President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday his visit to the United States next week could mark a "new beginning" in relations between the NATO allies that were shaken by a U.S. decision to arm Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria.
Erdogan repeated Ankara's criticism of President Donald Trump's decision, saying it ran counter to the two countries' strategic interests - but also sought to portray it as a relic of the Obama administration's Middle East policy.
"The United States is still going through a transition period. And we have to be more careful and sensitive," he told a news conference at the Ankara airport before departing for China and the United States. His meeting with Trump will be their first since the president's January inauguration.