June 17 (Bloomberg) — Turkey under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may be headed for more tension with the U.S. as it steers an increasingly independent course, enabled by a booming economy that lessens its dependence on the West.
Erdogan says his embrace of nations such as Syria and Iran that the U.S. regards as adversaries doesn’t put him in that camp. Any suggestion that his country has broken with the West is “malicious propaganda,” he told a regional forum last week.
Even so, the U.S. should anticipate increasing “friction” as Turkey seeks to raise its global profile, said Henri Barkey, a member of the State Department’s Middle East policy planning staff from 1998 to 2000.
“We are going to see many more clashes between Turkey and the U.S.,” said Barkey, now a professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. “They are opening embassies everywhere, using trade as a major source of influence, trying to play a role in a whole series of international organizations and alliances.”
