Ups and downs in Turkish-U.S. relations sometimes create big problems for both countries. When Turkey’s security priorities and the U.S.’s regional interests do not match, problems get deeper. Last week we, as a group of academics and journalists, discussed the question of a new vision in bilateral relations at the Harvard Club in New York.
Supported by Russia, the Syrian regime continues its operations in Idlib province which started in late April. The level of violence is increasing day-by-day. Assad forces took control of some villages and towns from HTS.
It has been almost three decades since the world saved itself from the bipolar political order. Today, a generation or two who have not witnessed those Cold War days are in the center of economic and political life. They have no idea about the psychology of those days in which contact with the other side was called treason and communication was very limited.
The summer of 2019 conceives important diplomatic and security issues for Turkey. There are plenty of questions to be answered and problems to be solved.
It is not clearly termed or defined, but the idea of a “triple containment” policy is being floated in the international media. Recently a report published by a think tank in Israel reflected the idea with some details.
The center of gravity of the struggle in the Middle East is moving toward the Red Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. The tension between the U.S., Gulf countries and Iran has been on the Hormuz Strait and its surroundings.
We are heading to the 2020’s amid politics of escalation in the Middle East, which has been a global war zone for the last 100 years. At the center of this escalation are the decisions – which we can call radical - taken by U.S. President Donald Trump. These are decisions no American president in the past has chosen to implement, preferring to stay out or delay. They, of course, had strong arguments in doing so.
Turkish-American relations are in crisis once again, this time due to the Turkish purchase of the S-400 air defense systems from Russia and a possible consequential U.S. embargo against Turkey in the F-35 fighter jet project.
Moving the American embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights are bold moves. It seems that Trump also adopted unilateralism as his policy principle. The real problem with his moves is that they disregard references of possible future peace talks.
