Turkey threatens to suspend military cooperation with NATO

At the same time, Ibrahim Kalin, the closest advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says that “Turkey will carefully weigh its reactions” to the US decision to classify the first massacre of Armenians in the World War as genocide.

Only after “weeks or months,” as Kalin put it, will Turkey announce its countermeasures. Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, considered by far one of the friendliest leaders of the United States, in a speech harshly criticized the former ally.

For those in power, directly or in the event of a diversion For the press, the talk of breaking away from NATO bears witness to the deep emotional impression made by Joe Biden’s announcement. The word “genocide” in Turkish, as in other languages, reminds us first and foremost of Nazism. Bringing it in the face is seen as a tough insult – it’s so hard that NATO membership, which has been at the center of Turkey’s foreign and defense policy since World War II, now no longer looks apparent.

What you do not know in Ankara is about it Biden decision on the Armenian question It was made with a structure Acceleration of discord between statesOr, if Washington assumes, on the contrary, that Turkey, which is economically weak, will swallow the bitter pill without severe protests. Swedish-Turkish expert Khalil Karavelli believes that relations are on the verge of collapsing:

– It’s like a broken marriage. The United States is tired of Turkey – and the feeling is mutual.

Dominant, Anti-Russian, The Ankara Battalion has reason to be disappointed. And it recently made it clear that it was prepared to allow the United States to enter more warships of the largest size into the Black Sea, even if that meant breaching international agreements. It would not be surprising if these plans were now suspended and Turkey refrained from angering Russia in this way.

Turkey’s treatment of regime critics, writers, and Kurdish politicians alienated not only Joe Biden but also large parts of the Democratic Party. Another tension in the relationship is Turkey’s purchase of Russian air defense systems, to which the United States responded by stopping the delivery of the F-35 fighter jet, which Turkey had participated in developing.

During the four years of Donald Trump In power, his personal relationship with Erdogan ensured continued cooperation, despite the many and difficult conflicts of interests between the two countries. In the winter of 2018 and again in the fall of 2019, Trump allowed Turkey to enter Syria and seize large areas that had until then been operating as a de facto Kurdish state, the so-called Rojava.

The US Defense Command found this extremely reluctant, and in Trump’s downgrade of the US troop presence in the area. In what remains of the autonomous Kurdish enclave, the border region east of the Euphrates, the United States is now working to expand a military airport that was first built during the fight against ISIS.

The area in which the United States and the Syrian Kurds are now cooperating is also home to a significant portion of Syria’s oil resources. This airport, along with the NATO base in Souda Bay on Crete, which is also being expanded, will likely receive new information if NATO is forced to leave Incirlik.

Read more:

Biden recognizes the Armenian genocide as genocide

Nathan Shahar: Turkey’s backlash awaits Biden’s decision – but without interruption

Gunnar Johnson: Sweden should follow Joe Biden – and speak up about genocide

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