US President Donald Trump has written an extraordinary letter warning his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyib Erdogan, which has now surfaced dating 9th October.
In the letter, Trump very outrightly threatened and warned Erdogan from the beginning. “Let’s work out a good deal! You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy and I will.”
Trump wrote in the missive “History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane, it will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen. Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!” he further wrote.
The letter was written in a classic Donald Trump-style where he went on the offensive from the beginning by cutting right to the chase.
On 15 October, the President of the United States informed that he had signed an executive order sanctioning Turkish officials (Defense Minister, Interior Minister and Energy Minister), hiking tariffs on Turkish steel up to 50% and “immediately” halting trade negotiations with the country, which Vice President Mike Pence confirmed Monday.
Donald Trump wrote a letter to the US House of Representatives about Turkey’s National Emergency. According to Trump, the US will immediately stop negotiations on an ongoing $100 billion trade deal with Turkey and steel tariffs will also be increased by 50 percent.
Shortly before announcing the sanctions and tariff hikes, Trump wrote in a thread of tweets that “Anyone who wants to assist Syria in protecting the Kurds is good with me, whether it is Russia, China, or Napoleon Bonaparte.”
….and Assad to protect the land of our enemy? Anyone who wants to assist Syria in protecting the Kurds is good with me, whether it is Russia, China, or Napoleon Bonaparte. I hope they all do great, we are 7,000 miles away!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2019
Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels have launched the offensive in northern Syria to push back from the border members of a Syrian Kurdish militia, called the People’s Protection Units (YPG), and to create a “safe zone” where up to two million Syrian refugees can be resettled.
Earlier Trump had withdrawn US troops from Syria which cleared the way for a Turkish offensive against Kurds who had fought alongside the United States. The President all but washed his hands of the conflict, saying that “it has nothing to do with us.”
Kurdish-led forces have been a critical ally of the US in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria and there are fears that the destabilisation could lead to a jihadist resurgence.
Among the countries that have spoken out against Turkey’s misadventures and condemned it for attack on Syria include America, Syria Russia, France, China, Germany, Israel, India, United Kingdom, and Denmark.
It is clear that Turkey has come under scrutiny by attacking Syria and is facing International backlash. Turkey has been on a slippery slope for far too long and Trump has not shied away from being blunt and attacking in an official letter which many might think is not necessarily in the boundary of diplomatic niceties.
Trump had shown his intent through the letter and his recent flurry of sanctions prove that he was being serious and that Erdogan can not take him lightly.
