(Photo: CGTN)
The United States is "unwinding" Turkey from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program after its abortive efforts to prevent Ankara from buying Russian S-400 air defense missile system, the White House and Pentagon announced on July 17.
The Turkish foreign ministry powerfully retorted against the US' retributive action, saying "the unilateral step is incompatible with the spirit of alliance and does not rely on any legitimate justification." Ankara further warned the US to patch the mistake that will cause irreparable wounds in the bilateral strategic relations.
In the past, the Trump administration used flattery in order to prevent Turkey from acquiring the Russian S-400 system. In December, the US lured Ankara by announcing the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Syria.
Just recently, US envoy for Syrian engagement also talked about the establishment of a buffer zone "free of People's Protection Units (YPG)" along the Syrian-Turkish border, dubbing Turkish concerns "legitimate."
While trying to captivate its NATO partner, the bamboozled US government has backed its Kurdish ally as well by asserting that it would stand by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and would not want anyone to mishandle its coalition partner, fighting against ISIL.
Clearly, Washington is seeking to align both SDF and Turkey simultaneously in order to counter ISIL and is also exploiting the Kurd-Turkish conflict to achieve its wider strategic objectives in the region.
In its broader regional strategy, the US was making sure that the Kurdish militant forces continue to remain a deterrent to alleged Turkish ambitions to expand its regional influence; at the same time, the US exerted all efforts to ensure that Ankara does not unequivocally go into the clique of American adversaries.
The US has never given Turkey a free hand to crush the Kurdish forces, which it has invested upon both economically and militarily for such a long period. Since it tried to retain its NATO ally too, it charted a twofold strategy to supporting Syrian Kurds and press-ganging Ankara to acquiesce to Washington.
But, the US would now reinforce its support for SDF outwardly to punish Turkey after Ankara began to receive the S-400 system from Moscow.
More wired US support for SDF would be aggravating for Turkey, which considers the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)-linked YPG the backbone of Kurd armed resistance that is seeking greater autonomy or completely independent Kurd state in Syria, and the latter could strive for such an autonomous territory in Turkey.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan twigged the American secretive script ingeniously and baptized the US plan as an effort to severely impact his political power by arming the Kurdish militias in Syria.
As in January, Trump had cautioned against devastating Turkey economically, and the US has actually begun to stroke not only the Turkish exports but also its national defense.
After blocking the sale of 100 F-35 jets to Turkey, the US has also denied delivering the US-UK jointly produced CTS800 engines that it needs to meet the Pakistan's export order of 30 T129 TAK gunship helicopters for 1.5 billion US dollars.
The diplomatic spat between the two countries could further escalate if Ankara's neighbor and rival Greece acquires F-35 to gain a military edge over Turkey.
The consistent US infuriating actions towards Turkey are pushing it further closer to Moscow, Tehran and Beijing. In his article on July 2 for the Chinese media outlet Global Times during his state visit, Erdogan anticipated the US sanctions and showed his intent to shift towards the East by strongly supporting the BRI and improving strategic relations with China.
Ankara, Beijing and Tehran maintain deep ties with Moscow too, whereas the European Union isn't cheery either about Trump's trade war and the US unilateral retraction from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or the Iran nuclear deal.
Therefore, Turkey and European Union might re-converge, functioning as a diplomatic wall in a potential US-Iran standoff.