U.S. President Joe Biden congratulated President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his re-election victory, as the two leaders agreed to further enhance Türkiye-U.S. relations, the Presidential Communications Directorate said Monday.
Noting that Türkiye-U.S. relations have become more prominent in the face of global and regional challenges, the two leaders said they would work to enhance cooperation in all issues.
"I look forward to continuing to work together as NATO allies on bilateral issues and shared global challenges," Biden tweeted, making no mention of recent tensions in the bilateral relationship.
Türkiye-U.S. relations have been strained in recent years due to the latter's cooperation with the PKK terrorist group's Syrian offshoot YPG, its stance toward the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), disagreements over Türkiye's purchase of Russia's S-400 air defense system and Washington's sanctions against Türkiye.
The PKK is a designated terrorist organization in the U.S., Türkiye and the European Union, and Washington's support for its Syrian affiliate has been a major strain on bilateral relations with Ankara. The U.S. primarily partnered with the YPG in northeastern Syria to fight the Daesh terrorist group. On the other hand, Türkiye strongly opposed the YPG's presence in northern Syria. Ankara has long objected to the U.S.' support for the YPG, a group that poses a threat to Türkiye and that terrorizes local people, destroying their homes and forcing them to flee.
Under the pretext of fighting Daesh, the U.S. has provided military training and given truckloads of military support to the YPG, despite its NATO ally's security concerns. The U.S. has said it is cooperating with the YPG in northern Syria to fight the terrorist group Daesh, but Turkish officials say using one terrorist group to fight another makes no sense, morally or otherwise. Underlining that one cannot support one terrorist group to defeat another, Türkiye conducted its own counterterrorism operations, throughout which it has managed to eliminate a significant number of terrorists from the region.