The Financial Times quotes Vice President and Rafik Hariri Center Director Francis Ricciardone on Turkey’s relations with NATO as the country prepares to host NATO guests:
“Dialogue between Turkish and American officials in diplomacy, defence, law enforcement and intelligence matters has remained relatively consistently close and productive,” says Francis Ricciardone, a former US ambassador now at the Atlantic Council.
“Nonetheless, it would be a mistake not to take President Erdoğan’s words absolutely seriously . . . This is a man who speaks from the heart [and] rhetoric matters, especially in a democracy.”