NATO membership is a huge source of prestige for Turkey and that helps the country to sit at the table internationally, Max Hoffman, associate director of National Security and International Policy at the Centre for American Progress (CAP) said. “Erdoğan still values that membership, so hence he played nice in Brussels this week,” Hoffman told Nervana Mahmoud, the host of Ahval’s Turkish Trends podcast on Thursday. “He wants an independent relationship with Russia but the NATO membership also protects him from Russia,” Hoffman said.