White House announces a U.S. pullback after Trump's call with Erdogan
Reporting and findings
- documented
After an October 6, 2019 Trump-Erdogan call, the White House announced that Turkey would proceed with its northern Syria operation and U.S. forces would no longer be in the immediate area; Reuters later reported that the offensive drove about 200,000 civilians to flee.
Corrects claim:syria-kurdish-withdrawal-turkey-operation- The White House: Statement from the Press SecretaryWhite House announcement; Reuters humanitarian-crisis paragraph
- Reuters via Euronews: Turkey agrees with U.S. to pause Syria assault while Kurds withdrawWhite House announcement; Reuters humanitarian-crisis paragraph
Summary and current status
The October 6 statement said Turkey would move forward in northern Syria and U.S. forces would leave the immediate area; the later offensive displaced civilians.
White House announced the pullback October 6, 2019; Turkey attacked October 9
People and organizations
- Recep Tayyip ErdoganTurkish president on the call
- October 2019 United States withdrawal from northeast SyriaU.S. force-posture change
- Donald J. Trumppresident on the call and directing U.S. policy
Relationships in this file
- Donald J. Trumppresidential call preceding U.S. troop pullbackRecep Tayyip Erdogan
Figures
Civilians reported displacedabout 200,000 people Calculation details
- Basis
- Observed
- Population
- Civilians who fled during Turkey's October 2019 northeast Syria offensive
- Period
- 2019-10-09 to 2019-10-17
- Method
- Reuters contemporaneous reporting of the humanitarian crisis as of October 17, cited as an approximate incident-period count.
- Uncertainty
- Approximate contemporaneous count; the source does not attribute every displacement to a single actor or decision and later totals may differ.