Turkey controls the militants that ousted former Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said during a wide-ranging and at times incoherent press conference Monday.
“Those people that went in are controlled by Turkey,” he said during the event, his first press conference since winning the presidential election in November. “And that’s okay, that’s another way to fight.”
In answer to a question about the 900 U.S. troops currently in Syria, Trump began to speak of his decision to pull American soldiers out of the country during his last stint as president, before getting sidetracked and talking about Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“Turkey is a major force, by the way,” he said. “Erdoğan is somebody I got along with great, but he has a major military force. And his has not been worn out with war. He’s built a very strong, powerful army.”
Returning to the question, he said: “We [had] 5,000 soldiers in between a five-million person army and a 250,000-person army, and I asked a general: ‘What do you think of that situation?’ He said: ‘They’ll be wiped out immediately.’ And I moved them out. And I took a lot of heat. And you know what happened? Nothing. Nothing. I saved a lot of lives.
“Now we have 900, they put some back. If you’re talking about two, now that one of the sides has been essentially wiped out. But nobody knows who the other side is, but I do! Turkey.
“Turkey’s the one behind it. He’s a very smart guy, they’ve wanted it for thousands of years, and he got it.”
Asked if he was concerned about further unrest, Trump said: “Nobody knows what the final outcome is gonna be in the region. Nobody knows who will rule in the final. I believe it is Turkey. Turkey is very smart, he is a very smart guy and he’s very tough. Turkey did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost.”
The Turkish government has yet to respond, and could not immediately be reached for comment.
Veronika Melkozerova contributed to this report.
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