Middle East

Why Turkey's coup attempt matters big time for the United States

U.S.-Turkish relations could get a lot worse

But even though the Obama administration doesn't want to see one of the world's few Muslim-majority democracies taken over by the military, it has experienced increasingly frosty relations with Erdogan, whose Islamist party has reversed years of Turkish secularism, maintained power for more than a decade, clamped down on the free press and dissidents, and shown less than full-throated support for the U.S. effort to rout out ISIS and other Islamist extremists.

Now things could get even worse between the two capitals, representing a considerable downgrade from years of strong U.S.-Turkish ties.

During the decades of the Cold War, the two countries enjoyed close relations, with the U.S. successfully collaborating on a range of issues with both democratically and military-led governments headed by many pro-western secularists.

In contrast, the U.S. has struggled with Erdogan's AKP Party and its moderate Islamist policies, including his diplomatic spat with Israel and his outreach to Islamist parties like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.