Blasting a US court's decision to convict Hakan Atilla last week for the Turkish banker's alleged evasion of US sanctions against Iran, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the laws governing bilateral ties between the US and Turkey were "losing their validity," adding that the conviction was the political component of a US effort to stage a coup in Turkey.
Speaking to Sputnik Turkey, Mesut Hakki Casin, retired Air Force officer and professor of international relations at the Turkish Air Force Academy in Istanbul, suggested that Erdogan's remarks carried "historic significance, and were a sign of the transition of Turkish-US relations to a new stage."
"The main issue which causes Turkish discontent and overshadows bilateral relations is connected to the presence of the Central Command of the US Armed Forces on the Turkish border, with whose help an estimated 100,000 members of the Kurdish PKK [a militant group Ankara classifies as a terrorist organization] has received about 4,000 trucks' worth of weapons," Casin explained.
"This is a very serious concern for Turkey. The US cannot provide a clear answer about who these Kurdish forces are being armed against. Turkey sees this process as a direct threat to its security," the observer added.
The ball is now in Washington's court, according to the analyst. Ankara has two firm demands of Washington: the immediate start of a process to extradite exiled Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen (which Ankara has accused of being behind the failed July 2016 coup attempt) and the cessation of the provision of US arms to the Kurdish militias.
"If this doesn’t happen, I think a review of the bilateral agreements between the two countries is possible," Casin said. "Of course, Turkey will suffer consequences in the economic, political and military spheres. But the security of the national interests of the state, the freedom of the country and peace are fundamental principles that a country cannot refuse."
Ultimately, Casin suggested that decades of close Turkish-US relations now hang in the balance, and therefore, Erdogan's statement serves as a kind of warning to Washington, since a major diplomatic collision would result in material and strategic losses for both sides.
"This issue is also important from the point of view of NATO's future, as the president's remarks could ultimately lead to the closure of US military bases on Turkish territory," he noted.
For his part, former Turkish ambassador to the US Faruk Logoglu suggested that Erdogan's reaction demonstrates Ankara's sensitivity over the Atilla case, which he said was presently "one of the most resonant and sensitive issues" for the country.
"I think that with his comments, the president was expressing his doubts about the impartiality and transparency of the case [against Atilla]. The remarks should be seen as a political assessment of the investigation. Indeed, the trial has led to a large number of questions, as a result of which such a reaction by the Turkish leadership looks quite justified," Logoglu said.
