Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family Senior Fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute.
Articles & Testimony
Once Washington comes to grips with Erdogan’s “Anatolian” foreign policy, it will have a better chance of steering the relationship in ways that support U.S. interests without unduly boosting Russia and other adversaries.
The new Turkey has many identities, none of them exclusive or easy to classify: if it is a Middle Eastern country, it is also the only one that is a Black Sea power; if it is a European country, it is the only one that borders Iran; if it is a Eurasian power, it is the only one that belongs to NATO. The best way for the United States to approach Turkey is to acknowledge the reality of these multiple alignments. Erdogan is fond of being seen as the center of things—he has tried to serve as an arbiter in the Ukraine war, played an active role in the South Caucasus, and projected Turkey’s power in the Sahel, Horn of Africa, and Western Balkans. He relishes being the dealmaker in regional conflicts, which boosts his already monumental standing at home. The United States must deal with Turkey as it does other middle powers, such as India and Indonesia, accepting that these countries see no contradiction in maintaining strong ties with both Washington and its adversaries...
