Turkey is confident its relations with the U.S. will improve significantly under President-elect Donald Trump, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said on the eve of Trump’s inauguration as America’s 45th president.
In remarks made in an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday, Cavusoglu said Turkey expects a positive response to its concerns that the outgoing President Barack Obama’s administration is believed to have played down.
The foreign minister pointed out two main issues for Turkey in its relationship with the U.S, including "its request for U.S. extradition of Fetullah Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based Turkish cleric charged with orchestrating last summer’s coup attempt, and U.S. dependence on and support for Syrian Kurdish fighters that Turkey considers terrorists."
He expressed confidence in Trump’s leadership to remove Turkey’s concerns.
“I am confident that there is definitely a better understanding of both concerns by Trump," said Cavusoglu who came to the U.S. for the inauguration of Trump and met this week with Michael T. Flynn, the president-elect’s designated national security adviser.
“We need to rebuild mutual trust,” Cavusoglu said, adding that “anti-Americanism is on the rise in Turkey.
"Turkey is confident that its relations with the United States will improve significantly under President-elect Donald Trump."