How NOT to be a strategic partner

The U.S. was once a good strategic partner for Turkey and the two countries cooperated well on regional issues; however, since the sharp transformation in U.S. foreign policy, it is no longer possible to say the same



The world has been struggling with inconsistencies created by a crisis-making global power, the United States. In the annual meeting of the United Nations in New York last month, U.S. President Donald Trump said they do not care about institutions regulating international relations, and that the U.S. no longer values the global order.

Trump, pointing out the 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine while speaking about the American-led order, was more than strange. Such a historical reminder means that South America is also part of the U.S., which is to say that Washington has the legal right to intervene in Venezuela's domestic issues. We all know that Trump consistently acts like a bully and does not care about any other countries' interests, including Turkey's.

Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu raised this issue with full transparency at the International Military Radar and Border Security Summit. "Some states' intelligence services are sending instructors to terrorist organizations. They provide money and weapons. The citizens of our strategic partner, the U.S., are going to Qandil [the PKK's headquarters]. They teach them how to use weapons and how to manipulate the media. With all the details..."

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, meanwhile, said, "It is time for the YPG [the People's Protection Units] to be taken out of Manbij, and it to be left to the local people."

Çavuşoğlu underlined that the reconciliation in question should be done word for word with the U.S. and said, "There has been a delay on their side, but we cannot say the process is not making progress or completely has stalled."

In addition to the other issues, Fetullah Gülen, the leader of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), the perpetrator of the bloody coup attempt in July 2016, is still residing within U.S. borders, namely in a giant mansion in Pennsylvania. In other words, the U.S., known as a Turkish strategic partner, backs terrorist elements targeting Turkey's national security.

In addition to its FETÖ support, the U.S. also threw the Turkish banker Hakan Atilla, the deputy general manager of state-owned Halkbank, in jail without fact-based evidence. This same strategic partner has also imposed sanctions on Turkey in retaliation to the Andrew Brunson case – the evangelical U.S. pastor who is under house arrest due to his suspected involvement in the terrorist activities of both the PKK and FETÖ.

Too bad we can't just go back to the time before Christopher Columbus discovered the American continent in the late 15th century.