By Robert A Manning
18 Jan 2023
Some Congressmen are seeking to block the Biden administration from selling F-16 jets to Turkey and have a long list of grievances against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — from human rights violations and his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin to his blocking Sweden and Finland from joining NATO.
Some argue for expelling Turkey from NATO, though there is no formal mechanism to do so. If NATO is about shared values, from illiberalism at home to behavior abroad, Turkey’s prickly nationalism and Erdogan’s global ambitions may not be compatible with NATO. Recall that the White House did not invite Turkey to Biden’s global democracy summit. Erdogan certainly doesn’t quite fit into Biden’s “democracy vs. autocracy” ideology.
