White House vs the Russia House

By the time you read this article, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's meeting with President Donald Trump will be over. I wish I could be a fly on the wall to predict the discussions inside the White House, but my instinct tells me that whatever is spoken inside will be dictated by a force outside Washington - the Kremlin.

The Turkish media and President Erdoğan's team have been raising the level of expectations for this meeting since Trump's inauguration. But that is hardly new. For the group of advisors around Erdoğan, the world practically revolves around him and the U.S. president when they meet. This was also the case in the Obama years, and we have no reason to believe it has changed. 

But the pendulum swings both ways. In contrast with Erdoğan's widespread media comfort, Trump is not enjoying much "yes man" rhetoric in Washington at the moment. His meetings and disclosures of classified information to a Russian delegation last week are the latest signs of trouble. Trump is not getting any help from his institutions, and the U.S. is showing the world and Erdoğan's camp that there is still something called the separation of powers.

Hürriyet Daily News editor-in-chief Murat Yetkin noted on private broadcaster CNN Türk on May 15 that U.S.-Turkey relations are much more layered and complicated than the recent PYD/YPG crisis. So why is the pro-Erdoğan media dropping hints that Turkey could cut its ties with the U.S. in an instant? Turkey may shut down the İncirlik air base to the U.S. but that is OK with the Pentagon. For Russia, meanwhile, such a move would be more than OK. 

Take a look at the great spymaster Vladimir Putin's statement about the Kurds in Syria. "As the Kurdish factor is a real factor in the situation in...