Türkiye’s Consul General Ahmet Yazal in New York Once Again Remains Silent

My Response to New York Post / Türkiye’s Consul General Ahmet Yazal – New York once Again Remains Silent.

A Tabloid Smear Disguised as Foreign Policy: The New York Post’s Reckless Attack on a NATO Ally

The New York Post article Published Feb. 5, 2026  accusing the Republic of Türkiye of secretly propping up Iran’s regime is not analysis it is ideological propaganda dressed up as concern for regional stability. Built on conjecture, selective outrage, and strategic illiteracy, the piece reflects more about its author’s bias than about Türkiye’s actual role in Middle Eastern diplomacy.

Let us state the obvious: Türkiye is a NATO ally, home to the alliance’s second-largest military and a frontline state that has absorbed the human and security costs of Iran’s proxy conflicts for decades. To portray Ankara as an enabler of Tehran’s repression is not merely false it is intellectually lazy. The article’s central accusation that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeks to preserve Iran’s theocracy to advance Turkish ambitions rests on no evidence. None. Diplomacy is repeatedly conflated with endorsement, and mediation is dishonestly framed as sabotage. This is not serious foreign policy reasoning; it is a cartoonish worldview where war is virtue and restraint is betrayal.

Türkiye’s position has been consistent and public: a regional war with Iran would trigger uncontrollable instability, mass displacement, asymmetric retaliation, and long-term chaos stretching from the Levant to Europe. Warning against this outcome is not duplicity it is responsible statecraft. Only someone detached from the consequences of war could dismiss such caution as sinister. The article also assumes, without justification, that Türkiye fears the emergence of a democratic Iran. This claim collapses under basic scrutiny. Türkiye has coexisted with Iran across ideological shifts for decades not because it favors repression, but because geography and regional responsibility demand engagement, not fantasy. States do not get to choose their neighbors, and mature powers manage reality rather than indulge in regime-change daydreams.

Equally dishonest is the suggestion that Türkiye seeks to “block” American or Israeli action. Ankara has repeatedly emphasized that unilateral military strikes do not produce democracy and rarely produce lasting security. History particularly in the Middle East supports this view overwhelmingly. Opposing reckless escalation is not anti-American; it is pro-stability. The article’s treatment of diplomacy is especially revealing. Hosting talks, proposing de-escalation, or offering mediation are portrayed as acts of treachery. By this logic, decades of U.S. diplomacy from Coold War arms control to the Iran nuclear negotiations—would also constitute moral failure. The author applias a standard to Türkiye that the United States has never applied to itself.

Most cynical of all is the article’s selective concern for the Iranian people. Their suffering is invoked only to justify military confrontation, despite the fact that war would inevitably kill far more civilians and entrench authoritarianism, not dismantle it. This is not solidarity it is exploitation. The piece also conveniently ignores our government, Washington’s own history of negotiating with regimes it opposed when doing so served strategic interests. Apparently, diplomacy is acceptable when conducted by Americans, but evidence of duplicity when pursued by a NATO ally. Such double standards do not strengthen alliances; they corrode them.

What makes this smear campaign particularly damaging is the continued silence of Türkiye’s Consul General Ahmet Yazal in New York, who once again appears content to collect a reported $14,000 (est) monthly salary while allowing false and defamatory narratives to circulate unchallenged in a major American tabloid. Defending a nation’s reputation is not optional it is the fundamentel duty of diplomatic office. Silence in the face of repeated misrepresentation is not prudence; it is failure.

The New York Post article does not expose Türkiye. It exposes the dangers of substituting ideology for strategy and outrage for evidence. Türkiye remains a NATO ally, a regional  superpower, and a state that understands the cost of war better than most.

Foreign policy requires seriousness, not slogans. This article offers none and Western unity is weaker for it.

Ibrahim Kurtulus 
Community Activist