US President Joe Biden’s formal move to recognize the Armenian Genocide in his April 24 address does not create an impasse in the US-Turkey relations despite provoking increasingly deepening tensions between the two NATO member states, says Arpine Melikyan, an expert from the analytical center Hayatsk (Insight).
In an interview with Tert.am, she cited the long-running discords between Washington and Ankara, calling attention especially to such major developments as the Syrian conflict, the US response to the 2016 Turkish coup d’etat attempt and Ankara’s aggressive actions in the Middle East.
“The tension has deepened further over the recent period against the backdrop of the Russia-Turkey approximation, as well as Turkey’s move to shift its foreign policy vector northward and eastward from the West,” she noted.
The expert said she sees Washington’s attempts to curb Turkey’s policy of double standards, aggression and blackmail “while simultaneously trying to return that country on the western track”.
“Despite the existing disagreements, Turkey has been and remains a key NATO ally for the United States. From the geopolitical perspective, Turkey, which in the eastern alignment of the bloc and shares borders with hotbeds of conflicts in the Middle East and the Black Sea [region], plays an important role for the US. The Turkish army is the second largest after the United States. Moreover, hundreds of troops of the US air forces are deployed along Turkey’s Incirlik [Air] Base. And what’s even more, the bloc has headquarters stationed in the western Turkish town of Izmir, where they prepare and coordinate large-scale NATO land operations,” she added.
Melikyan also called attention to the geopolitical component (applying especially to the post-Soviet region).
“It is an open secret that Turkey is a key factor for the United States in terms of expanding its interests in this region and undermining Russia in the first place. In light of the recent developments in Ukraine – and the Russia-US tensions against their backdrop – as well as the existing tensions between Russia and a number of European countries, the US is increasingly attaching priority to returning Turkey to the Western orbit, including under pressures,” she added.
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