Oct 15, 2019 - Politics & Policy

Sanders: "Turkey is not a U.S. ally"

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said during Tuesday night's debate that "Turkey is not a U.S. ally" following its invasion into northern Syria.

"Turkey is not a U.S. ally when they invade another country and engage in mass slaughter. The crisis here, as I think Joe [Biden] said and Pete [Buttigieg] said, is when you begin to betray people, in terms of the Kurds, 11,000 of them died fighting ISIS, 20,000 were wounded."
— Sanders

What he's saying: Sanders added that President Trump's behavior regarding Syria and Turkey has "wrecked" America's ability to conduct foreign policy, by pulling U.S. troops out of Syria and abandoning the Kurds.

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