Turkish dictator who invaded Syria says Trump and Putin are his favorite world leaders

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday named Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani as the leaders whom he most admires.

In a Q&A with university students, Erdogan said he struggles to name a current inspirational leader from Europe.

“When we look at Europe, there is a serious leadership crisis, a leadership vacuum,” Erdogan said. “I don’t find the courage in myself to say such and such leader is exemplary in Europe.”

Erdogan praised Trump as an open leader who says what’s on his mind.

“Whether you like him or not, Mr. Trump is an important name. He has no hidden agenda,” Erdogan said. “He says things to me in a clear and open way, and I tell him things in a very open way.”

Erdogan also described Putin as having “no hidden agenda” and being frank and open toward Turkey, adding that he believes that he and the Russian leader would be able to bring peace to Syria. He called Sheikh Tamim a “young and dynamic leader” who stands by impoverished countries.

Erdogan has forged close ties with both Trump and Putin. Speaking on the sidelines of a NATO summit in London last week, Trump said he had a great relationship with Turkey, although he said the U.S. was considering imposing sanctions on Ankara for buying a Russian-made missile defense system. Erdogan and Putin meet frequently and are cooperating in energy, defense, and in Syria, despite differences of views.

Erdogan named the Prophet Mohammed and modern Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, among inspirational personalities from the past. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi are among past European leaders that he admires, Erdogan said.

Trump came under fire earlier in October, after he announced he was withdrawing U.S. troops from northern Syria, effectively greenlighting Erdogan’s planned invasion of the region, which targeted Kurdish forces who had been allied with the United States in the fight against ISIS for years. Scores of civilians were killed in that incursion and ISIS prisoners escaped as their guards fled the fighting.

Russian troops immediately took over the region in the wake of the U.S. troop withdrawal.