Ankara no longer wants to listen to Washington

02.11.2016
United States

The 35th American-Turkish conference is closing in Washington. The main themes of the summit include economic affairs, military and energy cooperation, as well as cybersecurity.

Personalities

Turkey is mostly represented by Americans of Turkish origin or Turks actively doing business and living in the United States. Serdar Kılıç, the Turkish Ambassador to US, and Mehmet Şimşek, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, represent the country's leadership.

Mehmet Şimşek served as finance minister in the cabinet led by Ahmed Davutoglu, who was allegedly involved in organizing the Turkish coup. He has British citizenship. Moreover, Şimşek lived in London for 7 years and in New York for 6. According to Foreign Policy in 2013, Şimşek joined the list of the 500 most influential people in the world, which reflects his ties with Washington.

Main topics

Turkey's economy and energy will obviously not achieve real results without the participation of Russia. Even though a presentation of Turkish resorts was held during the conference, significant changes in the influx of American tourists cannot be counted on because of the ocean separating the countries.

Hence the focus was on military cooperation.

Military cooperation

In particular, the “aggressive reform” of the Turkish armed forces after the coup attempt was discussed during the summit. In existing and ongoing programs of military cooperation, as was noted, “There are problems that require illumination, awareness and resolution” before “growth can continue.” In addition, new variants of military cooperation were also considered.

James Jones, the former United States European Command (COMUSEUCOM) and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, presented on the importance of NATO, which none of the military leadership of Turkey listened to.

At the same time, Hulusi Akar, the Turkish Chief of the General Staff, paid a sudden visit to Moscow, where he and his Russian counterpart, Valery Gerasimov, discussed similar topics in Turkish-Russian relations.

Related links
The "Turkish Stream" will require that Moscow and Ankara meet each other
Turkey’s Incirlik Offer To Russia Is Ankara’s July 4 “Present” To Washington
Turkey’s Exit from NATO: Why the delay?
Russia, Turkey and NATO
US failure in Turkey was the start of NATO's undoing
United States
Turkey
cooperation
NATO
cyber security
economics
Meeting
Ankara