Northern Cyprus.
What do Erdogan’s requests signal?
Finally, lifting the arms embargo on the Turkish Cypriot pseudo-state “is not on the US agenda at this time and we will not see progress,” says Mr. Bryza.
“The issue of the S-400 is particularly complicated and it will not be easy to satisfy the Turkish request, although I think it is a higher priority of the American, than the Turkish, agenda. There is no indication of which solution will be promoted. In general, though, I’m not particularly optimistic. Trump himself may be favorable towards Turkey, but we know there will be backlash in Congress,” Turkish political scientist Tarik Basbuoglu tells Vima.
He adds that the requests for the S-400 and the F-35 are “absolutely interrelated. the door of negotiations with Ankara and will work out an alternative that will not be considered an aggressive move against Russia. One solution could be to send the S-400s to a country that will take on a mediator role. However, I do not think that Turkey will transfer them to Syria or to some border buffer zone in Syria.”
The request which “is equally complex, even though the peace negotiations with the PKK are ongoing, while at the same time, Ankara is pressuring the Kurdish forces to link up with Damascus. We don’t know what will happen. The signals we receive from the Syrian side are contradictory,” the Turkish analyst continues, recalling that “Trump wanted to withdraw American forces from Syria, but Congress stopped him.”
“The political establishment as well as the US Pentagon remain extremely concerned about ISIS prisoners in Kurdish northeast Syria. That is why the US attitude towards Syria is unpredictable. The American response to Turkey’s broader agenda of demands is uncertain with the added factor that Trump himself is an unpredictable leader.”
