Will Joe Biden’s arrival at the White House force Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to rethink his foreign policy? More authoritarian than ever internally, engaged on several military fronts abroad, Mr. Erdogan has considerably distanced himself from Turkey’s traditional allies – the United States, the European Union, NATO – in order to get closer to Moscow, which makes him a real headache for the Atlantic Alliance.
Recent events could force him to change the situation. The European Union is preparing to discuss possible sanctions against Turkey for its drilling in the territorial waters of Greece and Cyprus in the Mediterranean, on December 10 and 11. And Mr Erdogan’s interests increasingly clash with those of his new Russian partner. Moscow and Ankara are on opposing sides in Libya, their objectives are antagonistic in Syria, and recently Turkey has imposed itself in the Russian backyard, militarily supporting Azerbaijan in its war against Armenian forces for the control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in the southern Caucasus.
“Belligerent rhetoric”
With the departure of President Donald Trump from the White House, Mr. Erdogan is losing a powerful ally with whom he used to speak regularly by phone, including during his rounds of golf. Throughout his tenure, the outgoing US president has shown great complacency towards his Turkish counterpart, whom he claimed to be. “A big fan”. Mr. Erdogan may not find the same indulgence in Joe Biden.
In December 2019, Biden called the Turkish president an autocrat and pledged to support the opposition, sparking the ire of politicians from all sides in Turkey. In an interview with New York TimesMr. Biden had spared no words. “What I think we should do is take a very different approach to him now, making it clear that we support the opposition leaders. “ According to him, Washington should ” to encourage “ Turkish opposition for “Face and defeat Erdogan”, “Not by a coup d’etat, but as part of an electoral process”.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and especially the support given by Mr. Erdogan to Baku, drew further criticism from Joe Biden. While Donald Trump remained silent, the Democrat ruled on October 13 in a statement that “Turkey’s supply of arms to Azerbaijan and belligerent rhetoric encouraging a military solution are irresponsible”. He redoubled his remarks on October 28, criticizing the influx of “Mercenaries” Syrians sent to Azerbaijan by Ankara.
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