Turkish American relations were not bad as well as today, since 1974 - Turkey's Cyprus Operation, nobody knows in Turkey what will happen soon. Turks believe that US supported failed military coup, indirectly... and you, Americans have already chose Suudia Arabia and the Kurds as new ally against them. Some still believe relations will recover soon... but we are not sure... What do you think ?
I've given this some thought, and I don't think Turkey really fits in NATO anymore. It made sense to have them in during the Cold War, but in the post cold war era things have changed. Erdogan is leading the country into an authoritarian and Islamist direction. I don't think these are temporary changes, based simply on any sort of Erdogan charisma, but permanent changes in the direction of Turkey due to demographics. Also we have totally different foreign policy goals. The US view of the Middle East is totally different from that of the Turks, and since Turkey could easily plunge us into a war we don't want due to their membership in NATO, I would prefer either we ease Turkey out of NATO or the US should ease out. In any case, we no longer belong in the same military alliance.
Unfortunately I dont see what either country gains from the alliance. It would be great if we could find some common ground.
We need Turkey in NATO for the time being. The last thing we want to do is push Turkey into an alliance of any kind with Iran!
Iran was actually historic enemy. For centuries we fought each other, today's Iraq was war zone between us. But things have changed. About 12 to 15 millions Azerbaijanis (Turks of Caspian region) live in Northern Iran. I can speak Turkish with people in Tabriz. They like us, so rest of Iranians have been changing and many Iranians visit our country every year. Turks only care about who will support him against PKK teror, these days US fund PYD/YPG in name of war against ISIS. However they are connected with PKK. Secondly, current Turkish administation haven't seen any strong reaction for support against failed military coup in 2016
Many differences can be 'ironed-out', but not the paramount issue of what happens with the Kurds. The Turks seem bent on exterminating these people, and they'll find enthusiastic allies for that purpose among Shi'a Iraqis and Iran.
You want to give the Kurds a state and create another Israel? Do you know the difference between the Kurds and the militant Kurds? Most Muslims in Turkey are Sunni (98%) and so are the Kurds.
It is very great to see someone really understands Turkey. We have 1.5 million Kurds in Istanbul, we live in peaceful, nobody exterminates them. We had many Kurdish presidents and ministers as well. Such as Turgut Ozal well-known president by Americans during Gulf War.
Thank you.. Do you remember the name of a Turk who wrote about politics and trends in Turkey about 15 years ago? I thought he was brilliant, but I have searched and I can't remember his name.. His names began with C and H (I think)
I was about 12 years old about 15 years ago i dont have any idea. I would know if i read political science i need some more clue
NATO is a redundant terrorist organisation that ought to be demolished asap. As far as I am concerned, it is NATO that ought to be kicked out of not only Turkey, but also the rest of the world.
We don't have Iran basic politics for any alliance. Iran is weak for us. But we buy natural gas from iran so we have to follow balance policy. Same for Russia. These two countries supply energy and we run our economy. This is fair and understandable. We cannot cut our relations with Iran
Swedish does not have the letter Ű, however, Swedish keyboards come with numerous accents that makes it possible to type letters such as ű.
Oh ok. of course I mean Islamist Cleric Fethullah Gulen is leader of failed military coup and Trump Administration protects him
It is just about 3,500 Km through the air from Tehran to Berlin. An ICBM travels at 6 -7 Km per second within a minute after liftoff. Think about it....
This sounds like a terrible reason to keep Turkey in NATO. If we don't, they'll let Iran nuke Western Europe? I'm not following this theory.
None so blind as though who cannot see, Mike.... Once those insane Islamo-priests get their hands on nuclear weapons and finalize mounting them on ICBM's, there's no telling what they'll do if they think their Islamic God tells them to wipe out the infidels. Oh, and the Turks? In the past the Turks have been much more rational, of course, and dependably secular in their international dealings. But like all good Muslims, they get down and grovel to Mecca five times a day just like their brothers in Tehran do.... Birds of a feather....
Turks are on the other side of the Sunni/Shia divide, so they are not natural religious allies of Iran, although they may have more pragmatic reasons to band together for limited objectives. But I just don't see any grand Turkish-Persian alliance to nuke the West. I would think Iran would be saving their nukes for Israel.
You could be right, but I tend to doubt it, if only because a nuke attack on Israel would be instantaneous suicide! But, since they welcome an 'end-of-the-world' bloodbath wipe-out battle with all 'infidels', maybe that would suit them just fine! Supposedly, 78% of Turks are identified as being Sunni Muslims, and that's anathema to Shi'a (the dominent sect in Iran and most of Iraq, as you know). Still, there's the factor of all that "enemy of my enemy is my friend" intrigue, so who knows what they'll do? If they're all Muslims, they could ally with each other to get rid of 'infidels', and then settle their own differences.... Once they have thermonuclear hydrogen weapons in their possession it's a whole new ballgame! But please don't put too much confidence in any of the NATO countries. There's probably no worse bunch of divided, useless, impotent 'fighting forces' in the world than those you'll find in NATO. And what's worse? Both Russia and China KNOW it....