Turkey, US at crossroads

Turkey and the United States have once again come at a crossroads in their troubled-allied relationship. The opposing security perceptions and interests of Ankara and Washington landed the two countries on a very difficult and challenging decision time. The question is indeed rather simple; has the U.S. abandoned its 60-year partner and ally Turkey and replaced it with the Democratic Union Party (PYD) that Ankara, for the time being, considers it nothing further than a Syrian extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatist gang, which is also listed as a terrorist group by the U.S. and Europe.

Turkey's absolute power-holder President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who with an April 16 referendum was given vast super presidential powers, will be travelling to the American capital next week on May 16 for a first face-to-face meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House. Ahead of his visit, Erdoğan dispatched Turkey's top commander Gen. Hulisi Akar, National Intelligence Organization (MİT) chief Hakan Fidan and Presidential Spokesman İbrahım Kalın to explain to the Trump administration the existential threat the American collaboration with the PYD and its military wing, People's Protection Units (YPG), could pose to Turkey. The trio had met with State Department and White House executives, and there were also claims that they were even given a very high reception by some senior administration executives.

According to an American joke, an optimist falls off a 10-story building. As he walks past the sixth story, someone yells from the window, "How's it going?" The man yells back, "So far, so good!" That's perhaps where we are now in regards to Turkish-American relations. So far so good, but definitely heading toward a crush. Akar,...