US visit to Türkiye to ‘pay condolences’ for lives lost in earthquake

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Monday the capital Ankara to “extend condolences for the lives lost in the earthquake.” The subjects discussed during this visit show that the superpower has concerns other than the magnitude of the disaster on the agenda.

As the U.S. state essentially displays the same attitude with respect to the size and effects of the chemical disaster on its own soil and citizens, it is safe to say their lack of emotion is consistent.

As Washington’s principle on “avoiding mixing humanitarian events with politics” is so clear, Ankara designed its responses accordingly.

This was reflected in the press conference as well. When one journalist started his question along the lines of, “Turkish-American relations have been on a negative course for some time,” Blinken answered back, “Not at all, I disagree.”

The “disagreement” continued until the next journalist’s question, “Will you continue to support the terrorist organizations in Syria?” Blinken touched on their earthquake aid to Syria and kicked the ball out of the stadium.

This is the explicit view. Then there is also the implicit, and it is more complex.

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The first item on the agenda was, no doubt, Sweden and Finland’s NATO bid. Similar to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's statement during his recent Ankara visit, Blinken conveyed to Türkiye in the “clearest” expression the U.S. position on the finalization of this matter until the NATO summit in July.

While Ankara insinuated that this does not seem possible – for now – it left the door open for Finland, but stated Sweden “still has some work to do.” There are no surprises, but Finland demands their bid be approved “together with Sweden.” This means, “accept us together or not at all.” If this is Finland’s “own idea,” then it has different concerns than Europe regarding NATO membership and relations with Russia, its political view of Europe, and finally, the “military strategy” that will emerge in the case it joins NATO and Sweden doesn’t.

If this is not Finland’s own idea, but one which is imposed on it by the U.S., then it has a different idea of “how it wants to show Türkiye within NATO.” It may be evaluating Türkiye’s differentiation between the two countries as well.

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The second subject on the table was Ukraine, and – in this context - Türkiye-Russia relations. But how?

Türkiye shares the same sentiments with the international community and organizations regarding Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty since the start of the war. The only difference is that it refrains from implementing sanctions on Russia. In other words, it does not agree with the U.S. The U.S. remained indifferent to this until now. “Until now,” means, Washington thinks the war is at a new stage. It believes Russia may launch a new military move in late February or in March, and wants the dissident voices in Europe to continue to remain quiet, and lastly, Poland, as well as the most critical capital Ankara to comply – especially while the new conjuncture that developed because of the earthquake is effective.

We can interpret this not only in the room the meeting took place, but also looking at the public statements from the press conference.

For instance, The New York Times journalist struck a blow on Blinken through an “irrelevant” question. The question was along the lines of, “What sort of policy will you follow in relation to the shooting of Chinese spy balloons? Are you considering imposing sanctions on China? Because China is in alliance with Russia. What will you do about Iran’s military support to Russia in this context?”

These questions were associated with the level of cooperation between Türkiye and Russia, and understanding the point behind the matter, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu immediately responded. He explained in detail that Türkiye’s cooperation with Russia does not involve war.

This is part of U.S. efforts until now to gather the countries waiting “along the sidelines.” U.S. President Joe Biden visiting Kyiv on the Ukraine war’s anniversary, and openly confronting Russia (Russian President Vladimir Putin’s long response the next day), followed by his planned visit to Poland, the Israeli president visiting Kyiv a week before, including opposition towards Iran – as it is now trying to create new geopolitics with China and Russia – the U.K.'s declaration that it is ready to be the first country to provide long-range weapons with the capacity to hit Russia, are all part of this. These are the common headlines in U.S. policy and Blinken’s Ankara visit.

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The third agenda item is the F-16 issue. It was discussed, with Congress blamed, claiming it has nothing to do with the two countries’ NATO membership bid. It was discussed, but the U.S. pay attention to avoid giving a date regarding this matter – not because of the ambiguity in Congress, but because they are waiting for Türkiye’s election. The U.S. will not give anything to Türkiye before seeing the election post-earthquake. Of course, we are still yet to hear about what is happening with our $1.4 billion remaining from the F-35 project. They continue to keep it in their pocket – very much the way they continue to ignore our demands to “lift the sanctions.”

The fourth subject on the table was the Caucasus. We are not paying much attention to it right now, but there is currently an ongoing process in the Azerbaijan-Armenia-Georgia triangle, which involves the U.S. as well. In one respect, this is about annoying Russia from another side, as well as about “energy and energy routes.” This is very important for the U.S. They said it in Ankara as well.

The security notices released in the U.S. regarding Türkiye were also brought up during the meeting. As known, Türkiye identified this act as an openly ill-intentioned operation led by the U.S. We still recall the statement, “Take your hands off Türkiye.” In diplomacy language, it turned into, “let us act in coordination.” That's all.

As I mentioned previously, similar to a few other countries, the U.S. sent aid for the earthquake as well. We thanked them and noted their kindness. But when the world’s matters are in question, nobody cares about the other’s suffering.