Things are about to take a hard turn away from the US with Turkey. Perhaps this is the start of Turkey not just saying rhetoric, but actions. They themselves seem tired of playing coy to the whole Greater project themselves.
In Friedman's Next 100 Years, it is set for Turkey and Japan to ally against America. Turkey will become a major regional power in the ME and will have a diminished status.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Next_100_Years:_A_Forecast_for_the_21st_Century
In the 2020s and 2030s, three main powers will emerge in Eurasia: Turkey, Poland, and Japan. Initially supported by the United States, Turkey will expand its sphere of influence and become a regional power, much as it was during the time of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish sphere of influence will extend into the Arab world, which will have increasingly fragmented by then, and north into Russia and other former Soviet countries. Israel will continue to be a powerful nation and will be the only country in the immediate region to remain outside the Turkish sphere of influence. However, Israel will be forced to come to an accommodation with Turkey due to Turkey's military and political power.
He is an economist writing in a time when economists thought China would "Liberalize" out of it's "Socialist Phase" and embrace good ol' American
InfluenceDemocracy.Swap China for the US and it's a good prediction. They're "predictions" are always :projection: