“I believe they are containing Erdogan from doing stupid stuff to make ending ISIS harder.”
That, and trying to salvage what is possible geo-strategically with Turkey. Turkey has long (centuries) been a major counter against Russia. Turkey has a huge military, and a huge economy - bigger than Russia’s, if Russia did not have oil and gas. Turkey has pretty much sided with the USA, since after WWII, but Erdogan has deliberately steered them toward an islamist, rather than Western future - and he has some big cards to play.
Perhaps they will swing back at some point, but it will probably have to get real bad for them to change course (things are getting bad).
High stakes diplomacy - a high wire walk in the rain.
Doesn’t Turkey have the largest military in NATO?
Turkey was indeed a more secular and thus, more prosperous nation before Erdrogan.
The more I know about T Rex, the happier I am that the President chose him for SOS.