Turkey’s government believes that U.S. President Joe Biden will call President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan within a week or two, pro-government columnist Hande Fırat said in the Hürriyet newspaper on Tuesday.
Erdoğan is not disturbed by the fact that Biden has not telephoned him since his inauguration in January, Fırat said.
“The news claiming that Erdoğan is unhappy is not true,” she said.
Relations between NATO allies the United States and Turkey have been undermined by a series of disagreements, including over Ankara’s purchase of S-400 air defence missiles from Russia, U.S. support for Kurdish militants in Syria and arguments between Turkey and neighbour Greece over territory.
Biden described Erdoğan as an autocrat in an interview with the New York Times when he was vice president in the Obama administration.
Ankara’s basic expectation is to establish a relationship with Washington within which problems can be managed, Fırat said.
“Despite the many problems, a mutual desire to open a new page and to establish a dialogue between Ankara and Washington has been emphasised,” she said.
