Looks like US crossed TUrkey's redline with the FEtullah Gulen coup attempt. smh. I think Turkey has a point. Turkey cant be in NATO, and US tries to do a coup in Turkey.
Erdogan Goes His Own Way as Turkish Distrust With U.S. Grows
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a rally on Monday to honor the victims of the 2016 failed coup. Mr. Erdogan has tried to recast Turkey as a more independent actor on the international stage.CreditLefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press
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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a rally on Monday to honor the victims of the 2016 failed coup. Mr. Erdogan has tried to recast Turkey as a more independent actor on the international stage.CreditCreditLefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press
By
Carlotta Gall
ISTANBUL — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has marked the anniversary of
a failed coup against him every passing year — this week was the third — with a national holiday that has turned the traumatic event into a celebration of Turkish nationalism.
But this year, Mr. Erdogan had even more to cheer about, as he flaunted an extra-special symbol of national pride,
the S-400 missile defense system that had just arrived from Russia.
“As long as we, as a nation, protect our homeland, our flag, the call for prayer, democracy and the state,” he declared at a ceremony at Ataturk Airport Monday, “God willing, no power’s hand will be able to reach them.”
Over his 17 years in power, Mr. Erdogan has tried to recast Turkey as a stronger, more independent actor on the international stage, one that in his view can vie toe to toe with powers like China, Russia, the European Union and the United States.
Mr. Erdogan with President Trump at the Group of 20 meeting in Japan last month. The delivery of the S-400 is likely to worsen relations.CreditErin Schaff/The New York Times
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Mr. Erdogan with President Trump at the Group of 20 meeting in Japan last month. The delivery of the S-400 is likely to worsen relations.CreditErin Schaff/The New York Times
“Washington must give up the misguided notion that our relationship can be asymmetrical and come to terms with the fact that Turkey has alternatives,” Mr. Erdogan wrote in an
opinion article in The New York Times last year.
“Failure to reverse this trend of unilateralism and disrespect will require us to start looking for new friends and allies,” he added.
[What is the S-400?]
The United States has strenuously opposed Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 system, declaring it incompatible with NATO systems, and is expected to announce sanctions against Turkey as early as this week.
sink the Turkish lira last year — another instance in which Mr. Erdogan saw an American attempt to undermine him — Mr. Putin is talking trade.
Turkish jet shot down a Russian jet that veered into Turkish airspace in November 2015, the event underscored the seeming distance between Russia and Turkey.
The Russian jet was on a bombing mission in support of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. Turkey, along with the United States, was backing the rebels who were being bombed.
But Russia’s intervention in Syria turned the war in Mr. Assad’s favor, and American support melted away. If anything, Washington began cooperating with Kurdish militias in northeastern Syria that Turkey considers a threat.
A rally in Istanbul on Monday, the third anniversary of the failed coup.CreditOzan Kose/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
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A rally in Istanbul on Monday, the third anniversary of the failed coup.CreditOzan Kose/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Mr. Putin has now brought Mr. Erdogan into his efforts to wind down the war, his so-called Astana process, along with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran.
Together they have established cease-fire zones in Syria to de-escalate the violence and allowed Turkey to establish areas of control in northern Syria to stem the tide of refugees pouring into the country.
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But it was Mr. Putin’s treatment of Mr. Erdogan after the failed coup that was a critical turning point, said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“The coup changed Putin’s calculus,” he said. The Russian leader called Mr. Erdogan the day after the coup and invited him to Russia. Two weeks after the coup, he hosted Mr. Erdogan at a tsarist palace in St. Petersburg. The S-400s came up in their discussion.
“Putin may have seen that the trauma was so deep,” Mr. Cagaptay said, whereas Washington waited four days before it declared sympathy over the coup, and then it was not President Obama who called but Secretary of State John F. Kerry.
“If things had been handled earlier, it would not have happened,” Ahmet Han, a professor of international relations at Altinbas University in Istanbul, said of the S-400 deal.
“Turkey’s decision makers are jubilant about the receipt” of the S-400s, he added, “but no one is really happy except the Russian lobby.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/world/asia/turkey-erdogan-missile-trump.html
I think turkey want s400 for time of threats of west when they want to make their nuks
Correct. Specifically, Turkey seems to want S400 to prevent US/West from using Turkish air force for another possible coup attempt. Gulen's coup attempt involved good # of airforce pilots and officers collaborating against Erdogan's govt. that coup was crazy, its amazing Erdogan survived it.