If Turkey turns on the West, what hope is there for Syria and Iraq?

Turkey has long been a bridge between the West and the Middle East. Its record on free speech may be lamentable and it treats its Kurdish minority shoddily, but against that stands a genuine will to improve its human rights record and an ambition to become a modern, free and prosperous state. This has long been the basis of Britain’s support for Turkey joining the European Union.

But this week we have seen a reminder of how far the priorities of Turkey’s political establishment are from those of Europe. Its parliament recently consented to the use of an airbase at Incirlik by US forces launching airstrikes against the Islamic State, a move that could dramatically increase the number and effectiveness of such missions. But then President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave a speech that did not just reject launching strikes from the base but seemed to attack the very idea of western intervention in the region, accusing the US of being only interested in securing access to oil wells.