Why Is Democratic Biden Rescuing Autocratic Erdo?an at the Expense of U.S. Allies?

by Burak Bekdil, GATESTONE INSTITUTE  •  February 24, 2022 at

In just over one year in office, U.S. President Joe Biden has swung from a pledge to oust Turkey’s Islamist autocrat, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, to occasionally appease him, first behind doors, and now publicly. Pictured: Biden meets with Erdo?an during the G20 Summit on October 31, 2021, in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

• In early January… in a bolder, less expected and potentially damaging geostrategic move that angered all four of Turkey’s Mediterranean rivals (Greece, Cyprus, Israel and Egypt), the Biden administration silently abandoned an eastern Mediterranean pipeline project (EastMed) that would carry Israeli gas through Cyprus to Europe.
• “By undermining the project, the administration is undercutting three of our strongest allies in the region: Israel, Greece, and Cyprus, as well as the European Union’s hopes for energy independence and economic prosperity.” — Press release published on the congressional website of U.S. House Representative Gus Bilirakis, January 24, 2022.
• “The Biden administration’s actions in this matter are particularly objectionable and hypocritical in light of its tacit approval of Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline, which will only deepen Europe’s energy dependence on a volatile adversary.” — Rep. Gus Bilirakis, January 24, 2022,
• A nosediving, cash-strapped economy, international isolation and plummeting popularity have put Erdo?an back on the defensive. Is Biden actually trying to destabilize this part of the world by provoking Erdo?an’s assertive aspirations just when they had been — possibly temporarily — buried?

In just over one year in office, U.S. President Joe Biden has swung from a pledge to oust Turkey’s Islamist autocrat, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, to occasionally appease him, first behind doors, and now publicly.

Appearing to detest Erdo?an’s suffocating regime, increasingly Islamist governance and pro-Russian aspirations, Biden, a year before he became president, had described Erdo?an as an autocrat and promised to empower Turkey’s opposition parties through democratic processes.

Biden, the fourth U.S. president to work with Erdo?an, avoided any contact with the Turkish leader until April 23, 2021. Then, when Biden did address Turkey, he had bad news: Biden would be the first U.S. president officially to recognize the 1915-1919 mass-murders of Christian Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as a genocide.

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