Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had good reason to play hardball with Moscow, instead he showed subservience to Russia, wrote Tom Logan in the Washington Examiner on Friday.

Erdoğan met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday in the aftermath of an air strike in late February that killed at least 34 Turkish soldiers in the northwest Syrian province of Idlib. The two leaders agreed a ceasefire in Idlib to begin at midnight on Thursday.

Erdoğan made himself look weak by claiming he had only come to Moscow due to Putin’s recent constitutional changes and by failing to challenge the Russian president’s denial that Russia had been responsible for the air strike that killed Turkish troops.

“Erdoğan knows that Putin knew where his forces were. He knows that those forces were targeted with Putin's approval. Putin's words were thus an insult to all Turks,” said Logan.

Logan said the United States and other NATO allies were ready to consolidate Turkey’s position against Putin, and that coordinated economic action could have forced Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russia into a retreat in Idlib.

“But Erdoğan couldn't stomach going eyeball to eyeball with Putin. Faced with the KGB man, he buckled. Atatürk must be turning over in his grave,” said Logan.