“It is the US and coalition forces that are fueling terrorism in Syriathey did it brutally and continue to do it”. Recep Tayyip Erdogan It will not be subtle and for the umpteenth time the clash with NATO allies, led by the United States, served. The sharp statement came on the sidelines of the Kyiv, United Nations and Ankara summit Lviv. Though he doesn’t say so explicitly, Erdogan is reasonably referring to the Western coalition’s anti-Isis support – which included Turkey in the Syrian quadrant – to the Kurdish militias Ankara wants to crush. Bright tones, then, which are not new to Erdogan’s diplomatic lexicon. “These kinds of statements, even if they are not so violent, are not new,” he recalls speaking to ilfattoquotidiano.it Vittorio Emanuele ParsiFull Professor of International Relations at the Catholic University of Milan, where he directs the High School of Economics and International Relations (Azeri).
“To find similar ones,” Parsi continues, “we have to go back to the days of the Trump administration, when the United States maintained a troop veil on the Turkish and Syrian borders and supported Kurdish forces with Isis. Even then, Erdogan, who has always shown extremely uncooperative behavior in the fight against ISIS, accused Westerners of playing the game of terrorists who supported the Kurds, so at this moment such frank words are all signs that should not be underestimated should be. .
The spiteful statements came hours after news of a new order for anti-aircraft missiles was reported by the Russian news agency Tass S-400 from Russia. TASS reported a statement by the head of the Moscow Service for Military Technical Cooperation, Dmitry Shugaevafter which an agreement would be signed between Ankara and Moscow for a new match between the two missile defense system. Ankara was quick to dismiss the Russian official’s statements. “There is no new development, the process continues from the agreement signed on the first day,” said the President of Turkey’s Defense Industry, Turkey’s Anadolu News Agency reported.
“All these – says Parsi – are signs of it ease of the Erdogan regime in pursuing its own national political agenda”. Underlying Ankara’s foreign policy is a strong tactics accompanied by an ambivalence that makes it difficult to predict its strategy. She is part of the Atlantic Alliance but buys Russian-made weapons; Opposes Putin’s invasion of Ukraine but does not support the sanctions imposed on Moscow by the international community: a ambivalent attitude which does not facilitate relations between Ankara and NATO. The suspicion is that Erdogan is playing a double game and that the Sultan’s attitude is causing resentment among quite a few in the alliance. “A few days ago it was leaked the deep irritation of the White House, the EU and NATO that Turkey could represent a way to triangulate the flow of goods and money with Russia, thereby nullifying most Western sanctions against Russia” , Parsi tells the factsquotidiano.it. “We know there is a strong one handling from Erdogan to Finland’s and Sweden’s application for membership, always linked to the question of the Kurdish opposition (Erdogan had made the extradition of the PKK representatives found to Ankara as a condition for the two countries joining NATO asylum there ed) – Parsi continues – these are all things that tell us that the Turkish President’s loyalty to the Atlantic Alliance is sub iudice, it has yet to be defined”.
Of the Bornand most importantly from the White House, for now all is calm. “On the other hand, nobody obviously has an interest in raising the toneescalationalbeit verbally, but objectively this poses a problem. It should be noted that Turkey also has a positioning in the Mediterranean Sea-, in Libya, all by himself, in an anti-Russian but at the same time anti-Western capacity; there is a lot going on in sub-Saharan Africa, around Djibouti; it stirs in the Levant, where it is strongly allied with Russia and also with Iran, so there are many open dossiers with the Turks. So what is in crisis is not the Alliance as an organization which, on the contrary – with the outbreak of war in Ukraine – has grown stronger and has silenced voices that spoke of its anachronistic uselessness, but the presence of a uncomfortable partner willing to pursue their own goals at the expense of those of the organization to which they belong.
“I believe that Erdogan plays with fire, he overestimates his regime’s ability to act independently.- Professor Parsi says to fact.it – It is clear that at a moment like this, when two camps are emerging, that of democracies and that of autocracies, all decisions indicate that Erdogan’s Turkey is in moved towards the second perspective and not the first”. Ankara it skilfully juggles the most important international and regional crises. Of the Libya, to Syria via sub-Saharan Africa to Ukraine. The Sultan pursues his political agenda with enormous clarity and strategyeven if turn up the sound the political debate. “NATO must not take verbal provocations – because at the moment it is a verbal provocation – and must continue on its course towards membership as quickly as possible Finland and Sweden in the interests of contributing to the security not only of NATO but of the Union as a whole, and must try not to become drawn into the Middle East pocket in which the Alliance as an organization has no strategic interests. .