The meeting between American Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan at the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara ended without any joint statements.

The main topic of the meeting, which lasted about two hours and 40 minutes, was the developments in Gaza.

Immediately after the meeting, Antony Blinken left the Turkish Foreign Ministry and will reportedly leave for Tokyo immediately.

Indicative of the coldness in US-Turkey relations was last night’s low-level reception of Antony Blinken at the Ankara airport, where he was received from the Turkish side by the vice-mayor of Ankara Namik Kemal Nazli and the director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for bilateral political relations, Ambassador Yaprak Balkans, points out the pro-government press (Yeni Safak, Aksam, Yeni Akit).

The chill in US-Turkish relations is evident after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statements that Hamas is not a terrorist organization and the accusations he leveled against the United States for its military presence in the region and its support for Israel.

For the Turkish side, the American support for the “Democratic Forces of Syria” which is made up mainly of Kurdish militiamen is also a point of friction.