Turkey’s free pass to invade countries may be gone with Trump - analyst

The U.S. allowance of Turkey’s aggressive policies over the last four years is about to come to an end as Donald Trump hands over the presidency to new-elect Joe Biden, Middle East analyst Seth Frantzman said on Tuesday.

Unlike Trump, “U.S. President-elect Biden and his incoming team may not take orders from Ankara and may not welcome its threats,” Frantzman wrote in The Jerusalem Post.

During Trump’s presidency, the U.S. administration mostly approved Turkey’s aggressive acts, such as attacks to the Kurds and invasion of Afrin in Syria, according to the analyst.

Turkey over the past year has launched major offensives against Kurdish armed groups in Syria and Iraq, among a string of other military moves in the region.

Pointing out Ankara’s Syria policy who made United States to withdraw from northern parts of the country which eventually empowered Russia, Iran and Syrian regime in the region, Frantzman said that yet Turkey sold this to Trump administration as a closure of Obama’s policies.

The result of Ankara’s move of pushing a war in Nagorno-Karabakh was very similar to Syria, as Turkey ended up working with Russia and Iran in the Caucasus and Russia gained power, instead of the United States, Frantzman said, “U.S. role has been sidelined as like in Syria and Libya conflicts.”

Meanwhile, Erdoğan’s presidency was working with Tehran and Moscow, buying Russian S-400s, he added.

The last few years have been a nightmare, regarding Turkey’s  aggressive policies, according to Frantzman, 

“For the 350,000 people in Syria who were driven from their homes by Ankara’s invasion; the 200,000 or so purged and some imprisoned in Turkey; the journalists like Can Dündar who have been persecuted and driven into exile; the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party

 (HDP) mayors thrown out; and the politicians taken to prison on trumped-up “terror” charges,” he wrote.

Hosting twice in the previous year officials from Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the EU, threatening Greece by using Syrian refugees and attacking protesters in Washington, are some other issues Frantzman underlined as Turkey’s aggressive policies. 

Most of Turkey’s authoritarian and militarist acts were carried out with direct U.S. support or a passive consent over the recent years, but Ankara’s key supporters in D.C. are now leaving office, he said.