Mike Pompeo, who held the position of US Secretary of State in the Donald Trump administration, said that during his visit to Turkey he was trying to break the door of the room in the President of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Pompeo wrote about this in his recently published book “Never inferior in an inch: the struggle for America that I love”.
The former Secretary of State said that in October 2019, he, along with Vice President Michael Pens, visited Ankara to convince Turkey to stop the fighting in the north of Syria and accept the ceasefire.
“When he arrived at the Erdogan Palace, he said that he wanted to talk with vice president alone for several minutes. They entered the room. Half an hour later I said that I wanted to see the vice president. But they didn’t answer me. Another 20 minutes, and I made a decision. I did the corridor arbitrarily and tried to open the door of the room where Erdogan and Vice President were. The door was closed. Later I told my Turkish colleague that I would break out the door, ”writes former Secretary of State.
Pompeo notes that he was afraid of aggression from the guard of the President of Turkey in response to his trick, but no one prevented him. The Secretary of State was unable to break the door, it was opened by the Security Service of the President of Turkey. As a result, Pompeo went inside and took part in negotiations between Erdogan and Pence.
The former Secretary of State also wrote in his memoirs that when the US delegation, during the meeting, informed the Turkish side of Washington’s intention to continue the support of the Kurdish Organization of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the head of Turkish intelligence Hakan Fidan and the press secretary of Erdogan Ibrahim Kalyn became furious and Leave the room. “I have never seen anger flashing so quickly in the room,” recalls Pompeo.