- Biden heaped praise on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after he finally relented to NATO expansion.
- Biden's affection comes despite Erdoğan's glaring human rights record.
- The White House previously didn't invite Turkey to a major democracies summit last December.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday heaped praise on Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after the Turkish president finally relented to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, approval that comes as Erdoğan increasingly amasses power in his country and amid widespread reports of human rights abuses there.
"I want to particularly thank you for what you did putting together the situation regarding Finland and Sweden," Biden told reporters before meeting with Erdoğan on the sidelines of a major NATO summit in Madrid.
Biden briefly flubbed his praise for Turkish support of Ukraine during Russia's invasion before adding, "You're doing a great job."
Erdoğan essentially held NATO hostage as it considered Finland and Sweden's historic applications to join the alliance after decades of neutrality. The Turkish leader relented on Tuesday after the two nations granted him some major concessions, particularly on Sweden and Finland's previous arms embargoes. NATO could not move forward on the nations' accession without Turkish approval, which granted Erdoğan significant leverage.
Biden's embrace comes as Erdoğan increasingly resembles a strongman. The situation is so apparent and dire that the White House did not invite Turkey, a NATO ally, to a major US-led summit of democracies last December. In 2021, 54 senators, a bipartisan majority, urged Biden to do more to get Turkey to improve its human rights record.
"We believe that the United States must hold allies and partners to a higher standard and speak frankly with them about issues of human rights and democratic backsliding," the senators wrote in February 2021. "We urge you to emphasize to President Erdogan and his administration that they should immediately end their crackdown on dissent at home and abroad, release political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, and reverse their authoritarian course."
One of the most infamous recent episodes in US-Turkish relations is when Erdoğan looked on as his bodyguards and supporters clashed with protestors in Washington, DC, when he visited the US during the Trump administration.
It wasn't just protestors injured during the 2017 melee outside of the Turkish ambassador's residence. According to the Guardian, declassified State Department documents said six Secret Service officers were also injured.
Human Rights Watch says that Erdoğan's government has "set back Turkey's human rights record by decades."
History is replete with presidential embraces of leaders who don't fully share American or Western democratic values. The US is often criticized for practicing a foreign policy that favors leaders that align with US interests while treating their own people horribly, such as Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian leader who held power for nearly thirty years.
But Biden's newfound affection for Erdoğan and Saudi Arabia come after the president stressed that he would put human rights "at the center" of his foreign policy.