I just returned from a long meeting with Professor Hasan Koni, an expert in security policy and international affairs who runs the American Studies program at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University.

Don’t be fooled by his current professorial title. He is plugged into Turkey’s military and intelligence elite. He ran Turkey’s National Security Academy, where senior military officers and diplomats are trained from 1996 to 2003. Before that, he was a sought-after instructor at the War Academy, Turkey’s equivalent of West Point.

Most of military, intelligence and diplomatic corps have been his students, including General Edip Baser, who is working on Kurdish issues with U.S. Gen. Joe Ralston.

Prof. Koni told me that he is surprised by a sudden shift, in military circles, against the U.S., Turkey’s longtime ally.

On the secure web site of the Turkish military’s senior staff he was astonished to see the full text of Vladimir Putin’s recent anti-American diatribe, claiming the U.S. was violating international law in the Middle East. “For that to be there,” he told me, “it means it is an official, accepted view.”

In other words, the general staff endorsed Putin’s take on international relations. “it is surprising, to say the least,” he said, adding that Russia and Turkey have fought 13 wars and have been enemies for more than 300 years.

“Even two years ago,” he said, “it would not be imaginable for me.”

POST SCRIPT: Prof. Koni also provided some fascinating new information about the disappearance of Iranian General Ali Reza Asgari, which will soon appear on Pajamas Media main page.