Relations between Turkey and the United States are finally up in the air.
If we had been worried about some strange appointments by the staff of the new American president, important people in the American capital are being convinced that the Joe Biden's administration will take its time with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
He will not rush to give a "lifeline" to Turkey and will not play the game of former President Donald Trump with Erdoğan.
We were therefore impressed by the statement of one of the two most pro-Turkish Americans who consider it unlikely that relations between Turkey and the United States will improve.
- The statement belongs to the former US envoy to Syria, James Jeffrey. He is the man who is primarily responsible for the betrayal of the Kurds.
- He, I believe, conspired with the Turks and misled Trump into that unacceptable decision of allowing Erdoğan to invade northern Syria to destroy the Kurds.
Jeffrey never says anything by accident.
Ever since he was US ambassador to Ankara, with steady steps, he imposed Erdoğan as the absolute leader on the State Department bureaucrats to reach Trump.
Jeffrey, who knows Erdoğan better than anyone, said he had failed to seize opportunities and compromise on various issues on which the former US president had offered concessions to Turkey.
Just imagine, how much did Trump give Erdoğan and how much did it take to serve him?
The analysis is so simple…
The former ambassador in question means that Erdoğan missed the opportunity to close all open issues before Trump left the White House… Which means that with the new administration, Biden and his team will probably put them in the dark.
The Russian S-400 system, but also Erdoğan's personal relationship with Vladimir Putin, angers them more than they think in Greece and Cyprus.
The issue the Democrats have with Putin is "personal".
Jeffrey warned: "The S-400s are a disaster for Turkey... Purchasing them was a historic mistake." And the man who served Erdoğan as much as anyone else says it…
One analyst after another predicts the worst. So one has to have patience to… enjoy the spectacle. However the drama ends.
- Either Erdoğan will capitulate to Joe Biden.
- Either he will finally choose Moscow.
- Both are not done at the same time. Donald Trump's era is over…
HalkBank will not be handed over to US Justice, nor will the new government tolerate Erdoğan's war adventures anymore, especially when they are influenced by US strategic interests.
And in the face of all this, Athens has agreed to re-enter the process of exploratory contacts and Nicosia will take part in the trap set by UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the British.
Thus, they acquitted Turkey of the war fever it created in the summer in Kastelorizo and the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone. Big mistake…
The Prime Minister of Greece can maintain this dialogue, "buying" his peace for as long as it lasts.
But can anyone trust Erdoğan?
Except for a few "Greek" (?) professors, who claim that "Turkey does NOT threaten Greece", no one else has the slightest confidence in the Turks.
We can not say much about the President of the Republic of Cyprus, nor can we hope that he will recover.
Pressed by the unprecedented scandals and the corruption that surrounded the Presidential Palace of Nicosia, he wants to turn the attention of Cypriot citizens to the Cyprus issue.
It is, and will prove to be, his biggest mistake…
On this downhill, it drags Athens as well.
Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias responded positively and will attend the forum on the Cyprus issue, and will sit at the same table with the nationalist leader of the occupiers, Ersin Tatar.
The views of the author do not necessarily reflect those of Greek City Times.
Michalis Ignatiou is a U.S.-based correspondent for Ethnos and Hellas Journal.
