These Kurdish militias are U.S. allies and they're afraid that by moving American troops out of the region, the U.S. is turning its back on the Kurds and opening the door for Turkey to attack them.
Not by turning our backs on free trade or the global rules based system which together have delivered the greatest advances in prosperity we have ever known.
Suppose standing on the bridge next to the fat man, I didn't have to push him, suppose he was standing over a trap door that I could open by turning a steering wheel like that.
We can use it more generally to talk about turning something good into something bad. And actually, we often use it by turning it into the adjective 'tainted'.