Why The Trump Administration Needs To Mend US Relations With Turkey – OpEd
The incoming Trump administration might want to focus on domestic affairs, but this will prove to be impossible. The Trump administration will enter office with crises in the Greater Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war that it cannot ignore before focusing its attention primarily on combating China, the main threat to US national interests.
The Trump administration’s best ally to resolve the crisis in the Greater Middle East and bring to an end the Russian-Ukrainian war is Turkey. Pandering to the domestic Armenian lobby and human rights advocates the Biden administration made Turkey, the second biggest military power in NATO and hosting two US military bases, a punching bag for its foreign policy failures in the South Caucasus and Greater Middle East.
Relations between Presidents Joe Biden and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan fell to their lowest level. US bias was evident in how Turkey was portrayed by Freedom House, which receives financing from USAID, which wrongly ranked Turkey as a fully authoritarian regime. Türkiye holds relatively free elections that would be the envy of the Russians and Chinese and has many cities which are controlled by the opposition (which is not something that is found in Russia or China).
Turkey has promoted Western interests by taking advantage of the preoccupation of the Russian military with Ukraine and singlehandedly taken on Russian interests in four regions.
The first was to support Azerbaijan’s drive to regain control over its territories that had been illegally occupied by Armenia since the early 1990s. Most of this territory was recaptured in the Second Karabakh War in 2020 with the last remaining land – Karabakh itself – retaken three years later.
The Kremlin-controlled CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organisation) did not intervene in both military engagements. Russian peacekeepers, which were introduced by the November 2020 trilateral peace agreement between Armenia-Azerbaijan-Russia, did not intervene to prevent Azerbaijan retaking Karabakh.
The second was to support the UN-recognised Government of National Accord which is recognised by the UN as the sole legitimate executive authority in Libya. Turkish forces supported the UN-backed Government of National Accord by assisting it to halt the Russian-backed attempt using Wagner mercenaries to capture Tripoli by General Khalifa Hifter.
The third was to support Ukraine after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Turkey refused to supply Bayraktar drones to Russia forcing it to turn to Iran which has supplied Shaheed drones that have been extensively fired against Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure. Türkiye is completing the building of a Bayraktar drone producing factory in Ukraine and is building three corvettes for Ukraine’s navy. Türkiye is a staunch supporter of Ukrainian membership of NATO and has repeatedly condemned Russia’s occupation of Crimea.
The fourth was to back opposition forces in Syria who defeated Assad’s military and security forces and took power after the dictator fled to Moscow. Russia, which had intervened in 2015 to prop up Assad, has lost its Tartus naval base which the Soviet Union received in 1971 and Khmeimim Air Base.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was humiliated for a fourth time after losing its influence in the Armenian-Azerbaijani, Libyan, and Russian-Ukrainian wars. Iran lost its major Syrian ally, Syria as a staging post for anti-Western terrorist activities, and a transit route for arms supplies and logistical support to its proxy forces in the Greater Middle East.
Turkey accomplished in Syria what President Barack Obama baulked at undertaking. Obama’s ‘red lines,’ conveyed over the regime’s use of chemical weapons, were ignored by Assad and Putin who continued to murder hundreds of thousands of Sunnis Muslim opponents and force out millions as refugees to Turkey and Europe.
Turkey’s policies have promoted Western interests and undermined Russian imperial outreach.
In all three countries – Azerbaijan, Libya, Ukraine and Syria – Turkey has supported the international principle of the territorial integrity of states.
The Trump administration should view Turkey, as well as Israel, as allies in its likely adoption of a more robust approach to Iran’s terrorist regime. First Israel and then Turkey severely impaired Iranian military assets and its geopolitical sphere of influence.
Turkey and Israel have had difficult as well as mutually beneficial relations. The Trump administration should take a leaf from Azerbaijan which developed a strategic partnership with Israel in the 2000s a few years before developing a similar relationship with Turkey. Azerbaijan used Israeli and Turkish military equipment and drones to defeat Armenia in the Second Karabakh War.
The Trump administration should give the green light to Israel and Turkey to further undermine the Iranian theocratic regime. This would further the Trump administrations goals of bringing peace to the Greater Middle East and ending the Russian-Ukrainian war. The Russian military would be unable to wage war against Ukraine without Iranian, Chinese, and North Korean support.
Turkey is the key to achieving the Trump administration’s goals in the Greater Middle East and Eurasia. Turkey’s national interests would be furthered by supporting Israel in continuing to weaken and undermine the Iranian theocratic regime which, coupled with additional tough US sanctions, could usher in its downfall. The removal of Iran as a geopolitical player in the Greater Middle East would in turn impair its ability to provide military supplies to Russia to wage its war of aggression against Ukraine.
The incoming Trump administration should repair relations with Turkey to achieve its goals of bringing peace to the Greater Middle East and ending the Russian-Ukrainian war. Removing the threat from Iran’s theocratic regime and parking Russia would provide the Trump administration with the resources to focus on its main threat and challenge – China.
Mr Taras, unfortunately for you the rest of the world dont see Turkey like you do. Quite the opposite.
Turkey is now considered an enemy by the west and this will be very difficult to change. Just today Bilal called for the occupation of Jerusalem by the Turkish army. Are you connected with the Internet? Do you read anything?