TURKISH PRES. RECEP TAYYIP Erdogan has attempted for several years to play off his twin dependencies - the US and Western Europe on the one hand and Russia on the other - against each other, threatening to first abandon one and then the other. The game eventually had to run its course. Sooner or later, either the US or Russia would call his bluff, and he would then be left with only a single great partner; either Washington or Moscow. And then he would be at the mercy of the surviving ally. Erdogan knew this, and yet seemed delighted to push his partners to the limit. Now, through no fault of his own, but rather through an Act of the US Congress, his bluff has been called in the form of an impending unilateral cancellation by the US of Turkey's order for Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning Ⅱ fighter aircraft.
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