by Burak Akinci
ANKARA, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Despite some positive signals, Turkey and the United States are not in a rush to mend their strained ties since the new U.S. government led by President Joe Biden took office last month, analysts said.
The two countries have to strike a critical bargain in order to recalibrate their diverging policies which have plagued the relations between the two NATO allies in recent years, they argued.
For most analysts, the Biden administration is likely to have a tougher stance on Ankara compared with its predecessor under former President Donald Trump. But in the meantime, it also tries not to totally alienate the NATO ally which has been pursuing increased cooperation with Russia in recent years.
The analysts pointed to some positive signals emerging since Biden won the U.S. elections in November, 2020.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has appointed Murat Mercan, former lawmaker of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and his close friend, as the new ambassador to Washington, in a move seen as a "charm offensive" toward Biden.
"We believe that Mr. Biden will pay attention to Turkish-American relations ... We want to turn a new page in the new year," Erdogan said last December, playing down Turkey's purchase of Russian missiles.
"If Biden wants to repair the U.S. relations with Turkey, he will have to do so not just for the U.S. but for the whole trans-Atlantic community," Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Istanbul-based EDAM think tank, told Xinhua.
"Over the past decade, Ankara's relations with its traditional Western allies have been so strained that a divorce from the western family of nations is not unrealistic," he argued.
If the Biden administration doesn't want to lose its Turkish ally, "the only way to reach a proper reset is a bargain with Erdogan," Ulgen said, adding that the failure to do so could lead to the risk of a permanent rift in Turkey's Western orientation and a strategic realignment with Moscow.
There are several thorny issues between Turkey and the U.S.: Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems, the U.S. support to the Syrian Kurdish faction YPG, and the court case in the U.S. against the Turkish state-owned Halk Bankasi, which was accused of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions.
The U.S. responded to Turkey's purchase of the S-400s by suspending Turkey's involvement in the F-35 fighter jet program and targeting Turkey's military procurement agency with sanctions last December.
New U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called the S-400 deal as a flashing point in the U.S.-Turkey ties, citing that it's not acceptable for one of U.S. strategic partners "to be in line with one of our biggest strategic competitors in Russia."
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar signaled, however, that his country could make concessions on the missiles, if the U.S. severs support for the YPG forces which Ankara views as a security threat.
Akar cited the installation of an earlier generation of Russian missiles for limited use in Greece as a possible model.
"We said we are open to negotiations," Akar said in an interview with Hurriyet daily earlier this week. "It's not like we will use it constantly. These systems are used if a threat appears."
Despite the positive signals, analysts believe that both sides are currently weighing on how they can co-exist within a mutual balancing act that would include "give-and-takes" on friction points.
"It's surely too early to talk about the course of the ties between the two countries, but the first three weeks have not marked a very good start," Serkan Demirtas, a political analyst, told Xinhua, underlining the lack of a direct contact between leaders of both nations.
The sole contact between the two allies so far was a phone conversation on Feb. 2 between the two presidents' chief advisers, Demirtas noted, stressing that there is limited room for progress on thorny issues.
He said that Ankara and Washington should prioritize crisis management to shape their future relations within established boundaries and with a focus on shared interests.
Moreover, the new U.S. administration would want to work with Turkey on Middle Eastern policies, especially the Libyan conflict and Iran, said Batu Coskun, a researcher at the Ankara-based think tank the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research.
"The U.S. has avoided the region for so long that re-engagement will be a prolonged and difficult affair and might never produce the results that Washington hopes to see," he wrote in an article published on the Sabah Daily. Enditem
