Turkish-U.S. relations hit new low amid Syria offensive
Nowadays, there is heavy diplomatic traffic between Turkey and the United States. Following U.S. National Security Adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster's visit to Istanbul over the weekend, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to be in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Turkish and American defense ministers will reportedly hold talks in Brussels later this week.
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Turkey-U.S. relations at its lowest level
U.S. officials responsible for Washington's Syria policy have been suffering from a lapse of reason when it comes to judging Turkey's priorities. It would appear that they are content with the prospect of driving Turkey-U.S. relations to the ground by ignoring Ankara's concerns about the PKK-affiliated People's Protection Units (YPG) presence in northern Syria.
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Turkish-U.S. relations are going through neither a structural crisis nor conjectural tension. I think relations are experiencing structural tension.
Since 1960, nineteen Standby arrangements have been signed. With these agreements, significant progress has been made in Turkish economy: inflation has fallen to the lowest level since 1986, the public debt-to-GNP ratio has been falling, and interest rates have declined rapidly. IMF’s immediate goals concern exchange rate stability and balance of payments, and evaluations of IMF programs tend to concentrate on these two objectives. Yet, whether or not the IMF programs have positive effects on these short-term goals, what ultimately matters is that they induce economic growth and do not concentrate on incomes.
