"The Turks presented the visit as a landmark event which was supposed to tackle the lack of understanding in the bilateral relationship. Ankara hoped that the US would make concessions at least on two issues," he said.
Clearly, Washington "is not ready to meet Ankara's demands since Gülen has not broken any laws in the US," the analyst explained.
Washington's close ties with the Kurds, whom Ankara views as terrorists, are the other issue plaguing the already strained bilateral relationship.
This is not to say that the visit should be considered a failure for Erdogan. "The Turks evidently have failed to win the support for their main initiatives on Syria and Gülen. However, the two countries are gradually mending their military ties," the analyst said.
The chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign Affairs and Defense Policy, Fyodor Lukyanov, told Sputnik that the duration of the meeting was significant.
"They had enough time to show that both countries maintain working relations, but key challenges are not up for discussion," he said. "I think this means that negotiations on the issue of the most concern to the Turks are out of the question."
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