• ricecake
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    11 months ago

    Yellow means it’s complicated, so… It’s complicated.

    Positive relations are important to their national defense, and as a NATO member they’re way more likely to let in US bases, and historically have because of fear of the USSR.
    Recently, they’ve been interested in close relations with Russia since they’re a nearby economic power, and the US hasn’t been entirely thrilled with that.
    They also want close relations with Ukraine, and so have been pushing for a peace with expediency as the goal, which would result in Ukraine losing land. The US is less interested in brokering peace at any cost, and so there’s conflicting objectives.
    The US supported Turkish operations in Syria, but has recently taken the stance that those operations pose the risk of destabilizing things further. Similarly for Iraqi operations.

    Above all else, the US is committed to liking the positioning of that base in Turkey for the regional positioning it gives them, and Turkey is supremely appreciative of US assets making any attack on them hilariously unlikely.

    Each party gets something out of the relationship, but it’s far from a given that they’ll be working towards the same goals outside of “the US should be positioned to protect Turkey”.