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The Long Twilight of the U.S.-Turkey Alliance


(Foreign Policy) David Kenner - WikiLeaks documents prove that the U.S. diplomatic corps' concern about Turkey's drift away from the Western alliance runs deeper than it let on publicly. One document, written in 2004 and signed by then-ambassador Eric Edelman, while praising Erdogan as an uncommonly talented politician, accuses him of "unbridled ambition stemming from the belief God has anointed him to lead Turkey" and as having "an authoritarian loner streak." By 2010, a cable written in January by Edelman's successor James Jeffrey condemns Turkish leaders' "special yen for destructive drama and rhetoric," and says that the government possessed "Rolls Royce ambitions but Rover resources," which led it to throw its supports behind "underdogs" such as Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal or Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
2010-12-01 08:06:28
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