Dear Turkey, It’s Not Us; It’s You.

Over any long-term relationship, partners are bound to evolve. One side may be more interested in freedom, while the other dabbles in authoritarianism and begins to encounter new, like-minded people. Thus, it is between NATO and its unfaithful ally, Turkey.

It’s time for both sides to face up to the new reality.

While it’s unclear if divorce is in the cards, it’s time to put a little distance between the two. President Trump needs to create some space between himself and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as do NATO and the European Union. In this situation, it’s the United States that must get custody of the F-35.

The differences between Turkey and the rest of the alliance may be unbridgeable. Its first nuclear reactor is being built with Russia’s aid — for peaceful purposes, surely — and Russia will retain ownership and management of the facility after it’s built. Nothing to see here.

Another cause for concern is Turkey’s infidelity in purchasing weapons systems. When Ankara chose to buy the Russian S-400 air and missile defense system, it decided to step outside of NATO’s interoperability standards and leave the alliance behind. It raised questions about the country’s commitment to upholding NATO’s standards and its own secrets.

However, it is the country’s support for designated terror organizations like Hamas — active and passive — that Washington should not allow itself to live with.

Erdogan’s Turkey has for years provided the terrorist entity with vital material support, allowing it to plan and facilitate its continuing terror campaign inside Israel. Since 2011, Turkey has offered passports, residency and a platform for global outreach to Hamas’ leaders.

Since the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, Erdogan has routinely hosted Hamas leaders. He has praised the group’s campaign of death and torture at mass public rallies.

In April, Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet, announced that it had uncovered a terror financing network in Turkey linked to Hamas. Operated by Israeli Arab citizens, the nexus funneled millions of dollars from Hamas’ operatives in Turkey into the West Bank.

By itself, support for terrorist networks in a partner would be enough reason to get a lawyer (or a diplomat). Unfortunately, Turkey harms Western security interests in other ways, too.

Since 2016, Ankara has cultivated strategic relationships with U.S. adversaries, including Russia, led by President Vladimir Putin.

Despite the first Trump administration’s repeated warnings, Ankara bought the S-400 missile-defense system from Moscow. Turkey is also interested in acquiring the F-35 fighter from the United States. Because of the threats posed by allowing Erdogan to have both — and for not buying a U.S. missile defense system instead — Turkey was booted from the F-35 program and sanctioned by Washington.

Surely grounds enough for divorce?

Washington’s new ambassador to Ankara, Tom Barrack, is eager to revise U.S. policy and re-engage Turkey in the F-35 program. At the end of June, Barrack informed reporters of his expectations that “a resolution is possible by year-end.”

Such a development would be nothing short of a catastrophe. Were Turkey to acquire the F-35 while retaining its missiles, the two systems, when operated or networked together, would enable Moscow to gain intelligence helpful for shooting down F-35s.

Giving strategic weapons capability to Turkey is out of the question and must be taken off the table.

Washington and Europe must also come to realize that the danger Turkey presents to their collective security interests doesn’t emanate solely from Ankara’s support of terrorist groups like Hamas, or adversaries like Russia. It derives from Turkey’s drift from authoritarianism to outright autocracy.

While Brussels views Ankara as a critical security partner amid the growing threat from Russia, Washington expects even more. The Trump administration envisions Turkey playing a central role in stabilizing Syria, facilitating peace in Ukraine, and even brokering a deal between Israel and Iran. Meanwhile, inside Turkey, buoyed by the backing of his Western allies, Erdogan feels emboldened to continue consolidating power.

What Western leaders fail to envision is that Erdogan is not seeking to reignite his tenuous relationship with the West. Just days ago, his foreign minister attended the BRICS (an intergovernmental organization comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates) in Brazil and reiterated Turkey’s desire to join the anti-Western bloc of nations.

The United States, the European Union and NATO must keep a much closer eye on Turkey, take advantage of what it still has to offer, but limit the West’s exposure to an unreliable partner.

It may not be practical to break up and move out right now, but it’s time to give the cold shoulder to an autocrat who desperately needs to be put in the friend — rather than the ally — zone.

Sinan Ciddi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.