US-Turkish relations are in the best shape of recent memory. President Barack Obama’s first official overseas visit (in 2009) was meant to start a new type of relationship with Turkey, dubbed the “model partnership,” but the bilateral relations received particular attention in the wake of two major diplomatic crises in 2010: a flotilla incident—when the ship the Mavi Marmara, owned by a Turkish nonprofit organization, was boarded by the Israeli military while on the way to Gaza with aid—and Turkey’s “no” vote at the UN Security Council on sanctions against Iran. Both of these crises had to do with regional issues of vital importance for both the United States and Turkey. The Arab Spring that began in late 2010, however, created a new dynamic that rendered cooperation between the two countries critical.
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