“President Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syria was made hastily, without consulting his national security team or allies, and over strong objections from virtually everyone involved in the fight against the Islamic State,” the AP reports.
“Trump stunned his Cabinet, lawmakers and much of the world with the move by rejecting the advice of his top aides and agreeing to a withdrawal in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week.”
“The White House is looking for ways to remove an enemy of Turkish President Recep Erdogan from the U.S. in order to placate Turkey over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” NBC News reports.
“Trump administration officials last month asked federal law enforcement agencies to examine legal ways of removing exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen in an attempt to persuade Erdogan to ease pressure on the Saudi government.”
“President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, having promised to reveal the ‘naked truth’ of a Saudi plot to kill the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, said on Tuesday that a team including Saudi generals had flown in to carry out the mission,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Erdogan’s much-anticipated address came after more than two weeks of carefully orchestrated leaks to the media by Turkey that implicated the highest levels of the government of Saudi Arabia in the death of Mr. Khashoggi.”
Said Erdogan: “Covering up this kind of savagery will hurt the conscience of all humanity. Saudi Arabia took an important step by accepting the murder. After this, we expect them to reveal those responsible for this matter.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he’ll “go into details” about the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at meeting of his AKP party’s parliamentary group on Tuesday, Bloomberg reports.
Said Erdogan: “Why did 15 people come here, why did 18 people get arrested? All of this must be explained with all details.”
Turkey will “never allow a cover-up” of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, a senior official in Turkey’s ruling party said Saturday after Saudi Arabia announced hours earlier that the writer died during a “fistfight” in its consulate, the AP reports.
“The critical reaction by Numan Kurtulmus, deputy head of the Justice and Development Party, suggested that Turkey… was not prepared to go along with the Saudi version of what happened to the writer…. He also said that Turkey would share its evidence of Khashoggi’s killing with the world and that a ‘conclusive result’ of the investigation is close.”
Reuters notes that Saudi officials “provided no evidence to support its account of the circumstances that led to Khashoggi’s death.”
Authorities in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, have renamed the street where the new U.S. embassy is being built “Malcolm X Avenue,” after the civil rights leader, the Guardian reports.
“The move coincides with a period of fraught relations between Turkey and the US and comes after other politically charged name changes to streets in Ankara.”
“The White House expects North Carolina pastor Andrew Brunson to be released by the Turkish government and returned to the U.S. in coming days, two years after he was detained,” NBC News reports.
“Under an agreement senior Trump administration officials recently reached with Turkey, Brunson is supposed to be released after certain charges against him are dropped at his next court hearing, currently scheduled for Friday.”
Foreign policy analyst Ian Bremmer tells CBS News that backstage at the NATO meeting there were elements that were even more eyebrow-raising than reports have suggested.
Said Bremmer: “Trump was very frustrated; he wasn’t getting commitments from other leaders to spend more. Many of them said, ‘Well, we have to ask our parliaments. We have a process; we can’t just tell you we’re going to spend more, we have a legal process.’ Trump turns around to the Turkish president, Recep Erdogan, and says, ‘Except for Erdogan over here. He does things the right way,’ and then actually fist-bumps the Turkish president.”
“It was a startling gesture of support for the increasingly authoritarian Turkish leader, who recently won another term and is widely expected to continue consolidating his power.”
“President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey claimed victory on Sunday in the country’s presidential election, sending tremors that will be felt not just in Turkey but in Western and regional capitals — if it holds up,” the New York Times reports.
“The official results showed him with just under 53 percent of the vote, enough to spare him from going to a second round against his nearest challenger, Muharrem Ince.”
BBC: “Under Turkey’s new constitution, due to come into force after the election, the president will hold considerable power.”
“The Turkish government expanded its crackdown on dissent and free expression over the weekend, purging nearly 4,000 more public officials, blocking access to Wikipedia and banning television matchmaking shows,” the New York Times reports.
“The crackdown has also affected leftists, liberals and members of the secular opposition across most sections of public life, many of whom have long voiced their opposition to the Gulen movement. Those in jail or out of a job include academics, public transport employees, teachers and at least 120 journalists — more than in any other country in the world.”
President Trump “called to congratulate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday after a referendum greatly expanding his powers… despite a more circumspect State Department response to Sunday’s vote, which international election observers declared unfair,” the Washington Post reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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