US President Trump has not visited Turkey since he took office, while the previous president Barack Obama had made his first foreign visit to Turkey.

There was a considerable falling out in the relationship between US and Turkey in the closing months of Obama’s term, and the Turkish government is hoping to turn a new leaf with Trump’s election.

In this first face to face visit, Erdoğan has Kurds on his agenda specifically. Plus, his former cohort Fethullah Gülen, the fight against ISIS and the Syrian crisis are among the main points.

UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS IS THE MEETING TAKING PLACE?

Erdoğan uses anti-Kurdish language at every chance he gets and wants there to be no relationship with the YPG, and the group be designated a terrorist organization. One week before Erdoğan’s visit to Washington, on May 9, US President Donald Trump approved giving heavy weapons to the YPG. Turkey had another shock in Tabqa, where on May 10, the Syrian Democratic Forces announced that they have completely liberated the Tabqa town and Euphrates Dam from ISIS. The SDF continues to advance towards Raqqa, considered the final operation.

Erdoğan had ordered aerial attacks on Shengal and Rojava before this visit and the attacks targeted the YPG headquarters. The US protested that they were informed of this operation a very short time before it started. On March 30, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Ankara and met with the Turkish President, and it was announced one day before that the invasion movement called “Euphrates Shield” was ended. It was significant that the announcement was made just one day before the visit.

CONGRESS CALLS ON TRUMP

Another main issue that comes up regularly in the relationship between the US and Turkey is the unprecedented rights violations in the country. Before the Trump-Erdoğan meeting, some members of Congress penned a stern letter to the White House.

The letter stated that human rights and democratic values in Turkey had declined and they needed to be supported. Republican Ohio Representative Bill Johnson and Democrat Illinois Representative Brad Schneider wrote the bipartizan letter, and by Monday evening the number of congress members to sign the letter reached 62. The letter reminded Trump that human rights and democratic values are declining in Turkey and asked him to support democracy. The letter pointed out the pressure on the opposition, HDP MPs’ arrest and the dubious referendum results and asked for the US to support democratic values and human rights in Turkey.

WHAT WILL COME OUT OF THE MEETING?

The meeting is taking place under circumstances where Turkey is isolated in the international area as never before. It is unclear how the outcome of the Trump-Erdoğan meeting will be. One of the reasons for this is the unpredictability of Trumps’s policies, while the developments in Rojava and Northern Syria point to a different direction. Turkey wants a fresh start, but the pervading opinion shows that Erdoğan’s demands are “hard to satisfy”.

PYD Co-chair Saleh Moslem had spoken to the ANF on May 14 and said, “The US has a clear stance on the YPG, Turkey should accept this fact.”