Donald Trump has congratulated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his victory in Sunday’s referendum that gave him sweeping new powers.<\/p>\n
In a phone call, the US president also thanked Mr Erdogan for supporting America’s missile strike on a Syrian government airbase on 7 April.<\/p>\n
In the poll, 51.4% of Turkish voters backed the changes.<\/p>\n
Mr Erdogan rejected criticism from international monitors who said he had been favoured by an “unequal campaign”.<\/p>\n
“Know your place,” he told the observers.<\/p>\n
The narrow victory was ruled valid by Turkey’s electoral body, despite claims of irregularities by the opposition.<\/p>\n
In a separate development, Turkey extended the state of emergency for three months. The measure, introduced after a failed coup last July, was set to expire in two days.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Monday, the White House said President Trump discussed with his Turkish counterpart America’s “action in response to the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons” on 4 April.<\/p>\n
It said the two leaders “agreed on the importance of holding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accountable”.<\/p>\n
They also discussed “the counter-ISIS [Islamic State campaign]”, the statement added.<\/p>\n
Relations between Washington and Ankara have recently been strained by several key issues.<\/p>\n
One of Turkey’s main grievances with the US is the policy started by the Obama administration of supporting Kurdish fighters in Syria who are fighting IS forces.<\/p>\n
Turkey views the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) as a terror group linked to Kurdish separatists waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.<\/p>\n
The two sides are also at loggerheads over Fethullah Gulen. Turkey accuses the Pennsylvania-based cleric of orchestrating the failed coup and wants him extradited.<\/p>\n
Officially Washington insists any decision on returning him to Turkey from the US remains a judicial rather than a political one.<\/p>\n
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Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Donald Trump has congratulated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his victory in Sunday’s referendum that gave him sweeping new powers. In a phone call, the US president also thanked Mr Erdogan for supporting America’s missile strike on a Syrian government airbase on 7 April. In the poll, 51.4% of Turkish voters backed the changes. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[264,6251,6224,6252],"yoast_head":"\n