TRUMP AND ERDOGAN 'JUST GOT PLAYED' BY PUTIN SAYS TERRORISM EXPERT, AS KURDS IN SYRIA STRIKE DEAL WITH RUSSIA AND BASHAR AL-ASSAD

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-erdogan-just-got-played-vladimir-putin-says-terrorism-expert-michael-smith-1465008

A foreign policy and terrorism expert believes President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, "just got played" by Russian President Vladimir Putin, after Turkey was permitted to launch its current attack into northeastern Syria.

The offensive, labeled Operation Spring Peace by the Turks, was launched on Wednesday after a phone call between Trump and Erdogan the previous Sunday. Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria's border with Turkey soon after the phone call.

Following the withdrawal, Trump was accused of betraying the region's Kurdish population and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)—a force that was instrumental in quashing the influence of militants from the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) in the region.