President Erdogan visits US amid disagreements with US President Biden

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is travelling to New York City, knowing he has been dealt a promising hand for improving ties with the US thanks to developments in Afghanistan.
At the start of the year, then prospective US Secretary of State Antony Blinken derided Ankara as a “so-called” partner to the United States over Turkey’s purchase of Russian missiles.
Fast-forward to last month – after the Taliban took the Afghan capital ahead of the US withdrawal – and Blinken tweeted that Turkey was “an important NATO ally and an invaluable partner in the region”.
The drastic change in tone offers Erdogan more than a glimmer of hope that relations with Washington – for several years blighted by a seemingly inexhaustible litany of disputes – could be salvageable as he travels on Sunday to attend the UN General Assembly.
The only difference in Erdogan’s policy goes back to a meeting with [US President Joe] Biden at which he convinced him that Turkey could play a bigger role in Afghanistan,” said Emre Caliskan, research fellow at the London-based Foreign Policy Centre.
Erdogan first suggested Turkey’s role to safeguard Kabul airport to Biden at a NATO summit in June.
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of the German Marshall Fund in Ankara, added that Erdogan would use “Afghanistan as a showcase, that actually Turkey and the US share interests on a number of issues, and that the US also benefits from cooperation with Turkey.
Ankara sees this as a topic that proves that the West still needs Turkey, or the West still benefits from cooperation with Turkey.”

S-400 dispute
While Erdogan’s trip to New York is principally to attend the General Assembly, a meeting with Biden would be an opportunity for the latest reset in US-Turkey ties.
After Biden came to office in January, he waited three months before speaking to Erdogan as the new White House displayed its ire at Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 air defence system.
The fallout centres on Washington’s insistence that the Russian system is incompatible with NATO’s defences and specifically that it could gather secrets about the F-35, a next-generation stealth fighter jet that Turkey had been part of developing.
The acquisition of S-400s saw Turkey kicked off the fighter programme in 2019 and US sanctions were later imposed on senior Turkish defence officials.
The row adds to other disputes between the two states.
Turkey is unhappy with US support for Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria it says are tied to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a 37-year battle for Kurdish rights against Turkey that has killed tens of thousands.
It also demands the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of masterminding a 2016 coup attempt, who has lived in the US for more than 20 years. Gulen denies the accusations against him.
Washington, meanwhile, has been critical of Turkey’s human rights record, although there are few signs of Biden carrying out his promise to put this issue at the centre of his foreign policy.
More important for the US is Turkey’s prolonged flirtation with Russia, most clearly encapsulated in the S-400 issue.
Last month, a Russian arms export official said Turkey was close to committing to receive a second batch of S-400s, something that would likely provoke further US sanctions against Ankara.
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