The West must respect its alliance with Turkey
The S-400 air defense system's delivery to Turkey has sparked debate among Western governments on Ankara's future treatment. The question at hand goes beyond concerns about the fate of Turkey-U.S. relations. This is much bigger than one key NATO ally removing another key ally from the joint F-35 fighter jet program.
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The F-35 decision and its aftermath
The Pentagon removed Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet program, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's earlier comments about Ankara being treated unfairly over its move to purchase the S-400 missile defense system from Russia. That Congress favored Turkey's removal was no secret either. It remains to be seen whether the United States will levy sanctions on Turkey under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
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Since the beginning of the S-400 crisis between Turkey and the U.S., many have focused on the state of relations between the two countries and the potential impact of this issue on the future of bilateral ties.
After months of deliberations, Turkey began to take delivery of the Russian S-400 missile defense system last week.
The ups and downs in Turkey-U.S. relations in the last two decades have generated a paradoxical situation for scholars and observers alike.
Ankara's confrontation with Washington on the delivery of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system has been one of Turkey's top foreign policy issues in the last several months.
The HDP's renewed audacity
The Istanbul rerun election fueled new developments in Turkish politics. There is an ongoing discussion on a range of issues including the presidential system and the prospect of new political parties. The newfound "self-confidence" of Kurdish nationalists deserves particular attention in this context. The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) takes credit for the Republican People's Party's (CHP) success in the March 31 and June 23 elections. As a matter of fact, it dates its influence back to the June 2018 elections.
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Why the US' image is falling in Turkey
The first week of July has had critical meaning for Turkish-American relations since 2003. What happened on July 4, 2003 has constituted one of the pillars of the Turkish people's perception of the U.S.
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U.S. foreign policy makers must immediately take action to save the U.S.' image among its allies. If they fail to do so, Washington's credibility is likely to hit zero in the Middle East soon
Pesident Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Osaka, Japan marked a new chapter in the S-400 dispute. A textbook example of leader-to-leader diplomacy, that meeting paved the way for Trump lending support to the Turkish position on Patriot missiles, the Russian air defense system and the F-35 jet fighter program.
The leader-to-leader diplomacy between the U.S. and Turkey at the G20 summit was crucial in defusing the S-400 dispute and turned it into a potential communication tool for bilateral ties
Since the beginning of Trump's presidency, the two leaders have pretty regularly communicated with each other in face-to-face meetings or through phone calls. This has been an important factor in determining bilateral ties in the last two-and-a-half years.
World leaders gathered in Osaka this week for the G20 summit. The summit will witness important side meetings between different heads of states on matters related to critical areas. One of those critical meetings will take place between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Donald Trump. Given the looming crisis in the relations between the two countries, various unresolved issues in bilateral relations will be discussed in this meeting.
S-400s are not technical problem but political one, says expert
There is no shortage of important items on Turkey's political agenda. Ahead of Sunday's Istanbul rerun, the Turkish people are focused on Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's death, the United Nations Human Rights Council report on the Jamal Khashoggi murder, the start of drilling efforts in the Eastern Mediterranean, the sentences being handed down in coup trials, the latest polling numbers, Republican People's Party (CHP) mayoral candidate Ekrem Imamoğlu's secret meeting with the moderator of the election debate and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan weighing in on the mayoral race.
A few weeks ago, this column detailed how, in the last two decades, U.S. administrations have periodically made war plans and debated conflict scenarios. Both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations did it, and now the Donald Trump administration has come to a similar point of deliberating a military response against Iran.
Pentagon officials continue to maintain the same dysfunctional and hostile policies against Turkey. They are now using Turkey's purchase of the S-400 air defense systems from Russia as a pretext to pressure and threaten Turkey. The Pentagon's recently resigned chief Patrick Shanahan had warned his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar about economic sanctions and the abandonment of military cooperation between the two NATO allies.
With the S-400 missile defense system's delivery around the corner, tensions are escalating between Turkey and the United States. The Turks are committed to buying the Russian system despite Washington's threats. The Pentagon's most recent letter to Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, which included a long list of threats, did not change Ankara's mind either.
Relations between the U.S. and Turkey have hit a critical juncture. I don't know how many times it has been written in the last few years that relations are now at a critical point, but today that statement has never been truer.
The United States took its first 'concrete step' to encourage Turkey to rethink its plan to purchase the S-400 missile defense system from Russia. Washington was going to exclude Turkish pilots from the F-35 fighter jet training program, Reuters reported last week.
Turkey has a very busy agenda ahead of itself for the month of June..
