The US State Department saw an excellent opportunity for an anti-Turkish demarche.
Today Turkey has few friends and too many points where the country’s authorities are trying to promote their interests. Nagorno-Karabakh has now been added to Syria, Libya and the Mediterranean. Having supported Azerbaijan, Turkey began to deploy loyal Syrian militants there.
The expert community has already warned that the next military adventure will cost Ankara dearly. According to Jeffrey Halley, an erasing analyst at Singapore-based broker Oanda, the Turkish economy is already “on its knees”.
Against this background, the United States decided to prove itself, which never forgave Turkey for the purchase of the Russian S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile systems. The head of the State Department, Michael Pompeo, has already made a showy visit to Cyprus and Greece. The countries were chosen for a reason, because it is their interests in the region that Ankara tramples on, notes the Greek newspaper Kathimerini. As a weighty argument, the United States will deploy a new USS Hershel “Woody” Williams naval base on Crete.
“This is literally the perfect choice against the backdrop of a strategic location. And this is a symbolic defense partnership that will continue to expand and grow”, – Pompeo said during his visit to Greece.
Kathimerini notes that Crete is becoming a place of concentration of the American armed contingent, which will receive not only Greek and American troops, but also UAE aviation.