Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has courted Russia while serving as a stalwart in the Western NATO alliance -- to U.S. chagrin.
For the last several years, Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has played both sides of the global geopolitical divide: It belongs to the Western NATO alliance but has also nurtured ever-closer ties with Russia.
Before Erdogan came to power in 2014, Turkey was staunchly secular, so much so that the wearing of headscarves by women was banned in many official venues. Sen. Bob Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat who chairs the body’s foreign relations committee, has long been critical of Erdogan and his overtures to Moscow.
“We are not at a point where we would impose sanctions on Russia like the West have done,” Erdogan said in an interview with CNN last week. “We are not bound by the West’s sanctions.” Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their talks on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in 2022.
Bi-lateral trade, meanwhile, topped $62 billion last year, and Turkey remains the top choice for Russian tourists — more than 5.2 million visited last year.
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both Sweden and Finland — which have long staked out an official position of neutrality — sought membership in the transatlantic alliance. The decision to admit new members must be unanimous, and both cases came down to Turkey, which eventually conceded to Finland but not to Sweden.
Supporters of Turkish President and People’s Alliance’s presidential candidate Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave Turkish flags during a campaign rally in Istanbul, Turkey, on Friday.. In the initial electoral round two weeks ago, he garnered 49.5% of the 50% he needed to win outright. Kilicdaroglu took 44.9%, but the third-place finisher, who won 5.2%, has since endorsed Erdogan.
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