Bobby Ghosh, Columnist

Turkey Is Key to Solving the Gaza Crisis

The sooner Biden puts in a call to Erdogan, the better.

November 9, 2023 at 5:00 AM UTC

Bobby Ghosh is a senior editor in the digital weekend team. Previously, he was a columnist at Bloomberg Opinion, where he wrote mostly about international affairs and culture.

Sorry, I meant to call sooner.
Photographer: Gabriel Bouys/AFP via Getty Images

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The brevity of the State Department’s readout on Antony Blinken’s meeting with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara on Monday can’t hide the frostiness that attended their two-and-a-half hour session. The US Secretary of State has had to endure quite a bit of finger-wagging during his travels to the Middle East to mitigate the Israel-Hamas war, but the one he received from Hakan Fidan will have been especially vigorous.

Blinken was spared an even more bellicose reception from Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Turkey’s president refused to meet with America’s top diplomat.