"The Turkish government, however, is outraged by events in Egypt. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, is a leader that Mr Obama has carefully cultivated. According to a recent book by Vali Nasr, a former Obama administration official, the US president “phones [Mr] Erdogan often and has probably conferred with him more than he has with any other world leader”.
Yet Mr Erdogan is behaving increasingly erratically. He seems to fear that the street demonstrations in Turkey against his government are intended to set up a military coup, on the Egyptian model. Under pressure, he has resorted to increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories, implying last week that the Egyptian coup had been masterminded by Israel. Mr Obama thought that he had brokered an end to the war of words between Israel and Turkey – but that fragile entente is now breaking down again."
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