US Ambassador to Turkey and Special Representative for Syria Tom Barrack has said US President Donald Trump aims to give Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the “legitimacy” he needs, a remark that has attracted criticism given Erdoğan’s crackdown on dissent and opposition in the country.
Speaking at the Concordia Summit in New York on Wednesday, Barrack responded to a question about longstanding tensions between Turkey and the US Congress. He pointed to years of disputes over issues such as Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 missile systems, its exclusion from the F-35 fighter jet program and debates over F-16 sales and the state-owned Halkbank, which is facing prosecution in the US for allegedly helping Iran evade US sanctions.
“We’ve been dealing with the same issues for 10 years,” Barrack said during the panel discussion, titled “Voices of Diplomacy: Shaping America’s Role in the World.” “Are they friends? Are they foes? They’re dealing with Russia. They’re conservative Muslims. They’re aggressive Muslims. They haven’t condemned the Muslim Brotherhood. They haven’t condemned Hamas. The same confusing issues.”
Steve Witkoff and Tom Barrack speak at Concordia Summit.
Reporter: Tom, if Syria wasn't enough, 15 years of civil war, you also have your ambassador to one of the most important countries, not only the region, but in the world, Turkey, a NATO ally. Turkey sometimes has a fraught… pic.twitter.com/fBvtY2KxzJ
— Mintel World (@mintelworld) September 24, 2025
Barrack said Trump had grown frustrated with the stalemate. “Our president says, ‘I’m tired of all of this. Let’s take a bold move and on a relationship-to-relationship basis give them what they need,’” Barrack stated. “What is that? He says legitimacy.”
Barrack argued that Turkey, despite being a critical NATO ally and one of the world’s largest buyers of American fighter jets, has been sidelined by the West, particularly Europe, which has blocked its longstanding bid for EU membership. “It’s not about the S-400s, it’s not about the F-16s,” he said. “It’s about legitimacy.”
His comments came one day before Trump and Erdoğan were scheduled to meet at the White House on Thursday, which will be Erdoğan’s first visit to the White House since 2019 when Trump was serving his first term in office.
The remarks sparked criticism in Turkey, where Erdoğan has been accused of dismantling democratic institutions, silencing opponents and presiding over a deepening economic crisis.
Gönül Tol, director of the Turkey program at the Middle East Institute, wrote on X that Barrack’s words show Erdoğan’s need for international recognition at a time when “he is dismantling the last pillars of democracy, grappling with a failing economy and facing growing public discontent.” According to Tol, Erdoğan increasingly uses foreign policy “as a tool to secure legitimacy.”
Trump’s envoy to Turkey, asked about the many problems in US-Turkey relations, said Trump decided to ‘take a bold move’ and “give them what they need most”: ‘legitimacy.’ He isn’t wrong. At a time when Erdoğan is dismantling the last pillars of democracy, grappling with a failing…
— Gönül Tol (@gonultol) September 25, 2025
Over the past several years Turkey has been suffering from backsliding in its economy, with high inflation, which reached a record high of 85 percent in October 2022 and currently stands at around 33 percent, and unemployment as well as a poor human rights record. Erdoğan is criticized for mishandling the economy, emptying the state’s coffers and establishing one-man rule in the country where dissent is suppressed and opponents are jailed on politically motivated charges.
Erdoğan’s strongest political rival, İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, has been in pretrial detention since March. His main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has been under a crackdown for about a year that has led to the detention or arrest of around 500 party officials including 12 mayors in İstanbul.
İmamoğlu’s arrest sparked Turkey’s worst protests in decades.