John Bolton has made a trip to Turkey to demand that Erdogan not target our Kurdish allies and, by all accounts, it hasn’t gone well.
The first reporting we got this morning was that Erdogan refused to even meet with Bolton to discuss protecting our Kurdish allies. And that Erdogan is doubling down on attacking them:
NY POST – Recep Tayyip Erdogan snubbed national security adviser John Bolton and then slammed him for demanding the Turkish leader promise he wouldn’t attack Kurdish forces before the United States pulls its troops out of Syria.
“Bolton has made a serious mistake and whoever thinks like this has also made a mistake. It is not possible for us to make compromises on this point,” Erdogan said Tuesday in a speech to parliament.
He also said he wouldn’t make any concessions regarding the US-backed Kurdish troops that have played a critical role in the battle against Islamic State terrorists in Syria.
Ankara believes the fighters are aligned with Kurdish groups inside Turkey that are trying to disrupt the government.
“If they are terrorists, we will do what is necessary no matter where they come from,” Erdogan said.
Bolton met with his counterpart Ibrahim Kalin and other Syrian officials and pressed them on guaranteeing the safety of the Kurdish fighters, but did not get any.
Erdogan refused to meet with Bolton, according to Turkish media.
A WSJ reporter also suggested that Erdogan said Bolton had made a ‘serious’ mistake in a scathing speech on the Kurdish issue:
With John Bolton still in Ankara, Erdogan is now delivering a scathing speech to parliament saying that Bolton made a “serious mistake” and Turkey will never agree to a compromise that protects Kurdish rebel fighters with the YPG. As expected, this isn’t going so well… https://t.co/ljYacCRduN
— Vivian Salama (@vmsalama) January 8, 2019
It’s also been reported that Bolton fired back at Turkish officials, telling them that Erdogan’s op-ed in the NY Times on on fighting the Kurds was both wrong and offensive. He also gave Turkish officials a document signed by several members of the administration that opposes any mistreatment of our Kurdish allies:
Official: Bolton informed Turkish counterpart today that Erdogan’s op-ed was "wrong and offensive."
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 8, 2019
BREAKING — US National Security Advisor Bolton told Turkish officials that Erdogan’s op-ed on Syria withdrawal was wrong and offensive, Reuters quotes a senior administration official
— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) January 8, 2019
AND
SAO: Bolton presented Kalin with what in diplomatic terms is called a “non-paper” that was agreed to by Pompeo, Shanahan, Dunford, Bolton and Jeffrey. Includes: "The United States opposes any mistreatment of opposition forces who fought with us against ISIS."
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 8, 2019
And lastly, one of Erdogan’s favorite papers in Turkey has now accused Bolton of a ‘crime’:
Top Turkish newspaper’s editorial board dunking on Bolton in scathing new op-ed after his trip to Turkey and snub from Erdogan, accusing Bolton of committing a “serious crime” by preventing Trump from carrying out Syria withdrawal https://t.co/XvAzLcWZuo
— Robbie Gramer (@RobbieGramer) January 8, 2019
Honestly, I’m glad Bolton has shifted Trump’s stance on Syria. It was a terrible idea to leave our Kurdish allies to the mercy of Erdogan, who would most certainly slaughter them.
Though I do wonder, with our new stance on protecting our Kurdish allies, if it will now lead to some sort of clash with Turkey in Syria over the Kurds. Erdogan is clearly very upset and, if you remember, he wanted us to leave Manbij well over a year ago and we refused. Now it appears we are back to square one and I’m not sure how patient Erdogan is going to be over this issue going forward.