Turkey doesn't deserve to be so undesired

The United States banned laptops, tablets, cameras and similar electronic devices aboard planes from 10 cities in eight countries on March 20. The list included Istanbul in Turkey. The other countries in the list are Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates; all of them are Muslim countries from the greater Middle East area. 

The Turkish Foreign Ministry worked really hard on March 21 to convince Americans to take Istanbul off the list but failed. Turkish people take that as a heartbreaking humiliation. Turkish Airlines was proud to announce just two years ago in 2015 that it flew to the highest number of direct flights in the world from Istanbul's Atatürk Airport. In two years' time, however, Turkey has come to be regarded as a source of terrorism by NATO ally Washington, just like a number of Middle East countries.

Still, U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to receive Egyptian President Abdel Fettah el-Sisi on April 3. On March 20 Trump received Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. Last week, he hosted Saudi Arabian Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammad bin Salman on March 14 and then German Chancellor Angela Merkel on March 18. 

Trump has met the leaders of many countries since he took office on Jan. 20. Despite diplomatic and public demands by President Tayyip Erdoğan to meet Trump, the two only had a telephone conversation on Feb. 8.
The situation with European Union countries is in no better shape.

Erdoğan staged a number of official visits in the last two years to many countries in Asia and Africa, but only two to EU countries since the June 2015 elections: Belgium and Croatia.

The situation got worse after Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK...