With a likely Erdogan win, Turkey will continue to play both sides of the US-Russia divide
ISTANBUL — For the last several years, Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has played both sides of the global geopolitical divide: It belongs to the Western NATO alliance but has also nurtured ever-closer ties with Russia.
A NATO stalwart for more than seven decades, Turkey served inside the alliance’s peacekeeping missions in war zones like Bosnia, but then more recently purchased military equipment from Russia and refused entry to new NATO members that might offend Moscow.
Turkey’s unique and seemingly contradictory position has become amplified since Russia invaded neighboring, pro-West Ukraine 15 months ago, with Erdogan again leveraging himself as a valuable ally to both the U.S. and Europe on one side and to Russia on the other. He has often seemed to land with Russia over his Western partners.
The question now is how much — or whether — Turkey’s place
