ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is travelling to New York City, knowing he has been dealt a promising hand for improving ties with the US thanks to developments in Afghanistan.
At the start of the year, then prospective US Secretary of State Antony Blinken derided Ankara as a “so-called” partner to the United States over Turkey’s purchase of Russian missiles.
Fast-forward to last month – after the Taliban took the Afghan capital ahead of the US withdrawal – and Blinken tweeted that Turkey was “an important NATO ally and an invaluable partner in the region”.
The drastic change in tone offers Erdogan more than a glimmer of hope that relations with Washington – for several years blighted by a seemingly inexhaustible litany of disputes – could be salvageable as he travels on Sunday to attend the UN General Assembly.
“The only difference in Erdogan’s policy goes back to a meeting with [US President Joe] Biden at which he convinced him that Turkey could play a bigger role in Afghanistan,” said Emre Caliskan, research fellow at the London-based Foreign Policy Centre.
Erdogan first suggested Turkey’s role to safeguard Kabul airport to Biden at a NATO summit in June.
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of the German Marshall Fund in Ankara, added that Erdogan would use “Afghanistan as a showcase, that actually Turkey and the US share interests on a number of issues, and that the US also benefits from cooperation with Turkey.
“Ankara sees this as a topic that proves that the West still needs Turkey, or the West still benefits from cooperation with Turkey.”
