Members of Congress sent a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of his meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The letter refers to the recent phone conversation between the two leaders, U.S.-Turkey bilateral relations, security in the Eastern Mediterranean, and regional stability.

Specifically, the members urge Trump to raise various issues with the Turkish president, including Turkey’s ambitions regarding F-35 fighter jets, territorial integrity and sovereignty concerning Greece, Cyprus, and Israel, Erdoğan’s personal alliance with Islamist terrorist groups such as Hamas, and the respect for political opposition and human rights within Turkey.

“For years, President Erdoğan has antagonized Turkey’s neighbors, including fellow NATO allies,
by violating Greek sovereign airspace, illegally occupying parts of the Republic of Cyprus, harassing
ships in the Aegean Sea, and threatening to invade Greece and Israel. Despite the overall easing of
tensions between Greece and Turkey, we are particularly troubled by the sudden uptick in violations of
Greek air space with U.S.-provided F-16 jets in Ankara’s possession, and the violations of Greece’s
territorial waters which have occurred throughout the last year. This behavior is unacceptable for a NATO
ally and poses a continuous threat to the security of a vital European partner. Against this backdrop, a
delicate balance in the region would be upended if Turkey were to rejoin the F-35 program,” the letter reads.

 At the same time, it notes that Turkey has adopted policies supporting NATO adversaries, such as Russia, most notably through Erdoğan’s 2019 purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system—which remains in Turkey’s possession.

They remind the President that this decision led to Ankara’s removal from the F-35 program and the imposition of sanctions under the CAATSA law (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act).

The letter also highlights Erdoğan’s adoption of the troubling revisionist policy known as “Blue Homeland,” which serves as both a political and military pretext for asserting dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean at the expense of other regional powers, while Turkey continues to illegally and unjustifiably occupy the Republic of Cyprus.

The lawmakers acknowledge that it is in the United States’ interest for Turkey to be a strong and reliable NATO ally, noting that the country spends the required 2% of GDP on defense in a turbulent and dynamic region, and could therefore serve as a force multiplier for the U.S. and its allies.

However, they caution that President Erdoğan has shown he follows a political agenda that does not align with U.S. interests and values. For example, he has expressed interest in joining the BRICS, sought observer status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, supported Islamist groups in Syria, and led operations against the Kurds.

The bipartisan letter is signed by 22 lawmakers in total, including the Vice Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Gregory Meeks. The initiative for sending the bipartisan letter was led by Democratic Congresswoman Dina Titus.