How Can Turkey's Government be a U.S. Ally if it's an Ally of Iran?

By Barry Rubin

Syria's government newspaper says Turkey is an ally of Syria and Iran. Iran's president says that Turkey is an ally of Syria and Iran. And now the prime minister of Turkey says basically the same thing. Yet much of the West is blind to what is right there out in the open.

The latest development is an interview that Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave to the BBC totally defending the Iranian regime and claiming that country has no intention of developing nuclear weapons. (Do you think the Obama Administration will persuade Erdogan to support sanctions when he insists that there is no problem at all?)

Erdogan called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a "friend." He said,  "Countries with nuclear weapons are not in a position to turn to another country and say: 'You are not supposed to produce nuclear weapons.'" The Turkish prime minister insisted:

"Iran has consistently spoken of the fact that it is seeking to use nuclear energy for civilian purposes and that they are using uranium enrichment programmes for civilian purposes only....That is what Mr Ahmadinejad has told me many times before." 

Well as the old labor union song put it about coal miners in Kentucky:

"They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there.
You'll either be a union man.
Or a thug for J.H. Blair
Which side are you on?"

The Turkish regime and its new friends--which include Hamas and Hizballah--know which side that government is on, when will the U.S. government notice?