Next week Joe Biden, US vice-president, visits Turkey, a Nato country whose relations with the west are in deep crisis following July’s botched coup. A vast majority of Turkish people believe, rightly or wrongly but nonetheless firmly, that Washington was complicit with the plotters. If it was not involved, the argument goes, the reclusive Islamic cult leader Fethullah Gulen — accused of masterminding the coup — could not continue to live peacefully, undisturbed by the US justice system in rural Pennsylvania. The EU is likewise criticised for failing to show solidarity in the wake of the military’s attempt to depose the democratically elected government.
The community of western nations needs to reassure Turks of its enduring friendship, and of its commitment to Turkey’s future within that community. That is the only way to counter swelling anti-Americanism and alienation from the west.
The pro-western elements within this nation — one that is ever more essential to the west as a strategic ally — sorely need this reassurance to combat the atmosphere of accusation and disenfranchisement that could harm Turkey’s transatlantic relations. The task for Washington and Brussels, therefore, is to rebuild trust.