Yiğit Bulut, chief advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said on public TV that Russia is more of a strategic partner and ally for Turkey than the United States is.
Speaking on the state-run TRT News channel on Wednesday, Bulut also said there is no solidarity among NATO member countries and that the NATO concept is finished.
“The balance of power in Middle East is controlled by Russia,” said Erdoğan’s advisor.
Relations between Turkey and the US have been tense for a while due to disagreements on a series of issues.
Turkey is angry over Washington’s support for the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria — the top US ally in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) – considering it the Syrian extension of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long battle against Turkish security forces in the country’s Southeast.
Ties had also been damaged by the trial and conviction in New York Federal Court of Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla, accused of helping Iran evade sanctions.
Washington is also angered by the detention of journalists and opposition figures, American citizens and Turkish employees of US diplomatic missions in Turkey on alleged terror charges.