The article is devoted to US-Turkish relations during the presidency of George W. Bush. The main aspects of US policy towards Turkey and key episodes of interaction between the two countries are considered. The main focus is on the issues of strategic partnership between Washington and Ankara in the period from 1999 to 2009. The paper assesses bilateral relations on the eve of Barack Obama's coming to power. Keywords: strategic partnership, USA, Turkey, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Middle East, Middle East. In April 2009, during his first visit to Turkey, U.S. President Barack Obama Obama came up with the idea of an" exemplary partnership " between the two countries [Joint Press Availability..., 04/06/2009]. The attention of the new US administration to this country was quite understandable: at the turn of the century, Turkey made people talk about itself as a new "rising force" [Al, 2010, p. 95]. Bordered by volatile parts of the Middle East, Turkey remains the only Muslim country in the North Atlantic Alliance with an army second only in size to the United States. However, according to some experts, the policy of George W. Bush, carried out within the framework of the so-called strategic partnership, led to a deterioration in relations between the United States and its long-standing ally and prompted Turkey to move closer to Russia, Iran, Syria and some other states. The Iraq campaign launched by Washington in 2003, which resulted, in particular, in the emergence of a hotbed of instability on the Turkish-Iraqi border and the freezing of the issue of Turkey's integration into the European Union [Boyer and Katulis, 2008, p.4-5], led to Ankara's distancing from the West as a whole. The US administration's promotion of the concept of "model partnership" indicated its intention to reconsider its approach to relations with a "vital" state for the United States. To date, the" model partnership " remains a rhetorical framework for US-Turkish cooperation. It is considered ... Читать далее