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Trump and President Erdogan's Remarks in Joint Press Conference; November 13, 2019
REMARKS
Remarks by President Trump and President Erdoğan of Turkey in Joint Press Conference
FOREIGN POLICY
Issued on: November 13, 2019
East Room
4:06 P.M. EST
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody. Please. I want to begin by welcoming the First Lady with us, today, and the First Lady of Turkey. Thank you very much for being here. This is a great honor to have you.
And we had a wonderful and a very productive meeting. And before we start, I would like to thank President Erdoğan for releasing detainee Serkan Golge, who was in detention — in different forms of detention. And I appreciate that very much. That was a very nice tribute. And he’ll be coming back at some point in the not-too-distant future. So, that’s — that’s very good news for the United States and also very good news for Turkey.
{snip}
And some historical developments and allegations are being used in order to dynamite our reciprocal and bilateral relations. Especially in the House of Representatives, some of the resolutions that were passed on October 29th served this very purpose and hurt deeply the Turkish nation, and they have a potential of casting a deep shadow over our bilateral relations. And I shared this information with Mr. President.
The decision makers in an incident that took place about 104 years ago should not be politicians, but historians. We have nothing to hide, and we have a full self-esteem in that regard. But I need to state very clearly that we are, as Turkey, on the side of dialogue and open discussion and debate. And we have voiced our proposals to the Armenian party to open the archives reciprocally and establish a history commission.
I believe the Senate will take this — take the United States out of this vicious cycle, which happened as a result of the resolution of the House of Representatives. Turkey and the United States stand side by side in order to fully eradicate Daesh and in order to bring peace and stability to Syria once and for all. And for this purpose, we should keep on working together.
{snip}
Okay, a couple of questions. Go ahead, OAN. Go ahead.
Q Thank you, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.
Q First, I would like to just start out getting your general reaction today to the impeachment hearings on the Hill. Do you feel that Democrats made their case? And how did you feel about the Republican performance?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Are you talking about the witch hunt? Is that what you mean? Is that what you’re talking about? I hear it’s a joke. I haven’t watched. I haven’t watched for one minute because I’ve been with the President, which is much more important, as far as I’m concerned.
This is a sham and shouldn’t be allowed. It was a situation that was caused by people that shouldn’t have allowed it to happen.
I want to find out who is the whistleblower because the whistleblower gave a lot of very incorrect information, including my call with the President of Ukraine, which was a perfect call and highly appropriate. And he wrote something that was much different than the fact. I want to find out why the IG — why would he have presented that, when, in fact, all he had to do was check the call itself and he would have seen it.
I’m going to be releasing — I think, on Thursday — a second call, which actually was the first of the two. And you’ll make a determination as to what you think there. But I’ve heard — just a report — they said it’s all third-hand information. Nothing direct at all. It can’t be direct because I never said it.
And all they have to do is look very, very simply at the transcript. If you read the transcript — this was analyzed by great lawyers. This was analyzed by Gregg Jarrett. It was analyzed by Mark Levin. It was analyzed by everybody. They said this statement that I made — the whole call that I made with the President of Ukraine was a perfect one.
So — that this country gets put through that, that we have to waste this gentleman’s time by even thinking about it, talking about it — I’d much rather focus on peace in the Middle East. And I hear that it’s — I hear that it’s a hoax, and it’s being played as a hoax. That’s what I hear, but you’ll have to tell me.
Go ahead.
{snip}
Remarks by President Trump and President Erdoğan of Turkey in Joint Press Conference
FOREIGN POLICY
Issued on: November 13, 2019
East Room
4:06 P.M. EST
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody. Please. I want to begin by welcoming the First Lady with us, today, and the First Lady of Turkey. Thank you very much for being here. This is a great honor to have you.
And we had a wonderful and a very productive meeting. And before we start, I would like to thank President Erdoğan for releasing detainee Serkan Golge, who was in detention — in different forms of detention. And I appreciate that very much. That was a very nice tribute. And he’ll be coming back at some point in the not-too-distant future. So, that’s — that’s very good news for the United States and also very good news for Turkey.
{snip}
And some historical developments and allegations are being used in order to dynamite our reciprocal and bilateral relations. Especially in the House of Representatives, some of the resolutions that were passed on October 29th served this very purpose and hurt deeply the Turkish nation, and they have a potential of casting a deep shadow over our bilateral relations. And I shared this information with Mr. President.
The decision makers in an incident that took place about 104 years ago should not be politicians, but historians. We have nothing to hide, and we have a full self-esteem in that regard. But I need to state very clearly that we are, as Turkey, on the side of dialogue and open discussion and debate. And we have voiced our proposals to the Armenian party to open the archives reciprocally and establish a history commission.
I believe the Senate will take this — take the United States out of this vicious cycle, which happened as a result of the resolution of the House of Representatives. Turkey and the United States stand side by side in order to fully eradicate Daesh and in order to bring peace and stability to Syria once and for all. And for this purpose, we should keep on working together.
{snip}
Okay, a couple of questions. Go ahead, OAN. Go ahead.
Q Thank you, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.
Q First, I would like to just start out getting your general reaction today to the impeachment hearings on the Hill. Do you feel that Democrats made their case? And how did you feel about the Republican performance?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Are you talking about the witch hunt? Is that what you mean? Is that what you’re talking about? I hear it’s a joke. I haven’t watched. I haven’t watched for one minute because I’ve been with the President, which is much more important, as far as I’m concerned.
This is a sham and shouldn’t be allowed. It was a situation that was caused by people that shouldn’t have allowed it to happen.
I want to find out who is the whistleblower because the whistleblower gave a lot of very incorrect information, including my call with the President of Ukraine, which was a perfect call and highly appropriate. And he wrote something that was much different than the fact. I want to find out why the IG — why would he have presented that, when, in fact, all he had to do was check the call itself and he would have seen it.
I’m going to be releasing — I think, on Thursday — a second call, which actually was the first of the two. And you’ll make a determination as to what you think there. But I’ve heard — just a report — they said it’s all third-hand information. Nothing direct at all. It can’t be direct because I never said it.
And all they have to do is look very, very simply at the transcript. If you read the transcript — this was analyzed by great lawyers. This was analyzed by Gregg Jarrett. It was analyzed by Mark Levin. It was analyzed by everybody. They said this statement that I made — the whole call that I made with the President of Ukraine was a perfect one.
So — that this country gets put through that, that we have to waste this gentleman’s time by even thinking about it, talking about it — I’d much rather focus on peace in the Middle East. And I hear that it’s — I hear that it’s a hoax, and it’s being played as a hoax. That’s what I hear, but you’ll have to tell me.
Go ahead.
{snip}
NotOutlandishHat Retweeted
Graham blocks resolution recognizing Armenian genocide after Erdoğan meeting
Link to tweet
