President Donald Trump sent an extraordinary letter to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week warning him he could destroy Turkey’s economy if the situation in Syria is not contained and resolved in a humane way, CNN has confirmed.
The letter was sent Oct. 9 — three days after the two leaders had spoken by phone, and the same day the Turkish incursion into Syria began.
In the letter, Trump tells Erdogan: “Let’s work out a good deal” and “Don’t be a fool!”
The US President also warned his Turkish counterpart not to “be a tough guy!”
“Don’t let the world down,” Trump wrote, adding that the Kurds are willing to negotiate and willing to “make concessions that they never would have made in the past.”
Trump ends by saying, “History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way.” He warns that history will look at Erdogan “forever as the devil if good things don’t happen.”
The letter was first reported by Fox Business.
Trump’s letter is dated just days after he had spoken to Erdogan by phone on Oct. 6. That conversation was followed by an announcement from the White House that Turkey would soon begin a military offensive and US forces would not be involved in the operation.
“Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria,” a statement said. “The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial ‘Caliphate,’ will no longer be in the immediate area.”
A week after the call, on Sunday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced that Trump had ordered the remaining US troops out of northern Syria.
“We have American forces likely caught between two opposing, advancing armies and it’s a very untenable situation. I spoke with the President last night, after discussions with the rest of the national security team, and he directed that we begin a deliberate withdrawal of forces from northern Syria,” Esper said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “Which is where most of our forces are.”
Trump said Wednesday that Turkey’s incursion into northern Syria “has nothing to do with us” and added that former US allies — the Kurds — are “not angels.”
He also falsely claimed that the Kurds “are much safer now,” despite his recent decision to pull US forces out of northern Syria, where the US had been fighting alongside the Kurds.
“Our soldiers are not in harm’s way, as they shouldn’t be, as two countries fight over land that has nothing to do with us. And the Kurds are much safer now. The Kurds know how to fight and as I said, they’re not angels,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
“But they fought with us. We paid a lot of money for them to fight with us, and that’s OK. They did well when they fought with us. They didn’t do so well when they didn’t fight with us,” he added.