A Quick Guide to U.S.-Turkey Relations

Since relations between the U.S. and Turkey sank to a low point in August, the two countries have resolved a two-year standoff over an American pastor detained in Turkey. However, more complex issues continue to divide the NATO allies and threaten new crises. They include the fallout from a 2016 attempted coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s plans to buy a missile-defense system from Russia, and the U.S. alliance with a militia in Syria that Turkey considers a foe. The two countries affirm the need to maintain their alliance, but the rifts that have surfaced have eroded trust on both sides.

For Erdogan, the failed coup remains a festering sore. So does Washington’s reluctance to extradite Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish cleric living in exile in Pennsylvania whom Erdogan accuses of orchestrating the botched putsch. American officials say Turkey’s evidence against Gulen, who moved to the U.S. two decades ago and lives in a compound in the Pocono Mountains, is insufficient to extradite him. Claiming that Gulen’s followers had set up a “deep state” by infiltrating security services, schools and courts, Erdogan initiated a purge of the civil service that’s cost about 130,000 people their jobs. Turkish officials also arrested American Andrew Brunson, an Evangelical preacher, on charges of involvement in the overthrow effort.