Did Trump Give Erdogan License to Kill PKK Militants Inside Iraq?

Posted: May 24th, 2017

By Soner Cagaptay

Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute. He has written extensively on U.S.-Turkish relations, Turkish domestic politics, and Turkish nationalism.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Washington last week to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump. Despite budding tensions over the Trump administration’s decision to arm the Kurdish YPG (Peoples’ Protection Units) militia in Syria, which Erdogan considers to be a terrorist organization, the meeting largely went off without a hitch. The Cipher Brief’s Fritz Lodge spoke with Soner Cagaptay, Director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and author of “The New Sultan,” about how we should read the result of this first meeting between the two leaders.

The Cipher Brief: What was your reaction to the to the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his visit to Washington last week?

Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.

Could Trump’s Shocking Plan for Gaza Lead Anywhere?

BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT – As President Donald Trump doubles down on his idea of a U.S. takeover of Gaza, Arab governments are also doubling […] More

February 7th, 2025 by The Cipher Brief

China’s Preparations for a ‘Major-Power War’

EXPERT INTERVIEW – A report from China about a massive new military command center – a complex that, when completed, is expected to be 10 […] More

February 5th, 2025 by The Cipher Brief

Iran, the Nuclear Program, and Trump 2.0

As the second Trump Administration took office, it found a Middle East landscape that had been transformed dramatically in the last year alone. Nowhere is […] More

February 4th, 2025 by The Cipher Brief

Parsing the Opportunity from Extreme Challenges in the Middle East

EXPERT INTERVIEW / PERSPECTIVE – The Middle East has changed dramatically over the past four years, creating both extraordinary challenges and opportunities for the region […] More

January 27th, 2025 by The Cipher Brief

EXPERT ANALYSIS

Wanted: A US Strategy for ‘Offense’ in Cybersecurity

BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT — The U.S. is facing an onslaught from adversaries in cyberspace, and while conversations about the response has focused on bolstering cybersecurity […] More

January 26th, 2025 by The Cipher Brief

NATO and Ukraine in the Trump 2.0 Era

EXPERT INTERVIEWS — While the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has long counted the United States among its most generous and loyal members, many NATO nations […] More

January 24th, 2025 by The Cipher Brief