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G-20 summit could be last exit before all-out US-Turkey crisis

Turkey doesn’t know “how to reply” to US Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan’s letter, a senior security source tells Al-Monitor.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan holds a news conference on the final day of the G20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Andres Stapff - RC1A7F61AE00
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds a news conference on the final day of the G-20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dec. 1, 2018. — REUTERS/Andres Stapff

US Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan’s letter to his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar sent shock waves into Turkey’s foreign policy and security establishment and Turkey doesn’t yet know “how to reply,” a senior security source told Al-Monitor.

The official also said the letter is even “more menacing” than a letter sent from Washington to Ankara in 1964, the year that was marked by the greatest tensions between Turkey and the United States since the foundation of the modern Turkish republic.

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