Taking a firm approach with Turkey is essential for safeguarding U.S. regional interests and curbing Erdogan's unpredictable and manipulative policies.
Turkey and the United States have shared a treaty alliance since Ankara officially joined NATO in 1952. However, their bilateral relationship, spanning seven decades, has experienced its fair share of fluctuations. Tensions arose in the mid-1960s when the U.S. made a secret deal with the Soviet Union to remove Jupiter missiles from Turkey during the Cuban missile crisis, coupled with President Lyndon B. Johnson's letter expressing hesitancy to defend Turkey over Cyprus. Later, disputes over Vietnam triggered anti-American sentiments in Turkish public opinion. In the mid-1970s, Turkey's invasion of Northern Cyprus resulted in a U.S.-imposed arms embargo and subsequent restrictions on arms exports to Turkey. Despite these challenges, a shared perception of the threat posed by Moscow during the Cold War helped maintain a robust government-to-government relationship. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, U.S.-Turkey relations flourished, reaching a pinnacle a