Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin following President Biden’s remark that the Kremlin chief is a “killer,” issuing a rebuke of the American leader just days before a key NATO meeting.
“Mr. Biden’s comment about Putin does not suit a head of state,” Erdogan said on Friday, according to a Russian media translation. “For me, Mr. Putin has done what is necessary by giving a very, very smart, very classy response.”
Erdogan’s intervention puts Turkey on the side of Russia in the latest war of words between Moscow and Washington. Putin wished Biden “good health,” but Erdogan’s praise for that arch reply is a sign of the intra-NATO ailment that has characterized relations between Ankara and other NATO capitals in recent years.
“Turkey is a very valued, long-standing NATO ally. We have a lot of shared interests in countering terrorism, ending the conflict in Syria, for instance, and deterring other malign influences in the region,” Philip Reeker, the State Department’s acting assistant secretary for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, told reporters Friday.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to see Turkish officials at a convocation of leading diplomats from NATO member states next week. His itinerary heralds the first in-person assembly of all the NATO powers since before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
“These meetings will be an opportunity for ministers to discuss the NATO 2030 proposals for alliance adaptation, concerns over China and Russia, as well as climate change, cyber security, combating terrorism, energy security, and other common challenges we face together,” the State Department’s travel announcement added.
Turkey’s relations with numerous NATO allies have been strained in recent years. Erdogan has accused the United States of supporting a failed coup against his presidency, purchased advanced Russian anti-aircraft weapons systems, and reportedly used those systems to track French and Greek F-16 fighter jets that flew joint exercises in a show of solidarity last year, when Turkish and Greek forces seemed poised for a violent clash in the Eastern Mediterranean.
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Blinken already had opened a political dispute with Turkey this week by signaling disapproval of the Turkish government’s decision to strip a lawmaker of his post on the grounds that he had issued statements supportive of Kurdish groups, which Erdogan regards as terrorists.
“We are also monitoring the initiation of efforts to dissolve the People’s Democratic Party, a decision that would unduly subvert the will of Turkish voters, further undermine democracy in Turkey, and deny millions of Turkish citizens their chosen representation,” Blinken said this week. “We call on the government of Turkey to respect freedom of expression in line with protections in the Turkish constitution and with Turkey’s international obligations.”
