Why the U.S. and Turkey Are Suddenly in a Major Standoff

Relations between the U.S. and Turkey, allies since the aftermath of World War II, have soured in the 15 months since an attempted coup against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey’s leader continues to blame the putsch on a self-exiled cleric based in the U.S., Fethullah Gulen, whom the U.S. has so far refused to extradite. Further increasing tensions, the U.S. and Turkey are at odds over the war in Syria. This backdrop may help explain why the arrest of a U.S. consular employee in Turkey, on charges of involvement in the coup attempt, blew up so quickly into a major diplomatic rift, with the two nations suspending visa services for each other’s citizens, sending Turkish financial markets plunging.

For Erdogan, the events of July 15-16, 2016, are an open sore. The insurrection shook his government. It was put down only after parliament in Ankara came under bombardment, tanks rolled through the streets of major cities, and some 250 people were killed. Turkey blamed the putsch on Gulen followers, saying they’d infiltrated the military and civilian administration. Its efforts over the past 15 months to get him extradited from the U.S. have come to nothing. U.S. officials say the evidence against Gulen, who lives in a compound in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, is insufficient.