Page 24 - TURKRptMay19

2.4 Erdogan’s son-in-law shares photo from Oval Office
Turkish finance minister and son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Berat Albayrak, shared a photo on Twitter showing him in the Oval Office with US President Donald Trump, Trump’s son-in-law and aide Jared Kushner and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin .
A full readout of the surprise gathering—made possible by Albayrak’s presence in the US capital for the annual spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank and meetings with investors, which flopped—was never going to be available but the most concrete development that appeared to stem from it was comments from Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin made to reporters in Washington that Nato member Turkey expects Trump to use a waiver to protect it if the US Congress decides to sanction Ankara over a planned purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defence system.
Markets have been rattled by the prospect of the US imposing sanctions on Ankara if it does not back away from the purchase from the Kremlin but Kalin said that “if it comes to that, that is the sanctions proposed to be implemented by the Congress, of course we will expect President Trump to use his power for a waiver on that issue”.
Kalin conceded that Trump had not explicitly signalled he would issue a waiver, but with this US president anything is possible, of course. Such a presidential shield would no doubt help to settle market nerves over Turkey’s economic turmoil. For his part, Albayrak said: “[Trump] listened in a very reasonable way with a positive understanding of the process regarding Turkey’s needs for the S-400s. There was a very positive, constructive conversation.”
Kushner, acting director of “Deal of the Century”. In further discussion of Albayrak’s day at the White House, analysts noted that Kushner serves as the acting director of Trump’s so-called “Deal of the Century” that is supposed to bring peace to the Middle East.
There were rumours that Albayrak did not manage to get an appointment to
24 TURKEY Country Report May 2019 www.intellinews.com