The Syria summit the three countries had in Moscow will probably turn into a Middle East-Eurasia Summit and decla-ration in the future...
The U.S.'s attitude to this meeting can be likened to a child who would be saying “it didn't even hurt” after being beaten up...
The reality is that, Washington was hurt and it is leaving the White House lamentingly sniffling its nose...
John Kirby, the Deputy Secretary spokesman, said “We know that the U.S. was kept out of the summit as it was not invited. However, the U.S. has not been thrown out of Syria; we still are a part of the operation there.” The only thing we can say is “Oh what a pity”...
Sergey Ryabkov, the Deputy Secretary of Russia, said, “Russia, Iran and Turkey do not have a secret agenda on Turkey. The West has to respect the Syria agreement. The U.S. and E.U. might not like every clause on the agreement. But this is life. They just have to get used to it”... ('The West must respect the agreement', 23/12 Hürriyet.)
Look at the situation the United States, described by Putin as the world's biggest and even only super power, is in.
We have to remember that speech...
Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “The U.S. is a super great power. It is currently probably the world's only super power. We accept this. We want to work together with the U.S. and we are ready for this” during his speech in the Inter-national Economy Forum in Saint Petersburg. ('The U.S. is the only super power', 20/06, Milliyet.)
Obama and his associates pushing aside such an offer six months ago have been harshly criticized by different circles in Washington. It is however meaningless now.
The U.S. will never get this offer again. But the U.S. will come to this offer in the upcoming months!
It will come to that table, but they won't be alone. At this point, I would like to note the second part of John Kirby's speech, “... Turkey especially might need the U.S.'s role in Syria”...
Kremlin and the Turkish Presidential Palace will happily host them
I don't really think so, especially if the U.S. policies don't have concrete changes.
There might be a U.S.-Russia-Turkey trio or a U.S.-Russia-Turkey-Iran quartet in the region. My regular readers read these possibilities a while ago.
But, as long as Russia stays loyal to the Erdoğan-Putin agree-ment, there will be no U.S.-Turkey-Iran trio. There especially won't be an Ankara-Washington line.
It seems that encouragements and hopes of the trio coming together have already started to be discussed in papers. ('Could Ankara and Washington team up on Tehran?', 21/12, War on the Rocks.)
Taking Turkey for granted indicates that the arrogant Ameri-can political habits still continue. But there are new articles that suggest that things aren't that simple...
“It can be accepted and tolerated for America, Russia-Turkey and Iran to dominate in Syria. But losing Turkey and Turkey's relations with the Western alliance weakening should never be allowed.” ('How the Obama administration pushed Tur-key into Russia's arms', 22/12, The Washington Post.)
It is believed that Trump saw this reality. Ankara and Moscow will not categorically refuse this potential.
As dark as the pitch: US and Russia internal politics mines
The Obama administration left a terrible foreign policy legacy for the U.S. But interestingly, it is trying to leave the internal politics a Russia/Putin -opposing legacy.
When this legacy is divided between the two parties, the Re-publicans and the Democrats), the Putin administration is expected to be brought down in the 2018 Russian Presiden-tial elections.
The opponent is Trump. Only one third of the Republicans support Putin. Which means they are trying to create a dou-ble-headed resistance against Trump's attempts to fix rela-tions with Russia. This isn't Obama's plan anymore; it is the deep U.S.'s!
It might be possible to see the traces of this in the U.S. media in the upcoming period. We might come across moves that will try to end Putin's plans to dominate according to the Byzantine map.
A US President that turns in his grave!
We have to work a little harder for the language of global foreign politics to be “understood”...
Otherwise, as a country that has faced heavy foreign policy threats, we cannot expect discussion programs, columns, ac-ademic performances to offer us a way out.
Russian President Putin held his yearly press conference yes-terday and said, “The Democrats have lost. Democrats should learn to lose. We have a solid base to establish good rela-tions between Russia and the U.S. I don't think the former U.S. President Ronald Reagan will turn in his grave; I think he will be happy his party won.”
This is the answer given to 2018!
How do I know?
“37 percent of the Republicans support Putin. More than one third of the Republicans like the former KGB Director Vladi-mir Putin. Ronald Reagan will turn in his grave.” ('Transcript of President's News Conference', 16/12, VOA.)
Obama isn't important...If they want to understand the U.S.-Russia relations; they would have to carefully read the statement Putin made yesterday and the statement Obama made during his press conference on the 16th. (I am not tell-ing certain Foreign Policy authors this, as they wouldn't do it anyway. So they shouldn't waste their ink)
This issue will continue to grow. And it will grow to the bene-fit of Turkey too.
But, we still continue to see the big issue as being small!
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