Graham rebukes Erdoğan over video shown in White House

Republican Senator, one of the harshest critics of Turkey's incursion into northern Syria, has slammed a video shown by President Erdoğan during a White House meeting, saying that it amounts to "propaganda." “I acknowledge you got a legitimate national security concern about armed elements on your border. But do you want me to get the Kurds to play a video about what your forces have done?” Graham told Erdoğan.

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Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has criticized a video shown by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during a meeting in the White House, saying that the video amounts to "propaganda."

During the meeting, Erdoğan showed a video featuring attacks by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), as well as footage of the group's Syrian affiliate Peoples' Protection Units (YPG).

The video aimed to convince the U.S. side that Mazloum Kobani, the leader of the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is a "terrorist," although U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly praised him and his organization.

Erdoğan reportedly pulled out an iPad to show the video, which was later made available to public by Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, to a group of five Republican senators and President Trump.

Graham, one of the loudest critics of Turkey’s offensive into Syria, said the video amounted to propaganda.

“I'm not here to retry the past,” Graham said. “I acknowledge you got a legitimate national security concern about armed elements on your border.”

“But do you want me to get the Kurds to play a video about what your forces have done?” he said.

Graham described himself as being “very firm” throughout the meeting.

“We can acknowledge the legitimate national security concerns of Turkey. But you will not do it by a military invasion by Turkey of Syria. That's not a safe zone. That's a formula for disaster. It is up to Turkey now,” Graham said.

Turkey launched an offensive in northern Syria with the aim of clearing its border from militants of the YPG and setting up a safe zone for the return of refugees.

Ankara's incursion was made possible after Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the area - a move harshly criticized by both Republicans and Democrats due to the SDF being the main U.S. ally in the fight against ISIS.

“I had never been in a foreign policy meeting where a head of state pulls out an iPad and has a video that was clearly professionally produced and was focused on the security and terror challenges they face,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas told ABC News on Nov. 14.

“Turkey faces real challenges from terrorism and they’re right to be focused on that,” Cruz said. “What is wrong is to use that terrorism as an excuse to go after the Kurds more broadly.”

Cruz was joined by Republican senators Joni Ernst of Iowa, Rick Scott of Florida, Graham of South Carolina, and Jim Risch of Idaho in the meeting, which the senators described as “a vigorous” and “candid” conversation.

Meanwhile, Risch, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wasn’t as forceful in his language about the video shown by Erdoğan.

“Propaganda is maybe strong a word that we wouldn't use diplomatically,” Risch said Nov. 14.

Graham blocks resolution

Earlier, Graham blocked a resolution that would have formally recognized the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottomans in 1915 as genocide, following the meeting between Trump and Erdoğan.

Sen. Robert Menendez asked for consent to pass the resolution that would have provided "official recognition and remembrance" of the Armenian genocide. 

"The United States foreign policy must reflect an honest accounting of human rights abuses, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and genocide. We cannot turn our backs on the Armenian victims of genocide," he said.  

Menendez noted that he listened to Trump's press conference on Nov. 13 with Erdoğan.

The Turkish president scolded a House-passed resolution recognizing the genocide and instead promised to "establish a history commission."  

Graham objected to passing the resolution in the Senate, saying senators shouldn't "sugarcoat history or try to rewrite it," The Hill reported on Nov. 13.

Under the Senate's rules, any one senator can ask for consent to pass a bill or resolution, but any one senator can block it.

"I just met with President Erdoğan and President Trump about the problems we face in Syria by the military incursion by Turkey. I do hope that Turkey and Armenia can come together and deal with this problem," Graham said on the Senate floor.

Graham added that he was objecting "not because of the past but because of the future."  

The resolution passed the House in a 405-11 vote. Turkey does not recognize the killing of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide.

Separately, Air Force Lt. Gen. Eric T. Fick, the F-35 program executive officer, said the U.S. has found alternate suppliers for all but a dozen components Turkey is producing for the Lockheed-made fighter jet.

Turkey was removed from the program following its purchase of S-400 Russian missile defense systems.

As Trump met with Erdoğan, the Pentagon’s F-35 program executive testified in Congress that he expects Turkey will be phased out on schedule, by March 2020. Lockheed and Pratt & Whitney, he said, have “spectacular progress” finding alternate suppliers.

“We began just over a year ago, very quietly but deliberately, taking actions to find alternate sources for all of those parts,” Fick said, adding “We are not quite there yet, so we have, on the air frame side, 11 components we have to mitigate to be at full-rate production ... and on the engines, there’s one: integrated bladed rotors, IBR’s.”

Though the U.S. has narrowed the number of parts down from 1,000 to 12, it’s still set to receive previously-ordered parts from Turkey after the March 2020 deadline. As the Pentagon worked to stand up alternative sources, it did not dual-produce the parts, which saved money but added a wrinkle to phasing out Turkey.

Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord affirmed to Rep. Donald Norcross, that as of Nov. 13, Turkey’s exit from the program was not expected to cause any F-35 production delays, calling the Turkish suppliers, “very very good.”

In response to Washington expelling the U.S. from the F-35 program, Erdoğan attended an annual Russian air show this summer in Moscow and expressed interest in buying the latest Russian Su-35 fighter jets.

Trump has not yet decided whether to impose congressional sanctions on Turkey for the S-400 purchase.

At a joint press conference with Trump, Erdoğan said the two discussed the dispute over the S-400 and F-35 and he held open the possibility of purchasing a Raytheon-made Patriot missile system, which the U.S. previously offered as an alternative to the S-400.

Erdoğan called a previous U.S. denial of the Patriot systems an “injustice orchestrated against Turkey,” adding: “We have clearly stated to President Trump that under suitable circumstances we can acquire Patriot missiles."