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In Coup's Aftermath, New Rifts between U.S. and Turkey

(Foreign Policy) Yochi Dreazen - The United States has long wanted Erdogan to do more to fight the Islamic State and moderate his increasingly authoritarian tendencies, but the coup attempt seems likely to push Erdogan in the opposite direction. Turkish officials, for their part, have blamed the coup on Fethullah Gulen, a 75-year-old cleric living in exile in Pennsylvania, and hinted that Washington was somehow complicit in the attempted putsch, charges the White House has angrily denied. The sharp exchanges in the aftermath of the coup come on top of the long-standing U.S. criticism of Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian tendencies, which include opening roughly 2,000 legal cases against political opponents, journalists, comedians, and ordinary Turks accused of insulting the president. Ankara, for its part, has bristled at American support for the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, which has emerged as one of Washington's most effective battlefield allies in the ground fight against the Islamic State. Ankara sees the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, a militant group that has killed hundreds of Turkish civilians and security personnel as it battles to create a Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.
2016-07-19 00:00:00
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