On the eve of the Biden-Erdogan meeting on June 14th, Congressional Armenian Caucus leaders urge President Biden to Sanction Turkey and Azerbaijan if Azerbaijani leaders do not remove troops from Armenia and return over 200 Armenian POWs.
Turkey's president Ragab Tayyip Erdogan's first meeting with US President Joe Biden next week is overshadowed by deep divergences and cool relations. An array of disputes have strained relations between the United States and Turkey for years.
Biden’s only phone call with Erdogan since entering the White House came in April, when he gave notice that he planned to describe the World War One massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, forerunner of modern Turkey, as a genocide.
Topping the list of disagreements at their talks on the sidelines of a NATO summit will be Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 air defense batteries.
Turkey, a NATO member, has angered the United States by buying the Russian missiles. Washington imposed sanctions on Turkey’s defense industry and cancelled the sale to Ankara of 100 F-35 stealth fighter jets, the most advanced U.S. warplane. It is also ending the role of Turkish firms in making F-35 parts.
Turkey is furious about U.S. support in Syria for the Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara sees as a terrorist group. Turkish forces have carried out three incursions into northern Syria since 2016 to push the YPG back from the border.
The Biden administration has stepped up criticism of Turkey's human rights record and crackdown on dissent. Experts believe such controversial issues would leave little prospect of a breakthrough between the two NATO allies.
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