Turkey: “Unfaithful Ally” No More
zlotx5
Mon, 07/17/2023 – 08:58
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now engineering a “pivot,” fast turning away from Russia and embracing Europe and America instead.
Turkey’s strongman leader, for instance, allowed Finland to join NATO, which occurred in April. Furthermore, he has just given his initial okay on membership for Sweden. That Scandinavian country probably will, despite some last-minute foot-dragging by Erdogan, become the alliance’s 32nd member by the end of the year.
Not long ago, Turkey was a NATO member in name only.
“Unfaithful ally” is how Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) correctly characterized that country in early February.
Early this year, Erdogan was doing Vladimir Putin’s bidding by, most notably, blocking NATO expansion, vetoing the membership proposals of both Finland and Sweden.
Moreover, Erdogan had aided the Russian war effort in Ukraine by allowing Moscow to use Turkey as a conduit for the flow of goods, some of them sanctioned by NATO countries. Turkish companies had even sold, in violation of sanctions, products to Russia.
Ankara was also helping Putin finance his war with elevated commodity purchases. “Turkey has deepened its energy ties to Russia” with imports of crude oil, diesel fuel, and coal, the New York …read more
Source:: Hoover Institution