Turkey in a rapid, intense start with Trump administration

A new era in the United States and the world has just begun, as Donald Trump took his oath of office on Jan. 20 in the inauguration in Washington D.C. As an outsider and a real estate mogul, President Trump will certainly make his mark on national and global politics in the coming four years with his ambition "to make America great again."

Just like the rest of the world, the Turkish government is closely watching the handover in the White House and is hoping to rapidly engage with the new administration, as regional issues - Syria and the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) - require immediate actions and policies. 

This is why Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu was sent to represent Turkey at the inauguration ceremonies in Washington, also holding some high-level talks with key officials of the Trump administration. Çavuşoğlu had an opportunity to meet with Trump's designated national security advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and other prominent Republican figures, at a dinner hosted by Trump late on Jan. 19 at Washington's Union Station. 

It is very important that Çavuşoğlu attended these meetings. It is also known that a Turkish presidential delegation is expected to visit Washington in February to make first official contact and to take the pulse for a top-level meeting between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the coming months.

Ankara has two key demands from the new administration: The immediate extradition of Fethullah Gülen, a self-exiled cleric believed to be the mastermind of the July 2016 coup attempt, and an end to support for the Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its alliance with its armed group the...