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1/30/16

US Turkey Relations: How Turkey Fell Out of Favor - by Soner Cagaptay

The transformation of Turkey’s standing in the eyes of the U.S. military is due to Turkish and American dynamics.

Following the September 11 attacks, the U.S. government, including the military, became preoccupied with identifying moderate Muslim allies.

Turkey benefited from this endeavor as the ruling pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the elections in 2002, taking office on a platform of moderation.

The AKP upset its potential allies in Washington, however, when it refused to help Washington in the 2003 Iraq War.

Some argue that the American military never fully recovered from that break, though the rest of Washington eventually did.

In any case, bilateral ties recovered gradually once Ankara started to help the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan and against al Qaeda.

Under the AK Party in the last decade, Turkey became a logistics hub for U.S. operations in the Middle East and beyond. In return, Washington started to offer Turkey intelligence assistance against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in 2007 and relations between Ankara and Washington began to strengthen.

Read more: United States: How Turkey Fell Out of Favor - The Globalist

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