Turkey's government has spent years calling the U.S. a state sponsor of terrorism, blaming Washington for the 2016 coup ...

Turkey's government has spent years calling the U.S. a state sponsor of terrorism, blaming Washington for the 2016 coup attempt, and accusing it of covering up genocide. At the same time, Ankara keeps buying American military engines, avionics, and political access. According to Israeli analyst and former Israeli Defense Ministry adviser Greg Roman, that contradiction is entirely deliberate. Writing in the Middle East Forum, Roman argues Turkey is playing a decades-long game where short-term dependence on American technology is the price it willingly pays to eventually achieve full strategic independence. The anti-Western rhetoric signals the long-term goal. The arms contracts serve the present. The clearest example is Turkey's KAAN fighter jet prototype, which currently flies on General Electric engines. Without those American engines, the KAAN program collapses. Turkey is still roughly a decade away from building its own turbofan engine domestically, meaning it remains locked into buying from the country its officials publicly attack. MHP chairman Devlet Bahceli has called U.S. Central Command a "protector of terrorism." AKP vice president Suleyman Soylu claims America was behind the July 2016 coup. Turkish parliamentary speaker Numan Kurtulmus accuses Washington of covering up genocide. Erdogan himself moves between inflammatory statements and calm negotiations with what Roman describes as striking ease. The backdrop to all of this is the NATO summit scheduled for July 7 and 8, to be held at Erdogan's 1,000-room presidential palace in Ankara. Roman also flags where Greece fits into Turkey's timeline. He notes the Greek Air Force is rapidly modernizing with upgraded F-16 Vipers and French Rafales, and that by 2030 Greece is expected to hold a qualitative edge in the Aegean. If Turkey loses air superiority there, he argues, the entire "Mavi Vatan" Blue Homeland naval doctrine becomes practically unworkable. Roman invokes a phrase attributed to Lenin, saying Turkey is buying the rope today, in the form of American engines, avionics, and political access, with which it ultimately hopes to hang American dominance in its own neighborhood. #Turkey #NATO #A...