What did President Trump get? Well, he got a photo-op with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan — some counter-programming on the first day of formal impeachment hearings — and visual evidence that he was still on the job.

So Turkey’s president gets his White House meeting , gets to keep his Russian-built missile system, and gets to continue efforts to rid northern Syria of its Kurds — Kurdish fighters and civilians alike.

Trump’s cozy relationship with the irredeemably autocratic Erdogan makes even some of his Republican supporters squeamish, but apparently not so much that five Republican senators wouldn’t trot over to the Oval Office to share the spotlight Wednesday.


Generally, White House welcomes can serve two purposes — a high profile reward for friends and allies who do the “right thing” or an opportunity to reach a compromise on some contentious issue. By all accounts, this particular meeting had zero results in changing any of Erdogan’s policies. Even worse, it gave him a national platform to criticize the US House for its recent vote to recognize the 1915 mass murder of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide and to make another pitch for the arrest of a Turkish cleric (now residing in Pennsylvania) whom he blames, without evidence, for an attempted 2016 coup. On the day of Erdogan’s visit, Senator Lindsey Graham blocked a resolution in the Senate to recognize the Armenian genocide, citing his meeting with both presidents.

Erdogan, an ostensible NATO ally, opted to purchase Russia’s S-400 missile defense system earlier this year instead of the US-made Patriot system. The purchase has caused major anxiety within the Pentagon, which fears the system can be used to gather intelligence on the new stealth F-35 jet fighters, which Turkey has been involved in producing parts for. The S-400 purchase should have triggered sanctions under the 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. It hasn’t — because Trump refuses to invoke them.


Instead, Trump called Erdogan “a great NATO ally and a strategic partner of the United States around the world.” And he promised not sanctions but more trade, as much as $100 billion in trade.

On the Syrian front, Erdogan last month ignored US pleas not to invade northern border towns under the control of the Kurds who served so bravely as US allies in the fight against the Islamic State. Instead of the strong rebuke he deserved, Turkey’s president got profuse thanks from Trump for “his cooperation,” presumably for belatedly abiding by a cease-fire negotiated by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — a cease-fire that was necessary only after President Trump withdrew American troops from northern Syria, triggering the Turkish aggression.

There have, however, been numerous reports of war crimes committed against civilians in the region by Turkish-backed forces as they moved to secure the 20-mile deep buffer zone Turkey has demanded be rid of its Kurdish population. Our own State Department has reportedly documented at least four credible cases of war crimes, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. But still Trump insists he is a “big fan” of Erdogan.

Does that mean forces under his direction get a free pass on war crimes?


And what of the 180,000 or so civilians the United Nations reports have already been displaced from the region? Is there no punishment, no sanction for causing a humanitarian crisis in Turkey’s quest for its buffer zone?

Apparently Trump is not familiar with the adage that rewarding bad behavior is likely to result in more bad behavior. Because that’s exactly what he has done, while eroding America’s leadership on the world stage as a defender of humanitarian values.