[OPINION] The US State Department is still confused about Turkey

[TomSea]

[OPINION] The US State Department is still confused about Turkey
By TM - April 20, 2018

Abdullah Bozkurt

The US State Department appears to have not fully grasped the gravity of the situation in Turkey in the face of a troubling disengagement of a critical NATO member from the Western alliance and the re-orbiting of the nation of 81 million towards Iran and Russia under the stewardship of autocratic leader Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan.

At least that is how the testimony of Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell sounded during a hearing at the House Foreign Affairs Committee on April 18. He stated that “Turkey has a vested strategic interest in checking the spread of Russian and especially Iranian influence” but lamented that “Turkey lately has increased its engagement with Russia and Iran.”

“Ankara should be mindful of the risks in making strategic concessions to Moscow in order to achieve its tactical objectives in Syria,” he underlined, adding that “it is in the American national interest to see Turkey remain strategically and politically aligned with the West, and we believe it is also in Turkey’s interests.”

Read more at: https://www.turkishminute.com/2018/04/20/opinion-the-us-state-department-is-still-confused-about-turkey/