The United States announced a new travel advisory for its citizens willing to travel to Turkey, claiming that Turkey is a country with an "increased security risk." U.S. citizens are therefore urged to reconsider coming to Turkey "due to terrorism and arbitrary detentions." The detentions they are referring to are probably those concerning the now famous Turkish citizens who were working in the U.S. diplomatic missions in Turkey.
It is interesting that the U.S. is so worried about its citizens who might get arrested abroad. The U.S. itself is a country where many foreigners get arrested. The U.S. authorities don't even hesitate to arrest foreign civil servants, as we have seen in the case of a high-level employee of a Turkish public bank.
The security warning is also reminding of the risk of terrorist attacks, but is there any country in today's world where such a risk doesn't exist? Is the U.S. a safe country, in this sense?
The U.S.'s attitude toward Turkey has grown so negative, that one could believe Washington is dealing with Turkey as if it was a rogue state. We are not an enemy entity like Iran or North Korea, as we don't have a nuclear program, nor we are communist. Nevertheless, the list they have put Turkey in includes Pakistan, Sudan, Venezuela, Russia, and Guatemala. As you may notice, Turkey is the only country on that list that is a member of NATO and the Council of Europe.
It appears, though, this list is not as bad as another list recently mentioned by U.S. President Donald Trump. Reportedly, Trump believes that countries like Haiti, El Salvador or many others situated in Africa are just "s…holes." One may only assume that the U.S. has also warned its citizens about going to those countries, but what the president doesn't like essentially is people from those countries coming to the U.S.
The president seems to be quite worried about people coming to the U.S. from those "holes," probably because he thinks they are just making his beloved country more insecure. Let's give him an advice: If he dislikes people from those countries that much, he may just arrest them while they are in the U.S. His country is a country where foreigners can get arrested easily anyway, so this shouldn't be a problem. He may even copy what one of his predecessors, George W. Bush, did. He can build huge detention centers like in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Maybe that will give him a chance to explain how in Cuba, supposedly an enemy country, the U.S. is able to maintain a military base.
To say the truth, it is not easy to understand what the U.S. is trying to accomplish by treating Turkey like this. This definitely doesn't serve the strategic relationship between our countries; besides, it increases anti-American feelings in Turkey. If their aim is to weaken the current government, it is not going to work. Or, if this is about replacing Turkey's governing party by another, it wouldn't mean anything, as any Turkish political party would be equally appalled by what the U.S. is doing right now. If Turkish people have strong anti-American feelings, there is a reason for it. And the current U.S. administration is not helping with this ambiance.
The U.S.'s overall attitude toward Turkey is only pushing the latter into Russia's arms. We wonder whether this is deliberate. If it is so, maybe Washington is planning to "save" Turkey from Russia when the right moment arrives. Nevertheless, there is no guarantee whatsoever that this kind of "saving" will work because Russia is not the old Russia. Besides, with the growing anti-Americanism in Turkish society, maybe the Turks will not want to be saved by the U.S. after all. Or maybe there are no calculations and plans on the American side at all. Maybe Washington is truly in a mess, as described in Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury."