The US Should Ally With Russia, Not Turkey

US support for Turkey, based on its longstanding NATO membership, is being tested by Ankara's support for jihadi militants in Syria, analyst Tom Switzer of the University of Sydney told Sputnik.

Having been a NATO member since 1952, Turkey is a strategic ally of the US and as such counts on its staunch support, Tom Switzer, research associate at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, told Sputnik.

​"On the other hand, since the outbreak of Syria's civil war in 2011, Turkey has aided and abetted the Sunni rebellion against the Shia-aligned Assad regime in Damascus."

"So Turkey and the US, in a way, have found themselves on different sides in this dispute, and logically speaking the US, like the French, should ally itself with Russia, not Turkey, in the fight against these Sunni rebellions."

In addition to Turkey, the Saudis and many Sunni Gulf states supported the Sunni rebellion against Assad, which has morphed into the plethora of jihadi groups which the US is now fighting against, Switzer pointed out.

"Vice-President Joe Biden in an address to Harvard University a year or so ago, actually acknowledged that the Turks, along with the Saudis, have been supporting America's enemy in Syria, and in Iraq."

"Biden had to apologize, but the cat was out of the bag."

Russia's accusation that Daesh's main oil transportation routes are located on the Turkish-Syrian border is the "tip of the iceberg" of Turkey's support for the terrorists, said Switzer.