In a wide-ranging question and answer session from the press, President-elect Donald Trump speculated over what was behind the collapse of Syria and the fall of President Bashar al-Assad.
He said the jihadist rebel victory in Syria was really an 'unfriendly takeover' by Turkey. The explanation he gave at first generated headlines which made it appear he was condemning and lashing out at Turkish action; however, the full comments were a bit more sympathetic and deferential to Erdogan and to Turkey.
In the comments he hailed Turkey's regional role as a major power and his personal ties with President Erdogan.
"Turkey is a major force, by the way, and Erdogan is somebody I got along with great but he has a major military force. And he has not been worn out with war," Trump told reporters at the briefing held at Mar-a-Lago estate. "He's built a very strong, powerful army" - he said in reference to Erdogan.
"[Erdogan] is a very smart guy and very tough, but Turkey did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost. I can say that Assad was a butcher here what he did to children.”
Trump also explained that "Turkey is the one behind it" and stressed "They wanted it for 1000s of years, and he got it, and those people that went in are controlled by Turkey, and that's okay. It's another way to but no, I don't think that."
He said that while "nobody knows" the future of post-Assad Syria, he still thinks "Turkey is going to hold the key to" the nation. "Actually, I don't think you've heard that from anybody else, but I've been pretty good at predicting," Trump followed with, but without saying whether he will eventually pull US forces out of Syria.
Turkey’s leader of the opposition believes Israel and US have reached an agreement to topple Assad by sending HTS to Damascus.
— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) December 16, 2024
“They agreed that the army would not resist, the prime minister would surrender, and Assad would say he resigned and flee as planned.” pic.twitter.com/BhBLs3vKY6
The presence of US forces in Deir Ezzor and Hasakeh regions has frequently outraged Turkey, especially given US troops are training and arming Syrian Kurdish YGP forces (which form the core of the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF). But Ankara views this group as but an extension of the outlawed PKK.
