A portrait of a failing relationship: US and Turkey

U.S.-Turkey relations are similar to the stories of celebrities’ failing marriages. Everyone knows that the couple does not get on anymore and even cheats on each other, but both parties publicly say the marriage is going well. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Turkey was like the celebrity couple that goes out for dinner to discuss problems and smiles to journalists at the end of the dinner to assure that everything is going well - even if behind the doors the two cannot sort out major disagreements, though they decide to keep trying.

I am not saying the U.S.-Turkey alliance is over, I am saying that the major crises cannot be overcome by denying the seriousness of the problem. It is true that diplomacy is a euphemism for political hypocrisy, especially in times of crises, but if things go to extremes they become unsustainable. The major disagreement between the U.S. and Turkey concerning Middle East policy is claimed to be one of priorities: The priority of the U.S. is to fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), while the priority of Turkey is the removal of the al-Assad regime. Turkey claims that its priority is the al-Assad regime, as the regime is the cause of ISIL, and unless al-Assad is toppled radicalism will prevail in Syria under different brands even if ISIL is defeated. The Turkish government insists that if the Syrian opposition had not been abandoned, ISIL would never have taken control and, in the case of Iraq, it was the sectarian rule of the Nouri al-Maliki government that provoked a Sunni reaction, of which ISIL is a part.

Nevertheless, it was only after the U.S. started to be concerned about the rise of radical Islamism in Syria replacing the al-Assad regime that U.S. policy shifted its priority to...