After almost twenty years of reign, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was able to turn Turkey into a regional power with influence that has not existed since the country’s first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Erdogan has a chance to expand his territory – the expert told us why Georgia is being actively drawn into NATO.
The Bloomberg agency writes about it.
The symbol of Erdogan’s mission to restore Turkey’s role in the world arena should be the Cathedral of St. Sophia, which recently turned from a museum into a mosque, the media say. As is known, the West was skeptical about this decision, but it has no leverage against Ankara.
Timothy Ash, an emerging market expert with BlueBay Asset Management, stresses that Erdogan has a strategic advantage.
“The reality is that the European Union is a lion without teeth when it comes to Turkey. And Erdogan has long understood this”, – says the expert.
For the EU, Turkey’s role as a buffer against the influx of migrants and militants into Europe has made it too risky to apply trade sanctions because of gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The same situation has been observed in Washington. Although the U.S. administration is dissatisfied with certain foreign policy steps taken by Turkey, it cannot go against a key NATO ally.
Although Turkey is a candidate for EU membership and also a partner of the US, the republic is increasingly pursuing its own independent foreign policy. As Bloomberg notes, this approach has worked so far, and Turkey even “defied the U.S. and NATO when it acquired S-400 air defense systems from the enemy during the Cold War”.
All this causes irritation in Washington, and sympathy for Turkey is gradually disappearing, the media say. Last year, the collapsing relations ended with a “symbolically significant” vote by Congress for the recognition of the Armenian genocide.
“True, the country has so far escaped serious punishment, as Erdogan draws a fine line between challenging his friends and ensuring that Turkey remains useful”, – the article says.