Turkey is one of America’s most important allies, but it presents more challenges to the U.S. than any other member of NATO. The secular, Westernizing, staunchly anti-Soviet Turkey of the Cold War years is now led by a populist Islamist. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, recently rebuked by the Biden administration for anti-Semitic remarks, engages in military interventions from Libya and Syria to Azerbaijan, appears to be drifting from many democratic and European values, and buys weapons from Russia in defiance of American sanctions. As President Biden prepares for a bilateral meeting with Mr. Erdogan later this month, he needs to develop a new way of thinking about this important relationship.
OP-ED
Walter Russell Mead: This isn’t your grandfather’s Turkey
This handout photograph released by the Turkish Presidential Press Service shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg posing ahead of a meeting at The Presidential Complex in Ankara on Oct. 5, 2020.
