U.S. President-elect Donald Trump hailed Türkiye's regional role as a major power and his personal ties with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as he said Ankara would play a key role in the future of Syria following the ouster of Assad regime, APA reports citing Daily Sabah.
"Türkiye is a major force, by the way, and Erdoğan is somebody I got along with great but he has a major military force. And he has not been worn out with war," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate. "He's built a very strong, powerful army."
Trump demurred when asked if he would withdraw American troops from northeastern Syria, but said Erdoğan is "a very smart guy."
"I think Türkiye is very smart. He's a very smart guy and very tough, but Türkiye did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost. I can say that Assad was a butcher, here, what he did to children," he added, referring to ousted Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.
Trump said "nobody knows" what future lies ahead for post-Assad Syria, but said he thinks "Türkiye is going to hold the key to" the nation.
"Actually, I don't think you've heard that from anybody else, but I've been pretty good at predicting," he said.
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