A bipartisan group of senators is calling on President Trump to rebuke Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his authoritarian policies when the two NATO leaders meet on Tuesday.
“The United States must be candid and consistent in our support of democratic values and respect for human rights for the sake of Turkey’s future and our long-term interests in the region,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., wrote in a letter signed by 15 colleagues. “We therefore urge you to make support for Turkish democracy and human rights a priority, both in your meetings with President Erdogan next week and in U.S. policy toward Turkey thereafter.”
The lawmakers released the letter Tuesday, just before Erdogan’s visit to the White House, a meeting that takes place at a delicate time for the U.S.-Turkey relations. Erdogan blamed U.S. leaders for an attempted coup last year, which he cited as justification for a crackdown in dissenting media as he pushed a constitutional referendum that expanded his authority.
He has also accused the United States of supporting terrorism, because the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State includes a Kurdish fighting force, an ethnic minority with ties to a separatist group in Turkey. Looming over all that is the potential for Turkey, a NATO ally, to forge closer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government.
“Erdogan and his allies have mounted an assault on the rule of law, particularly using sweeping state of emergency authorities to stifle fundamental rights including free speech, undermine the independence of the judiciary, and quash any opposition to their undemocratic actions,” Rubio and Menendez wrote. “They have thrown thousands of Turks in jail, including dozens of journalists, and left many of their citizens and even Americans in Turkey, fearful for their own futures.”
Trump has taken a conciliatory position with Erdogan, even while implementing policies that might aggravate the Turkish leader’s anger over U.S. cooperation with the Kurds. Trump congratulated Erdogan for winning the constitutional referendum, despite widespread belief that the election was conducted unfairly. But he also decided to provide weapons to the Syrian Kurds in an effort to set the stage of the liberation of Raqqa, the chief stronghold of ISIS.
“We are keenly aware of the security concerns of our coalition partner Turkey,” Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said following the decision to arm the Kurds. “We want to reassure the people and government of Turkey that the U.S. is committed to preventing additional security risks and protecting our NATO ally.”
Trump’s team might be hesitant to press Erdogan over rule-of-law issues in Turkey, in light of those foreign policy issues, if Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s recent remarks are any guide.
“[I]n some circumstances, if you condition our national security efforts on someone adopting our values, we probably can’t achieve our national security goals or our national security interests,” Tillerson said during an address to State Department staff on May 3. “If we condition too heavily that others must adopt this value that we’ve come to over a long history of our own, it really creates obstacles to our ability to advance our national security interests, our economic interests.”
