NATO Gap: Turkey challenges the United States
Metin Topuz, a 61-year-old Turkish citizen who had been working as a translator and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) liaison at the U.S. consulate in Istanbul for more than 25 years, has been sentenced to eight years and nine months in prison by a Turkish court. The Eurasian nation's justice system has found him guilty of "aiding the network responsible for the 2016 coup attempt," Reuters has reported.
Topuz was arrested in 2017 and has been held in prison since then, awaiting trial. He was initially charged with espionage and attempting to overthrow the government, but in March the prosecutor changed those charges to membership of a terrorist organization, considered by the Turkish authorities to be that of cleric Fethullah Gulen, currently based on US soil.
His work at the consulate was dedicated to translation for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He was also a "liaison assistant" at the DEA, as he explained during a previous court hearing. However, the Turkish prosecutor's office claims that he used his position at the diplomatic mission to "make contact with officials, including police officers and a prosecutor, suspected of having links to Gulen". Topuz has defended himself against these accusations by claiming that these contacts were part of his job, since he had to coordinate with Turkish law enforcement officials in the performance of his duties.
The reaction from Washington has not been long in coming. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo believes that "there is no credible evidence" to support the ruling, and that "this conviction undermines confidence in Turkey's institutions and critical trust in the foundation of U.S.-Turkish relations".
The American giant's embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara has also expressed its "deep disappointment" with the court's decision. Furthermore, the diplomatic mission hopes that the sentence will be "quickly revoked". "For almost three decades, Mr. Topuz has done outstanding work that has been appreciated and praised by officials and citizens of both countries. Under our leadership, he promoted police cooperation between Turkey and the United States, contributing to the security of people in both nations. The allegations about Mr. Topuz's official duties misrepresent both the scope and nature of the important work done by our local staff on behalf of the U.S. Government and in promoting our bilateral relationship," the Embassy's statement said.
According to the New York Times, this Turkish move, which consciously damages bilateral relations between the two countries, is said to have occurred for one reason: to try to prevent several court cases from being brought against Turkish officials in the United States. Topuz would thus have become a "hostage".
Two other Turkish citizens who worked at the American consulate in the southern Turkish city of Adana have also been investigated for their alleged links to Gulen's organization. They are Hamza Ulucay, who has already served a four-year prison sentence and now has travel restrictions preventing him from leaving the country; and Mete Canturk, who is under house arrest, also with travel restrictions, and is currently awaiting trial.
It should be remembered at this point that, in the last four years, since the attempted coup d'état, more than 70 000 people have gone through legal proceedings in Turkey.
The relationship between Washington and Ankara has never been healthy. The two countries are in the midst of a marriage of convenience in which understandings and disagreements are created and eliminated according to each other's interests. However, in recent times, as analyst Carlotta Gall explains in the New York Times, "Mr. Topuz's ruling on Thursday came amidst signs that US-Turkish relations [...] were showing signs of improvement". Just four days ago, on June 8, Erdogan claimed that a "new era" could begin between the two administrations after having achieved "some consensus" in the process in Libya, where Ankara is actively involved in the civil war. The telephone call between the two leaders focused on "bilateral relations, regional problems and the situation in Libya" said the Turkish Communication Directorate at the time.
"The personal ties between Erdogan and Trump have overshadowed the institutional ties in bilateral relations, as the two leaders have many similarities," said Al-Monitor expert Cengiz Candar. "From Syria to Libya, from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, Erdogan now believes that Turkey needs the US politically and strategically more than it did a few months ago," he adds. Thus, the two leaders were creating a "new ties as interests align," according to Gall, a development that could be blown up by the decision of the Turkish judiciary, and could bring bilateral relations back to the previous state.
Prior to this rapprochement, tensions had structured the bilateral link, with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a backdrop. In June 2019, a security gap was opening up between Turkey and the rest of the Alliance's members when the Turkish government bought several S-400 air defence systems from Russia. This transaction violated NATO's founding principles, since Russian missiles are designed precisely to locate and shoot down US fighters, such as the F-35. In the economic sphere, moreover, the Turkish president secured commitments to import Russian natural gas, through the Turk Stream project. "The panorama, therefore, was as follows: the second largest NATO army by number of troops not only deviated from the lines imposed by the United States, but, to make matters worse, it approached Russia, which is supposed to be the main rival of the Atlantic Alliance," explains analyst Pablo Rubio in Atalayar.
Another focus of dispute was in Syria, with the Kurdish-Syrian militias as protagonists: while Turkey considers them a terrorist organization -and compares them to the American anti-fa movement-, the US has fought alongside them to defeat Daesh, and has provided them with both training and technical resources.
