A 6.3-magnitude earthquake hits Turkey and Syria, causing panic

ANKARA – When Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken made her debut for a trip to Turkey, which promised to be a difficult, even contentious, diplomatic visit.

Washington and Ankara have been at odds on several important issues, including Turkey’s relations with Russia, its refusal to allow Sweden and Finland to join NATO and the authoritarian drift of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey has been so upset in so many ways in recent years that Mr. Blinken, at his confirmation hearing, referred to Ankara as a “so-called ally,” and he has not visited it in two years.

But less than two weeks before Mr Blinken was due to arrive, a devastating earthquake in Turkey left more than 40,000 dead. The debacle temporarily pushed other concerns to the background, giving the Biden administration an opportunity to strengthen an old alliance and win some trust as they try to work out their disputes.

The United States mobilized a major relief effort, sending elite search and rescue teams, heavy equipment, $85 million in humanitarian aid, and at least another $80 million in private donations. When Mr. Blinken landed at Incirlik Air Base near the Turkish city of Adana on Sunday, he toured nearby earthquake damage by helicopter and the US military relief efforts at the base before announcing another $100 million in American aid.

At a news conference in Ankara on Monday alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Mr. Blinken spoke as an unconditionally loving friend.

“The United States is here to support you in your time of need, and we will be by your side for as long as it takes to recover and rebuild,” he said. Hours later, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck near the already devastated city of Antakya in southern Turkey, collapsing more buildings.

A photo of Hatay province on Sunday from Mr. Blinken and Cavusoglu’s helicopter flying on… Claudah Kilcoin Gathering Photo

Mr. Blinken’s letter was reciprocated. Asked whether US assistance would make other problems easier to solve, Mr. Cavusoglu replied that “of course the solidarity extended during difficult times will have a positive impact on relations.”

This is good news for the Biden administration. While U.S. officials routinely find Mr. Erdogan frustrating, they cannot turn their backs on a country whose location and membership in NATO give it enormous strategic importance. Washington also values ​​Turkey’s influence in the Muslim world.

More recently, Mr. Erdogan has offered himself as a potential peace broker between Russia and Ukraine, brokering a vital deal between them to allow much-needed Ukrainian food products to be shipped to the outside world.

Yet the State Department’s stripped-down reading of Mr. Blinken’s meeting Monday with the Turkish leader offered few hints as to whether the men, for all the goodwill bestowed upon the United States in a moment of national tragedy, made any real progress toward resolving the problem. the war. Many basic conflicts between their countries.

More pressing is the question of NATO’s expansion to include Finland and Sweden, two countries that abandoned their long-standing policy of non-alignment in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The expansion plan was unveiled with great fanfare nine months ago and celebrated by President Biden as a major setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But adding new countries to NATO requires the unanimous approval of the 30 member states, and so far, Mr. Erdogan has refused. Western leaders were stunned by bitter complaints that Sweden and Finland were too close to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish nationalist group that has long launched attacks inside Turkey and that Ankara and Washington consider them a terrorist organization.

Mr. Cavusoglu and Mr. Blinken on Sunday. Image credit: Claudagg Kilcoin

The Turkish leader is still holding out after months of negotiations, despite promises by the Swedes and the Finns to take a tougher stance towards PKK activists and supporters operating within their borders. Turkey demanded their extradition for trial. (Turkey now says its problems with Finland have largely been resolved, but Sweden has more to do.)

Some US officials believe that Mr. Erdogan may be in a position to hold ahead of the national elections scheduled for May. After 20 years in power, his popularity has waned and he is seeking another term as president. But no one knows exactly what is going on in Mr. Erdogan’s mind.

In Congress, lawmakers have begun to send signals to Mr. Erdogan that he may pay a heavy price for obstructing his action: 27 senators from both parties signed a letter in early February pledging to prevent the Biden administration from selling F-16 fighter jets to Turkey unless be mr. Erdogan signs the Swedish and Finnish membership.

On Monday, Mr. Blinken indicated that the Biden administration supports the sale of fighter jets, saying it is important to the United States that its NATO allies have modern, integrated equipment. Although he said the Biden administration does not tie the proposed sale to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, he added that he was discussing the matter with Congress and expressed confidence that the new applicants would eventually be accepted.

But Mr. Cavusoglu, who stood by him, did not hint that Turkey was ready to concede, and complained that “pro-PKK activities continue” in Stockholm.

Mr. Cavusoglu also suggested that the Biden administration could force-arm Congress to secure the sale of the F-16s if it so chose. He said, “If the US administration has a firm stance and if we work together, we believe we can overcome this resistance.”

Mr. Cavusoglu admitted, in response to a question, that U.S. officials have expressed concern that trade between Russia and his country — which has not signed up to Western sanctions against Moscow — has boomed since the start of the war in Ukraine, helping to fill Russia’s war coffers.

But he sought to downplay the problem, saying the figures showing an increase in trade between Turkey and Russia largely reflected higher energy prices. He said allegations that Turkey was a conduit for technology with military capabilities denied to Russia by sanctions were “incorrect,” and that Turkey would take action against any apparent violations.

Mr. Blinken visits the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, in Ankara, on Monday… Photo by Burhan Ozbilici

Mr. Blinken did not comment on the other points of friction. One is Erdogan’s authoritarian political type, which has been characterized by severe repression of Turkish civil society, the news media and the political opposition, and led to Turkey’s exclusion from a democracy summit hosted by Biden at the White House last year.

Nor did Mr. Blinken mention concerns in Washington that the Turkish leader might use the earthquake as an excuse to suspend his country’s spring elections for reasons of his personal interests.

The minister seemed most determined on this trip to highlight America’s post-earthquake response. After touring the earthquake damage with Mr. Cavusoglu in a Turkish military helicopter, Mr. Blinken joined a line of NATO soldiers loading boxes of electric and gas heaters onto a flatbed truck for distribution. He then personally thanked the 80-strong US search and rescue teams who were deployed to Turkey immediately after the earthquake.

Mr. Blinken also appears to be offering goodwill in another way: by pronouncing the name of the host country in keeping with his government’s preference. The Turks want the world to stop using a noun in English that is an ungainly, flight-challenging, and sometimes insulting bird.

More than a year ago, the government requested that the country be known internationally as “Turkey,” with three syllables, as it is in Turkish, and it now uses that name at the United Nations. The US State Department officially started using it last month.

In his notes, Mr. Blinken made sure to adopt the new pronunciation.

Mr. blinken and mr. Cavusoglu on Monday, credit card… Adem Altan/AFP – Getty Images

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