President Erdoğan meets with U.S. President Trump

 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is in Washington, D.C. for a working visit, met with President Donald Trump of the United States at the White House.

Upon their arrival at the White House, President Erdoğan and First Lady Emine Erdoğan were welcomed by U.S. President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.

After posing for the press with their wives, the two leaders headed to the Oval Office for their talks.

Following his tete-a-tete with U.S. President Trump and the working dinner between delegations, President Erdoğan met with Republican U.S. senators.

“THE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP OF TURKEY AND THE U.S. IN NATO IS UNQUESTIONABLE”

Addressing U.S. senators, President Erdoğan said that, during his meeting with U.S. President Trump, they had a great opportunity to discuss bilateral relations and focused on the $100-billion trade volume goal.

Underscoring that the strategic partnership of Turkey and the U.S. in NATO is unquestionable, President Erdoğan underlined that Turkey is among the top 5 countries which fulfill their responsibilities within NATO.

President Erdoğan also voiced his belief that the NATO Summit to be held in London on December 3-4 will be very dynamic.

In answer to a senator’s question, President Erdoğan said: “Kurds are at the same time my citizens. It is my country where the most Kurds live in the world. There are nearly 50 Kurdish deputies from my party in the parliament at the moment. There is no such thing in others. It is my party which has the largest political party organization in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia.”

“PYD/YPG IS AN OFFSHOOT OF PKK”

 “You can only understand the investments I have made in those regions if you see them on site,” President Erdoğan said. “The number of Kurds who took refuge in my country from Kobane during the Obama administration is 350-360 thousand. When no one else accepted them, we did. We are taking care of their clothing, their food, their healthcare and education. No one else has supported them financially. However, the ones, to whom you refer to as the Kurds, are probably the PYD/YPG. I especially would like to give you certain documents. For example, Ferhat Abdi Şahin is actually the foster son of the separatist terrorist leader called “Apo”. Surely, it is useful to know that. As Mr. President said – I stated that during the Obama administration- we must establish the safe zone. With an international donors meeting. We can describe the 444 kilometer long and 32 kilometers deep zone in north of Syria as the safe zone. We have drafted the plans, prepared the projects. If we take the step here, we can settle 1 million refugees in this safe zone with residences and everything. We can also settle another million in Raqqa and Deir ez Zor. Of the 4 million refugees in our country, 3 million 650 thousand people are Arab, Chaldean and Christian. And 350 thousand of them are Kurdish. 4 million people in total. The total amount of investments we have made so far is $40 billion. And unfortunately, the total amount we have received from Europe during this whole period is merely €3 billion, which went not to our national budget but to the Red Crescent and the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency through NGOs.”