President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote an article entitled "Turkey-Russia cooperation is of critical importance for the resolution of the Syrian crisis" for the leading Russian newspaper Kommersant. The civil war that has continued in Syria since 2011 and cost hundreds of thousands of people's lives is moving towards a new stage with the decision of the United States to withdraw its troops in the region. At the meetings which I held with US President Mr. Donald Trump in December, I explained that Turkey is committed to take the necessary steps for re-establishing peace and stability in the Middle East during...
Articles Written by the President
President Trump made the right call to withdraw from Syria. The United States withdrawal, however, must be planned carefully and performed in cooperation with the right partners to protect the interests of the United States, the international community and the Syrian people. Turkey, which has NATO’s second largest standing army, is the only country with the power and commitment to perform that task. In 2016, Turkey became the first country to deploy ground combat troops to fight the so-called Islamic State in Syria. Our military incursion severed the group’s access to NATO’s borders and impeded...
The story is all too familiar: Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and a family man, entered Saudi Arabia’s Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 for marriage formalities. No one – not even his fiancee, who was waiting outside the compound — has ever seen him again. Over the course of the past month, Turkey has moved heaven and earth to shed light on all aspects of this case. As a result of our efforts, the world has learned that Khashoggi was killed in cold blood by a death squad, and it has been established that his murder was premeditated. ...
This week, leaders from all over the world are gathering at the United Nations in New York to exchange their views on mankind’s most pressing problems. The main theme of this year’s meeting—“Making the United Nations relevant to all people”—is telling. It encapsulates the real challenges the organization is facing: Namely, despite the hard work of U.N. staff across many different agencies, the body is suffering from an unprecedented crisis of credibility. The main reason for the U.N.’s current troubles is the Security Council’s...
For the past six decades, Turkey and the United States have been strategic partners and NATO allies. Our two countries stood shoulder to shoulder against common challenges during the Cold War and in its aftermath. Over the years, Turkey rushed to America’s help whenever necessary. Our military servicemen and servicewomen shed blood together in Korea. In 1962, the Kennedy administration was able to get the Soviets to remove missiles from Cuba by removing Jupiter missiles from Italy and Turkey. In the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, when Washington counted on its friends and allies to strike back against...