US, Turkey relations like old marriage, no longer a love affair, says American analyst

Washington reviews its relations with Ankara as divergences in regional policy approaches and Turkish leaders' anti-U.S. rhetoric disrupts ties between the two allies, a senior American analyst has said.

"It [Turkey-U.S. relations] feels like a marriage that has gotten a little old. It is not a real love affair anymore," Michael Werz, senior fellow at U.S. think tank Center for American Progress, told daily Hürriyet.

"There is a lot of grumpiness and the partners are not really happy with each other anymore."
The analyst further said Washington is in the process of reassessing its relations with Ankara, "because there have been a lot of disappointments."

Ankara's refusal to allow the U.S. to use ?ncirlik Air base is of great concern to American military planners and seems like the top priority issue at the table right now, according to Werz.

In addition to the Turkish government's reluctance to take part in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and "not living up to its NATO obligations" by not letting the U.S. fully use ?ncirlik, Washington is upset about "one side of that marriage talking a lot about the internal relationship in public in a way that is not healthy," according to Werz.

"The U.S. government was twice forced to correct the record after Turkish government statements misrepresented the contents of internal conversations between Turkish and U.S. officials - this is quite extraordinary among close allies," he said.

When asked about those occasions, Werz said Washington felt that the Turkish government had misrepresented a conversation about Fethullah Gülen, a U.S.-based Islamic scholar, between U.S. President Barack Obama and President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an...