President Donald Trump is willing to welcome President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Washington with open arms, but congressional leaders must make it clear that Turkish democracy is vital to U.S. interests.
This repression not only offends American values but also enables the very foreign policy moves that antagonize Congress, while undermining the bilateral relationship in other ways.
Public debate in Turkey is stifled further by the targeting of political opposition. The Peoples' Democratic Party , the second largest opposition group in parliament, is the only Turkish party that advocates for an alternative policy toward Syrian Kurds. But Erdogan has stripped the party's ability to promote its agenda.
These and other steps Erdogan has taken should be a wake-up call to Congress that Turkish repression cannot be ignored. Erdogan's authoritarianism is inextricably intertwined with his aggressive moves abroad and his distancing of Turkey from the transatlantic alliance. Turkey's turn toward Russia is a natural outgrowth of Erdogan's dismantling of democracy.
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