Mwalimu-G
Elder Lister
Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu
'She wanted to know'
The most crucial moment of the US President’s “America is back” tour to Europe will come when he sits down with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland, a city resonating with echoes of Cold War summits. But his talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday at NATO headquarters were just as significant.
Erdogan largely got a free run when Donald Trump was in office. The last US President felt a kinship to leaders with autocratic leanings, and responded well to the kind of flattering that shrewd operators like Erdogan can lay on. The Turkish President basically persuaded Trump to pull US troops out of Syrian border regions — to the cost of America's longtime Kurdish allies. For four years, Erdogan crushed dissent, suppressed opposition foes and cracked down on journalists, knowing that Trump really didn’t care that much. (He might have gone too far in buying Russia anti-aircraft missiles, however, which led to sanctions from Washington.)
Biden, who has centered his presidency around reviving global democracy, was slow to warm up to Erdogan. He shocked Ankara by becoming the first US President to follow through on campaign promises to recognize the genocide of Armenians at the hand of the Ottoman Empire. But Washington also doesn’t want to push Erdogan too far -- and particularly not into the arms of Russia or China. After all, Turkey controls NATO's second biggest armed forces.
Erdogan himself is showing signs that he doesn't want to stay out in the cold, as Turkey wobbles on the verge of a crisis due to the pandemic and economic mismanagement. He offered to help defend Kabul’s airport when Western forces pull out of Afghanistan, and stood up for Ukraine during a standoff with Russian forces earlier this year despite warming relations with Putin.
Biden said Monday that he and his counterpart had “a very good meeting.” But neither had much more to say, reflecting a years-long relationship that may be entering a whole new phase now that Biden is in the Oval Office