Ukraine crisis prompting US to improve ties with Turkey

The Biden administration appears keen on having much better ties with Ankara now than when it first came into office. 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) and then US vice president, Joe Biden, (left) during a meeting, March 31, 2016. (Photo:  Andrew Cabballero-Reynolds/AFP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) and then US vice president, Joe Biden, (left) during a meeting, March 31, 2016. (Photo: Andrew Cabballero-Reynolds/AFP)

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan24) As the crisis with Russia over Ukraine continues for the fourth week, the US is adopting major changes in its national security policy. They include relations with Turkey.

The Biden administration appears keen on having much better ties with Ankara now than when it first came into office. 

“We thank Turkey for its commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty, to its territorial integrity, as well as for Turkey’s efforts to assist in Ukraine’s time of need,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said on Monday. Price also praised Turkey’s efforts to negotiate a ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev, although they have produced no substantial result. 

Big Change from Earlier Tensions between US and Turkey

When Joe Biden took office in Jan. 2021, the outstanding issue between Washington and Ankara was Turkey’s acquisition of the advanced Russian air defense system, the S-400.

US officials feared that Turkish use of the S-400 would endanger America’s newest fighter plane, the F-35. Turkey had been involved in the production of that plane and was slated to receive it. 

But as Ankara insisted on proceeding with the S-400, Turkey was removed from the F-35 program in 2019, even before Biden took office.

Read MoreWhite House affirms Turkish exit from F-35, as Pentagon provides details

A meeting between Biden and Erdogan last June failed to resolve any of the problems between Washington and Ankara and triggered a slide in the Turkish currency. Subsequently, Biden refused to meet with Erdogan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s opening last fall, prompting a bitter public tirade from the Turkish President.

Read MoreErdogan blasts US, praises Russia

However, that has changed radically since Russia’s Feb. 24 assault on Ukraine. In fact, the Biden administration has come up with a novel solution to the problems created by Turkey’s acquisition of the S-400: give it to Ukraine!

In early March, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman visited Ankara and met with her Turkish counterpart “to discuss Russia’s premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine,” according to a State Department summary of their meeting.

Sherman also “thanked Turkey for its strong and vocal support in defense of Ukraine,” the State Department said. 

In addition, she proposed that Turkey transfer its S-400 system to Ukraine, even raising the issue publicly. “I think everyone knows that the S-400 has been a long-standing issue, and perhaps this is a moment when we can figure out a new way to solve this problem,” Sherman said in an interview with Turkish television. 

Reuters reported on this interview on Friday in a story discussing the possible transfer of Russian-manufactured air defense systems to Ukraine. The Reuters report prompted journalists to question both Price and Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby on Monday about the status of Turkey’s S-400 and whether it might be transferred to Ukraine. Both were non-committal, providing little information.

“We will defer to the Government of Turkey to speak to the specifics of any assistance that it is providing Ukraine,” Price said.

Asked a similar question, Kirby responded, “I’m not going to talk about specific systems that are in Ukraine,” suggesting it was a question of “operational security” for Ukrainian forces.

Ankara’s Ties to Both Ukraine and Russia

Even before Russia’s invasion, Turkey was providing its Bayraktar TB2 drone to Ukraine. In early February, as Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s borders preparing their attack, Erdogan visited Kiev, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that they had reached an agreement that would enable Ukraine to produce the drone itself.

But Erdogan has also been unwilling to go so far as to jeopardize the ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he cultivated inventively before the Ukraine crisis.

Israel is in a somewhat similar position. It maintains fairly normal relations with Russia, in significant part because it relies on tacit Russian permission to bomb Iranian military positions in Syria.

But Israel also has significant cultural ties to Ukraine, where a Jewish community has lived for over one thousand years. The Black Sea port of Odessa, which first came under Russian bombardment on Monday, was a major Jewish center, and over one-third of the city’s population was Jewish. 

The Ukrainian government has asked Jerusalem to provide it with its Iron Dome air defense system, but Israel has declined to do so in fear of angering Russia.

Instead, like Turkey, Israel has adopted the stance of an intermediary. On March 5, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made a rare Saturday (Sabbath) trip to meet with Putin about brokering a possible settlement. 

The two leaders met for three hours, as Bennett became the first Western leader to meet with Putin following Russia’s assault on Ukraine. Afterward, Bennett flew to Germany to brief Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his meeting.

Little came of Bennett’s effort, however. Indeed, Washington was concerned that Putin had used the Israeli Prime Minister to burnish his image, as The Times of Israel reported. Similarly, the executive director of the “Renew Democracy Initiative,” an organization founded by Russian dissident and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, mocked the idea, suggesting that Israel lacked the clout to mediate a major international dispute.

“Israel is a powerful regional power,” Uriel Ephstein told The Times, “but it is not in a position to be putting an end to this conflict.”

Similarly, little has come out of Erdogan’s efforts to mediate between Moscow and Kiev. Nonetheless, “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to much warmer diplomatic exchanges between Turkey and the United States,” Dr. Aykan Erdemir, senior director of the Turkey Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former member of the Turkish parliament, told Kurdistan 24.

The US sees Russia’s attack “as a unique opportunity to bring Ankara back into the NATO fold,” he continued. “Although most of the outstanding issues in U.S.-Turkish relations remain unresolved, Washington will continue to downplay them since its priority is to close the ranks within the transatlantic alliance.” 

Ankara, however, “continues its fence-sitting policy, by maintaining equally cordial relations with Russia,” Erdemir explained. “Erdogan, who sees the Ukraine war as a significant financial and political risk in the run-up to Turkey’s 2023 elections, also perceives the developments as a diplomatic opportunity to revamp his image and his government’s standing in the West.”