What does Turkey’s shifting foreign policy mean for the United States?
The shifting position of Turkey presents both a risk and an opportunity for the United States. The risk is that if Turkey and the United States don’t reconnect and talk to each other to build trust over the coming weeks, they might drift further apart. Turkey feels slighted by the United States and that it was treated in a hostile manner by Israel. These feelings have accumulated over several years and hence there’s a sense of anger and hurt on the Turkish side. The Americans feel the same way—they feel like they were betrayed by the Turks on the Iranian nuclear sanctions vote in the United Nations. So, there is rancor on both sides. Once tensions cool, it will be clear that Turkey needs good and deep relations with the United States and that they and everyone else knows it. And the United States needs strong and strategic relations with Turkey. It’s incumbent on both sides to take steps to mend the relationship. There’s a lot of debate now in Turkey that perhaps Prime Minister Erdogan
