Erdogan: The Necessary Evil of the Political World

After flinging acrimonious accusations against the US on a number of political issues, it looks like the Turkish leadership realizes how far they have strayed from a strategic ally and political patron saint.

Relations between the US and Turkey have been strained over Washington’s support for the YPG Kurdish fighters in Syria. Turkey considers them terrorists, while the US has found them to be the most reliable fighting force in the battlefield against ISIS. Despite continued complaints, even some hostile provocations by Ankara in Syria, the US administration did not heed Turkey’s complaints, placing its bets on the winning horse on the battlefield. Washington also realized that Turkey is in the game for narrow, selfish interests rather than fighting for a common cause with the US and its allies. Ironically, the US found accommodation with its archenemy, Russia, rather than with Turkey, signing off on the policy of Assad’s survival instead of giving in to Turkish demands.

As far as Kurdish issues are concerned, Washington and Ankara are at odds; Ankara and Tehran have teamed up in opposing the Kurdish referendum scheduled for September 25 in Iraq, as they consider it a destabilizing move in the region, while Washington has given a green light to it, as far as we can tell from its benign negligence and the assurance of the Kurdish leadership.

Turkey’s relationship with Europe and especially with Germany, were strained to the breaking point, so much so that voices from various political quarters became louder to drop Turkey as a NATO ally. To compensate for its alienation from Europe, Erdogan’s government emerged as a candidate for the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), frustrating Armenia, which is a member of that body. To add insult to injury, Erdogan revived the Turkish Stream pipeline, to extend Russian gas delivers to the Balkans and by extension, against Europe, in Washington’s blatant attempts to wean Europe from Russian energy.

For Mr. Erdogan, thwarting domestic investigations into his and his family’s scandalous corruption is very simple; just replace judges on the bench and appoint his cronies to his kangaroo courts and the case is dismissed. But he is very frustrated when he cannot extend that dictatorial power to the US judicial system. Reams of documents from Ankara could not convince the US judicial system to extradite the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of being the mastermind behind last year’s coup attempt in Turkey.

And the other legal entanglements are piling up; a grand jury in August indicted 19 defendants, including 15 security officials, Erdogan’s bodyguards, on charges resulting from violent attacks on peaceful protestors in Washington, during the Turkish president’s visit. Erdogan was angered over the indictments and made some caustic remarks about judges in the US. As a warning against Erdogan’s upcoming visit to New York, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and ranking member Eliot Engel (D-NY) have sent a cautionary letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson not to allow any fresh violence when Erdogan arrives in New York later this September.