US and Turkish businesses urge presidents to rebuild ties

ISTANBUL: US and Turkish business groups urged the leaders of their two countries on Wednesday to start rebuilding fraught relations when they meet later this month, saying much was at stake for their companies.

Tayyip Erdogan and Joe Biden are due to hold talks at a NATO summit on June 14, their first face-to-face meeting since Biden took office in January.

Relations have so far been strained, with their only phone call prompted by Biden's decision to designate the 1915 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire a genocide - a decision bitterly rejected by Ankara.

Turkey has also criticised US support for Syrian Kurdish forces who fought Islamic State, while Washington last year imposed sanctions on Turkish defence industries over Ankara's purchase of Russia missile defence systems.

"Given the current challenges caused by the global pandemic, we feel very strongly that this is a time to keep allies as allies rather than focus on differences," the heads of the Turkey-US Business Council and AmCham Turkey said.

"American and Turkish companies have demonstrated that there are abundant opportunities to prosper together through partnership, and much to lose if we drift too far apart," they wrote in a joint letter to both presidents.

Erdogan called for better ties during a video conference last month with executives from US companies including Boeing, Amazon, Microsoft, Kellogg, PepsiCo, Cisco, Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson.

He said on that call that his meeting with Biden could mark the start of a new era. But in an interview with Turkey's state broadcaster on Tuesday he again criticised Biden's stance on the Armenian killings and said relations with previous US presidents - Republican or Democrat - had not been so difficult.

"In our meeting with him, we will of course ask him why US-Turkey relations are at a tense stage," he said.