Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the opening of Russia’s international air show, MAKS, in late August as the guest of his counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Despite its NATO membership, Turkey has continued its slide into the Kremlin’s sphere of influence, as illustrated by Putin pitching his country’s Su-35 and Su-57 jets to Erdogan while Russian cargo planes landed in Ankara carrying the second battery of the S-400 air defense system.
Even so, Erdogan’s visit to Moscow was less about shopping for Russian military hardware than it was about his desperation for Putin’s help in stopping the advance of Bashar al-Assad’s forces into the Turkish military’s area of operation in northwest Syria.
The Turkish president’s cozying up to Putin has drawn the ire of the U.S. Congress. The House Foreign Affairs Committee, hours after the arrival of the second S-400 battery in Turkey and Erdogan’s declaration of interest in Russian jets, called on Trump to “sanction Turkey … as required by U.S. law.”
The next day, U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper stated that unless the S-400 system is completely removed from Turkish soil, Turkey cannot rejoin the U.S.-led F-35 fighter jet program.
For all of Erdogan’s near-constant bluster, Putin continues to play Erdogan like a fiddle.
As it stands, unless Washington and its transatlantic allies develop a concerted counter-strategy, Moscow will continue to exploit the man in Ankara to whom its analysts already refer as “Our Man in NATO.”
Read more: Erdogan’s Russian Pipe Dreams - The Globalist
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Despite its NATO membership, Turkey has continued its slide into the Kremlin’s sphere of influence, as illustrated by Putin pitching his country’s Su-35 and Su-57 jets to Erdogan while Russian cargo planes landed in Ankara carrying the second battery of the S-400 air defense system.
Even so, Erdogan’s visit to Moscow was less about shopping for Russian military hardware than it was about his desperation for Putin’s help in stopping the advance of Bashar al-Assad’s forces into the Turkish military’s area of operation in northwest Syria.
The Turkish president’s cozying up to Putin has drawn the ire of the U.S. Congress. The House Foreign Affairs Committee, hours after the arrival of the second S-400 battery in Turkey and Erdogan’s declaration of interest in Russian jets, called on Trump to “sanction Turkey … as required by U.S. law.”
The next day, U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper stated that unless the S-400 system is completely removed from Turkish soil, Turkey cannot rejoin the U.S.-led F-35 fighter jet program.
For all of Erdogan’s near-constant bluster, Putin continues to play Erdogan like a fiddle.
As it stands, unless Washington and its transatlantic allies develop a concerted counter-strategy, Moscow will continue to exploit the man in Ankara to whom its analysts already refer as “Our Man in NATO.”
Read more: Erdogan’s Russian Pipe Dreams - The Globalist
Support EU-Digest, which has reported the news without any political affiliation since 2004, and opposes those who seek to discredit news organizations who believe in the right of a free Press, by investing in an advertisement, or by giving a donation to keep our efforts going : click on https://www.paypal.com/webapps/hermes?token=8BP18304C1657151J&useraction=commit&mfid=1567106786154_8591ae1288ebf
