Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government is the alliance’s loose cannon
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskFrustration is also mounting in Western capitals, and in Kyiv, over Turkey’s willingness to accommodate Russia. Many in those places had hoped that the war in Ukraine would force Mr Erdogan to reconsider his romance with Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president. Opportunism has prevailed instead.
Aside from a few words of condemnation at the start of the war in Ukraine, Turkey has remained on good terms with Russia throughout. When Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, visited Ankara this month his Turkish counterpart kindly suggested that the West should ease sanctions against Russia if Russia relaxed its blockade of Ukrainian ports. When Mr Lavrov repeated his claim that Russia had invaded Ukraine to liberate it from neo-Nazis, his host said nothing.
That may seem a price worth paying to Mr Erdogan if the row fires up his nationalist base. Mainstream Turkish politicians, as well as many humbler Turks, see thepurely as a security threat, and have long criticised the West for not taking their concerns about the group seriously. They have bristled especially at America’s decision to team up with the group’s Syrian wing to bring down Islamic State’s caliphate.
Turkey and the West will never see eye to eye on the issue, and Mr Erdogan’s antics, as well as his habit of suggesting that the West, and not Russia, is the biggest threat to his country, will only make matters worse. Already, 65% of Turks say they do not trustNever say never. Western countries will try to work round Turkey’s veto by providing Finland and Sweden with security guarantees. This may leave Turkey sidelined within the alliance. But its departure or eviction fromis still fantasy.
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