NATO on Wednesday took the unusual step of reaffirming that Turkey, a member state since 1952, is in fact still part of the alliance. Turkey’s status, NATO said in a statement, “is not in question.” But lately it seems like it is. Ankara and Moscow are rekindling their close ties after a nearly nine-month freeze, brought about by tensions over the civil war in Syria and Russian fury over Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet that violated its airspace last November. For much of last fall, Vladimir Putin threw insults and economic embargoes at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — accusing him, for example, of helping run the Islamic State’s oil-smuggling operations — as economic ties and tourism between the two countries dwindled.
NATO Plays It Cool as Russia and Turkey Grow Closer
