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Willy-Nilly Partnership: What’s the Hidden Aim of Biden’s Trip to Turkey?

© REUTERS / Kayhan Ozer/Presidential Palace/Handout via ReutersTurkish President Tayyip Erdogan (R) meets with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Istanbul, Turkey January 23, 2016, in this handout photo provided by the Presidential Palace
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan (R) meets with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Istanbul, Turkey January 23, 2016, in this handout photo provided by the Presidential Palace - Sputnik International
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The stated purposes of the US Vice President’s trip to Turkey were the intensification of the joint fight against Daesh and US concern over the increasingly destructive military campaign against the Kurds and freedom of speech within the country; however, some Turkish media sources suggest a hidden agenda.

At the joint news conference on the results of his trip to Turkey, Joe Biden said the two allies will intensify their dialogue on how to best continue the joint fight against Daesh (also known as the Islamic State/ISIL/ISIS), as well as efforts to seal the final part of the Turkish-Syrian border.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan (R) shakes hands with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Istanbul, Turkey January 23, 2016, in this handout photo provided by the Presidential Palace - Sputnik International
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The US Vice President also called for a “change of attitude” by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan toward critics of Turkey’s increasingly destructive military campaign against the Kurds and cities in southeast Turkey.

However Turkish newspaper Zaman online suggested that there was something else behind the scene.

The real reason of Biden’s trips to Turkey, it says, is a necessity to take under control Turkish deteriorating relationship with Russia.

Obama, before leaving, has no intention of pushing the US towards military tensions with Russia in the Middle East. Thus he sent Biden to Turkey to prevent such a development and to “keep his eye on the ball”.

“A possibility that Ankara, being pressured by Russia at the Syrian front, will drag the US into the whirlpool of a new war makes many in Pentagon lose their sleep,” the outlet says.

To protect the Kurds and Yazidis from genocide carried by Daesh (Islamic State) terrorists in Syria, one needs to support Kurdish forces fighting against the jihadist groups, renowned US Professor Noam Chomsky told Al Jazeera’s political commentator Mehdi Hasan during an episode of UpFront. - Sputnik International
Noam Chomsky Rips Apart Turkey’s Kurdish Policy, US Strategy in Syria
Thus there are many working groups set to closely observe the Turkish-Russian dynamics.

And the recent Biden’s visit, it suggests, points at the existence of discrepancies between the US and the Turkish regime and the forceful need of cooperation between the two, which some may call a “strategic partnership”. The outlet however refers to it as a “willy nilly cooperation”.

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