Gaza crisis overshadows soured US-Turkey relations
The Gaza crisis may have overshadowed the stumble in Turkish-US relations, but cannot long conceal the deep divisions in this troubled alliance.
The vitriolic exchange of words between two close allies, the United States and Turkey, may have been overshadowed by the developments in Gaza but cannot be concealed.
Disagreements had started already before the Israeli ground offensive. The Israeli military operation against Hamas only accelerated and intensified them and revealed the malaise between the two sides that goes back to pre-Gaza days.
For careful observers, the last round started at a Senate confirmation hearing for the newly appointed US ambassador to Ankara, John Bass. During the hearing on July 15, the hearing’s somber tone suddenly changed with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., pressing about allegations of authoritarianism in the governance style of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Are you concerned about Prime Minister Erdogan’s desire to change the constitution and other actions that we have seen on the part of Erdogan as a drift toward authoritarianism?” McCain asked.
