41. Out of Many, One: Erdoğan and the Convergence of Turkish Worldviews
- Author:
- Blaise Misztal
- Publication Date:
- 11-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Hudson Institute
- Abstract:
- For at least his first decade at Turkey’s helm, if not longer, subsequent US administrations regarded Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as an important partner. More recently, the pendulum has swung the other way; Erdoğan has emerged as a bipartisan bête noir in Washington. President Biden has called Erdoğan an “autocrat”; Secretary of State Antony Blinken referred to Turkey as a “so-called strategic partner,” and large majorities from both parties in Congress have voted to sanction Turkey until it reverses its purchase of Russian weaponry. The image of Turkey that US policymakers appear to be operating with is, as one columnist summed it up, that “Turkey’s president does what he does because he gets away with it.” In other words, Erdoğan is in full control of Turkey’s foreign policy, and, having opened a gulf between the two allies, Washington’s options are to either compel a change in his behavior or suspend its partnership with Turkey until the end of his rule. Much like the earlier, now discarded, belief in Erdoğan’s comity, this view, too, deserves to be challenged.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
- Political Geography:
- Turkey and Middle East