Successive US Administrations have used Congress as a pretext to dispel their embarrassment towards their allies when the issue requires pressuring them, especially if they have “gone too far” with Israel. The Obama Administration does not depart from such a rule. The President has personally warned Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan against maintaining his stances opposed to Israel and lenient towards Iran, stances that reduce Ankara's chances of obtaining the weapons it recently requested to purchase, and about the fact that such stances pose fateful questions regarding the strategic relationship between the two countries. Moreover, he pointed to the scarecrow of Congress, always willing to punish those who dare criticize the Hebrew state (Financial Times). He also gave Ankara “some time” to review its regional policies. Regardless of the report of the sober London newspaper, and the White House's denial of it, relations between Washington and Ankara have, since the rise to power of the Justice and Development Party (AKP – Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) and its historic decision to restore to Turkey its Muslim identity, begun witnessing successive crises. These crises were embodied in significant milestones, such as preventing the US Army from using Turkish soil as a base to invade Iraq, opening up to Iran and Syria which are both on Washington's terrorist list, distancing itself from Israel's policies, and voting in the Security Council against imposing sanctions on Tehran. Those Turkish stances that are arousing the United States' ire are no passing matter. They had been so under the Administration of George Bush's hawks and their wars, and they continue to be so under the Democrats, represented by a President who is increasingly yielding to the influence of lobbies, and who differs from his predecessor only in the style of his speeches. Hints made by the previous as by the current Administration to the fact that they will raise the issue of the massacres of Armenians and charge Congress with it in order to pressure Ankara confirm how deeply entrenched these crises have become, and grant credibility to the London newspaper's report. Washington is uncomfortable about Turkish leaders reviewing their country's policy in the Middle East, and about their diligent efforts to restore their historical relations with the peoples of the region, whom the Ottomans ruled for centuries. This aside, Washington and Tel Aviv had been wagering on the historical enmity between Ankara and Tehran – an enmity foolishly viewed from the perspective of sectarian disputes between Shiites and Sunnis, instead of being viewed on the basis of it being a disagreement over interests between the Ottomans and the Iranian state. The two countries had also wagered on the moderation of Turkish Islam (support of Israel) in order to confront Iran, but as Ankara has disappointed them both with its stances, they have begun to pressure it. Forestalling US escalation, Turkey decided to send a high-ranking delegation to Washington to reassure the US to the fact that it is still a secular country allied to the West, and that its disagreement with Washington is no more than a disagreement over the method of approaching Middle East issues, something which always happens between allies. Such diplomatic language will not be able to conceal the truth about Turkey changing its strategies. It may delay the eruption of the crisis but it will not cancel it out, especially as Israel continues to behave in a hostile manner in order to assert its hegemony over the Middle East, while Ankara has awoken to its interests in that region. The echo of Obama's speech in Istanbul (in 2009) has faded away, and facts, rather than words, have begun to impose themselves on everyone.
