Apparently Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, felt the best place for Donald Trump’s WWE style “trash talking” letter was in the trash!
Fox News is reporting that the letter, which they first released, in which the president urged Erdogan “not to be a fool,” wound up in the trash bin. According to sources, Erdogan had a simple response to President Trump’s Oct. 9 letter warning him against taking action along the Syrian border: He threw it “in the bin.”
Sources close to Erdogan confirmed to the BBC Thursday that the Turkish strongman “thoroughly rejected” the letter in which Trump threatened to “[destroy] the Turkish economy” if he took military action in Syria following his announcement several days earlier to withdraw all U.S. troops from the northeast of Syria.
Erdogan reportedly took the letter warning against being a “fool” and tossed it “in the bin,” the sources said.
The letter, first obtained by Fox Business Network, came the same day Erdogan launched a Turkish military offensive into Syria, claiming it wanted to “neutralize terror threats” and establish a “safe zone.”
Turkish forces last Wednesday carried out airstrikes and later announced ground troops had invaded northeastern Syria.
Nearly all U.S. troops there have been removed and will be redeployed in the region in the coming weeks, something critics said was the “green light” for Erdogan to act.
“You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy – and I will,” the letter continued.
“History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way. It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen,” Trump warned.
Turkey Agrees to Ceasefire
And yet, despite his seeming disdain at Trump’s letter, and his cross-border incursion anyway on the day he received it, on Thursday, October 10, Vice-President Mike Pence announced that Erdogan agreed to a US brokered ceasefire. ABC News is reporting that Turkey has agreed to a ceasefire in northern Syria between its forces and their allied rebels and U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds. Pence met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier on Thursday to push for the ceasefire.
“It will be a pause in military operation for 120 hours, while the United States facilitates the withdrawal of YPG (the People’s Protection Units) from the affected areas in the safe zone. And once that is completed, Turkey has agreed to a permanent ceasefire and the United States of America will work with Turkey — will work with nations around the world — to make sure peace and stability are the order of the day in this safe zone,” Pence said at a news conference.