Editorial Board
Turkey Has Abandoned the West. Good Riddance.
An increasingly erratic ally is no longer worth the risks.
New BFF.
Photographer: Sergei Chirikov/AFP
For the past few years, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has railed ever more belligerently against the U.S., Europe and NATO, Washington’s foreign-policy establishment has argued for patience. Erdogan’s fusillades, mostly intended for domestic consumption, were thought to be a small inconvenience — certainly not enough for the West to abandon Turkey.
Alas, the time has come to acknowledge a greater inconvenience: Turkey has, for all intents and purposes, abandoned the West.