West’s Relations With Turkey Likely Face Rocky Road Ahead

After pulling off a surprise electoral victory, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and members of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) are indicating they will pursue policies likely to complicate the West’s fight against the Islamic State terror group and roil Ankara’s relations with Europe.

The most complicated issue for the West will remain centered on the AKP government’s determination to seek a military solution rather than a political one when it comes to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The PKK's Syrian offshoot is a crucial ally for the West against Islamic State militants across the border from Turkey.

The collapse of peace process between Ankara and Kurdish rebels triggered Turkish airstrikes on PKK bases in southeast Turkey and the Quandil Mountains of northern Iraq, and increased PKK terrorist attacks across the country.

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Aykan Erdemir, a former Turkish lawmaker and now a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Washington policy research group, fears the road ahead is likely to become more difficult when it comes to Turkish-West relations than in the previous 13 years of AKP rule.

“Under four years of single-party rule by the AKP, Turkey could drift further from the European Union and NATO, strengthening the rise of illiberalism and authoritarianism within the transatlantic alliance,” Erdemir warns.

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