According to media reports, on January 5, local time, the US Secretary of State paid a visit to Turkey after concluding his visit to Greece. However, to Blinken's embarrassment, when he arrived at the airport in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, he found that Ankara had not arranged for officials to greet him. In this regard, some analysts believe that Blinken's visit to Turkey is not an ordinary visit at a time when the Middle East region is in full flames. Turkey's move, however, is more like a clear signal to the international community that they are not taking the superpowers seriously.
In fact, it is no wonder that Ankara deliberately snubbed Blinken, because from the perspective of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Turkey and the United States are not like allies, but more like hostile countries. Because Turkey opposes Israel's military action in Gaza and has openly supported Hamas on more than one occasion, even threatening to take Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to an international tribunal. In contrast, the United States is a staunch supporter of Israel and the main culprit behind the unstoppable Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that Turkey is not waiting to meet Blinken.
Blinken's visit to Turkey was cold, and to put it bluntly, he was the result of his own fault. After his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, he refused to blame Israel's atrocities in the military campaign in Gaza, even though he mentioned that "too many Palestinians have been killed, especially children," and he almost blamed the current humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza on the attacks on Israel by the Hamas militant group last October.
In addition, at a press conference after the meeting, Blinken demanded that Turkey "must use its influence to prevent a cycle of violence in the Middle East." Of course, he is not asking Turkey to use its influence to stop Israel's military action in Gaza, but he wants the country to use its relationship with Iran to "exert influence" in preventing anti-American attacks against US troops and the Houthi blockade in the Red Sea. Therefore, Blinken's visit to many countries in the Middle East, including Turkey, is not to uphold justice and eliminate the hidden danger of all-out war in the Middle East, but to try to win over more regional countries and put pressure on Iran's proxy war against the United States.
There is no doubt that the goal of Blinken's visit to Turkey is very clear: to try to persuade Ankara to abandon its hostility towards Israel and join forces with the United States against Iran. However, Blinken is clearly overestimating his political charisma and being too superstitious about the influence of the United States in the Middle East. The consequence of this is that his embarrassing trip to the Middle East has become even more embarrassing. According to media reports, while Blinken has repeatedly declared that "Turkey is ready," the authorities in Ankara told the media that during the meeting with Blinken, Erdogan "has been harshly critical of Israel."
In addition, according to the information released by the Turkish government, Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan also criticized Israel's irresponsible aggression in front of Blinken, which has posed a serious threat to the security of the Middle East region, and stressed that "the Gaza Strip must immediately cease fire and resume negotiations on the two-state solution between Palestine and Israel as soon as possible." Obviously, no matter how Blinken tries to whitewash his differences in talks with Turkish dignitaries, Ankara does not want to give him any face. There is even information that Blinken is "frustrated" due to Ankara's refusal to relenting on issues related to Sweden's accession to NATO.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has lasted for more than three months now, and it is not only the two Palestinian-Israeli parties that have been affected by the ongoing conflict, but also other relevant parties, including the United States. With the participation of Allah guerrillas in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and the Islamic Resistance Front in Syria, the wildfire, which was originally limited to the Gaza Strip, has actually spread to the Red Sea, Iraq, and Syria due to Houthi attacks on Red Sea merchant ships and pro-Iranian attacks on US military bases in the Middle East, and has gradually affected peace in the Middle East and global economic development.
Therefore, in terms of strategic interests, the United States can now be said to be the country most affected by this conflict, except for Palestine and Israel. After all, the U.S. military presence in the Middle East has been seriously threatened by Iran's proxy war against the U.S. At the same time, there are serious differences between the US government and the opposition on whether to continue to support Israel, and it is self-evident that this has weakened US influence in the Middle East. Under such circumstances, Blinken also wanted to pretend to be an uncle during his visit to Turkey, and being snubbed and slapped in the face by the other party was also the result of his own fault.