Erdogan says relying on Trump to end Ukraine, Gaza wars

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he was confident in the diplomatic efforts of the new Trump administration to help end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Erdogan spoke while returning from a summit in Budapest a day after Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the US election.

“If we see a US administration that approaches the issue from a solutions-based perspective, we can easily end this war” in Ukraine, Anadolu state news agency quoted Erdogan as telling reporters on his plane.

“More weapons, bombs, chaos and conflict will not end this war but more dialogue, diplomacy and agreement will open the door to peace,” he said.

Erdogan, who had good ties with the US billionaire during his first term in office, said he wanted to discuss the question of US troops in northeastern Syria who are offering support to a Kurdish armed group that spearheaded efforts to oust ISIS militants in 2019.

“We will evaluate the issue of the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, and how they will end their support for terrorist organizations,” he said referring to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Ankara sees the YPG as an offshoot of the banned PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) which has led a decades-long deadly insurgency against the Turkish state.

“I believe we will manage this through our personal contact,” said Erdogan who insisted he had “no difficulty communicating” with Trump during his first term in office.