President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s headaches with the United States are growing rather than decreasing under President Donald Trump’s administration, with serious implications for Ankara’s already tense ties with Washington. The cause of his latest annoyance, however, has nothing to do with Syria or Iraq, where Ankara and Washington remain at loggerheads over key issues.
Erdogan, who is accused of stifling the independence of the judiciary at home in order to consolidate his power, is increasingly up against the independent US judiciary, which last week indicted a minister of his for taking millions of dollars in bribes in order to help Iran circumvent US sanctions.