“If the internal stress in the US goes on like this, the possibility of another 9/11 is not all that remote,” Turkish columnist Abdurrahman Dilipak said in an article published in the pro-government Yeni Akit newspaper on Thursday.
Asserting that Turkey will no longer tolerate being “stalled” or “threatened,” he claimed that increasing the tension with Turkey would lead to “other troubles” in the US and the EU.
In his article Dilipak argued that a solution between Turkey and the US was not going to be easy, referring to a recent deterioration in relations due to the lengthy detention and trial of American pastor Andrew Brunson.
He claimed that the US position on Brunson as well as the US approach to other bilateral and regional issues has brought Turkey to a crossroads. Dilipak also suggested that it has come to a point where Turkey might irreversibly reconsider its alliances with NATO, the EU and the US and reassess its relations with BRICS countries as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
“If the collaborators on the inside ever come out of the woodwork relying on the US, they should know they will pay a price along with the US and that the public will take its revenge primarily on them,” Dilipak said.
In the past few weeks, Turkish-US relations have been especially strained due to the long detention and trial of Brunson on charges of affiliation with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as well as the Gülen movement, which is accused by the Turkish government of orchestrating a failed coup in 2016, an allegation strongly denied by the movement.