Can Turkey, US finally clean the slate after Sweden’s NATO ratification?

Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s request to join NATO can provide an opening to resolve the outstanding issues between Ankara and Washington, ending one of the worst decades in Turkey-US relations, analysts believe.

The US State Department is expected to formally notify Congress over the sale of 40 new-generation F-16 jet fighters and 79 modernization kits to Turkey next week, as first reported by Al-Monitor.

Congress is not expected to mount a serious opposition to the Biden administration’s sale decision provided that Ankara does not take actions that might offend its detractors in Washington. And the conclusion of the sale can have a potential to reverse the downtrend in Turkey-US ties — a trend that has been ongoing for almost a decade now. 

A brief history of the worst decade in US-Turkish ties