By Natalie Armbruster
At the G20 recently, President Biden met with Turkish President Erdogan, later releasing a statement emphasizing the need for both countries to better “manage our disagreements effectively.” The White House also emphasized its commitment to their “defense partnership” and emphasized “Turkey’s importance as a NATO ally.”
This meeting came less than a week after Turkey deployed hundreds of troops to the Turkish-Syrian border, signaling a possible Turkish incursion on the Kurdish-held territory, where U.S. forces are also deployed, in order to establish Erdogan’s long-desired buffer zone between the Turkish border and Kurdish forces.
The move against a U.S. ally comes a month after Putin and Erdogan met in Sochi, during which Turkey doubled down on its 2019 decision to stray from NATO and buy Russian S-400 air defense systems: a purchase which resulted in its expulsion from the United States’ F-35 program and sanctions from the U.S.
This piece was originally published in OC Register on November 8, 2021. Read more HERE.