Turkey: Worst Ally Ever

Turkey is an authoritarian state where democracy is dying

Turkey’s democratic backsliding under President Erdogan has seen the government crackdown on civil liberties and democratic institutions across the board. Erdogan has stepped up government efforts to stamp out any criticism. Turkey is currently one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, and Erdogan’s government has shut down or taken over more than 100 news outlets. Since the failed coup attempt in 2016, about 80,000 people have been jailed pending trial and some 150,000 civil servants, military personnel and others have been sacked or suspended from their jobs. 

An ally in name only

There is ample evidence proving that Turkey is not and does not want to be a strategic partner of the United States. Erdogan’s authoritarianism at home is paired with his decisions to undermine the NATO alliance and cause trouble for its neighbors, the EU, and the US. The purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system designed to shoot down U.S. aircraft demonstrates the degree to which Turkey has drifted away from the West and toward Russia. Turkey’s assault on the Syrian Kurds - the most reliable partner of the US in the fight against ISIS - has hampered efforts to wipe out ISIS. Additionally, Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank is charged with helping Iran evade sanctions in what is the biggest sanctions-evasion scheme in recent history.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the US and its Western allies expanded their sanctions and export controls targeting Russia. Ankara, however, declined to join. Turkey has subsequently emerged as a key jurisdiction for Russian sanctions evasion, helping fuel Moscow’s war machine even as US officials repeatedly push Ankara to crack down on Russian circumvention of sanctions.

The eruption of war in the Middle East following the deadly Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7th have also put Turkey's support for terrorist groups like Hamas - designated as a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, the European Union, the UK, as well as other powers - in the spotlight. Not only has Turkey's President Erdogan insisted that Hamas is not a terrorist organization but a liberation group, but Hamas continues to maintain political offices in Turkey. Its leaders have openly met with Erdogan, and have even been provided with Turkish passports.

Destabilizing the Eastern Mediterranean

Over the last years we've seen Turkey take steps that put peace and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean at risk, threatening its neighbors and infringing on their sovereignty. Turkey’s illegal maritime boundary deal with the Tripoli-based government in Libya is the latest in a series of provocative actions that . It follows in the footsteps of its continued illegal exploration of Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone and its maintenance of a threat of war against Greece. As the Eastern Mediterranean comes together on energy, security, and other issues, Turkey is trying to scuttle any consensus and write its own rules. Ankara seems to think the Eastern Mediterranean is its terrain and wants to assert itself like China does in the South China Sea.  

The United States must re-examine its relationship with Turkey 

Turkey has repeatedly demonstrated that it is an unreliable ally that often actively works against US interests in the region. Over the past few years, Turkey has enabled ISIS, attacked the most effective American allies in the war on ISIS, threatened American allies and strategic partners in the Eastern Mediterranean, put NATO at risk by purchasing Russian S-400 missile systems, jailed American citizens in Turkey, conspired to kidnap a legal resident on US soil, and has physically attacked American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights in Washington, D.C. The time for a thorough review of U.S. policy on Turkey that includes sanctions is now.