US refuses to sell Turkey 7.62 mm machine guns

It was difficult to grasp the issue at first. At the recent annual meeting of the Turkish-American Council held at one of Ritz Carlton's meeting rooms in Washington D.C., after a panel on defense cooperation, a State Department official approached a Turkish military official to say there had been a mistake and they would solve it. The Turkish official replied kindly. When I asked, they said it was a "meeting scheduling" problem, but after seeing that the representatives of two countries had heated discussions throughout the conference during breaks, I was able to learn the details. 

The Americans, who had sold Turkey 7.62 mm machine guns without any problems until now, have declared that they will no longer allow the sale. They said this was based on "political reasons," although these weapons do not have any strategic importance. The Turks, shocked by the decision, responded harshly during the meeting and said there would be consequences. 

There could be several aspects to the issue. The operation conducted against daily Cumhuriyet in Turkey and the latest arrests of Kurdish issue-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputies have created deep concern in the U.S. administration. You could argue that such expressions in the past were just lip service for pragmatic Americans. But this 7.62 mm crisis is a stark example of the dimensions to which relations have deteriorated. 

Defense Minister Fikri Işık has claimed that the problem is solved. However, even if has been solved, if a simple arms sale is in danger of being blocked for political reasons, that is enough to explain the predicament between Ankara and Washington. 

While these negative developments are unfolding, another problem is the question of Pennsylvania-based Islamic...