Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said he will discuss the recent tensions between the US and Turkey with his American counterpart Joe Biden in the upcoming NATO leaders’ summit, Anadolu reports.
In a late night interview with national broadcaster TRT, Erdogan said "preliminary preparations" have been made ahead of the meeting.
"At the meeting, we will ask why the Turkey-US relations are going through such a tense period," said Erdogan.
The meeting between Erdogan and Biden will take place on the sidelines of the June 14 NATO leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium.
Erdogan recalled he had worked with former American presidents both from Democrats and Republicans, including Barack Obama and Donald Trump, saying he did not "have such a tension with any of them".
The president said the most recent tension between the two NATO allies was caused by Biden's recognition of 1915 events as Genocide.
"We are tired of waiting every year on April 24 for what the United States will say about Armenians," Erdogan said.
He criticized his American counterpart once again and reiterated his call that historians and legal experts, but not politicians, should work on it.
When asked if there was any other reason behind Biden's decision on Genocide, the president said "Turkey is used to such things," without elaborating.
"Those who corner Turkey this way will lose an important friend," said Erdogan, adding Turkey is "a strong and reliable partner" at NATO.
There are two other important issues in the US-Turkey relations; one is the US support for terrorist YPG/PKK and its inaction on Fetullah Gulen's Organization (FETO) whose leader resides in the US, said Erdogan.
He reiterated disappointment over the US' support for YPG/PKK in northern Syria.
In 2019, both houses of the US Congress passed a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide, and in 2021, President Joe Biden used the term ‘Armenian Genocide’ in his April 24 message, which provoked a strong reaction from the Turkish side.
