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Russia vs Turkey – part 4 – NATO

30 November 2015

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On 26 November 2015, the Guardian wrote: “the mechanisms in place to control conflict remain robust. Nato is aware that Turkey is an ally, but is not piling in to increase the tension; Russia knows that while it may have a certain moral authority in this incident, but if it turns to military pressure then Nato must back its maverick ally”.

In my view, Turkey is worse than a maverick ally. Turkey is using NATO as a shield towards Russia to achieve its own goal: a restoration of the Ottoman Empire. NATO should not accept this attitude.

Aspen: Worries about Turkey’s conduct are growing rapidly among fellow NATO members. There are multiple concerns, some of which have surfaced periodically before, while others are either new or at least much more salient. All of them are now combining to make critics wonder whether Turkey is a reliable or even a tolerable ally. Seth Cropsey, a Senior Fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute in the United States, denounces what he termed “Turkey’s contempt for NATO principles.” International media mogul Conrad Black urges NATO members to “get tough with Turkey.”

Brookings: For a while, it even seemed that a more strategic partnership [LO: between Russia and Turkey] might be taking shape—especially when, in November 2013, Erdoğan complained to Putin about the EU’s treatment of Turkey. Erdoğan went so far as to tell Putin that he might even be prepared to give up on Ankara’s, long-stalled bid for EU membership if Turkey were to be included in Russia’s alternative Eurasian economic integration projects.
Brookings: In the two years since Erdoğan’s “Eurasian gambit,” events have chipped away at the Turkish-Russian relationship. Russia’s annexation of Crimea, with its large Tatar minority and historic ties to Turkey, created the first fissure, which has deepened as both countries doubled-down on their support for the opposing sides in Syria. Russia’s decision to intervene militarily in Syria, to prop up Bashar Assad and to launch attacks against opposition groups that Turkey has directly armed and supplied, set the trajectory of Wednesday’s events in motion.

Aspen: Disgruntled Americans and other Westerners also view Ankara’s overall foreign policy with mounting suspicion. US supporters of Israel especially regard Turkey’s increasingly frosty treatment of that country as a manifestation of hostility toward both Western interests and Western values. Ankara’s conduct regarding ISIS has aroused additional concerns that Turkish leaders are conducting a cynical flirtation with radical Islamist forces in the Middle East. Not only did President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government drag its feet on supporting air strikes against ISIS by the United States and other NATO allies, but there were indications that Turkish leaders actively impeded measures to weaken the terrorist organization. For an agonizingly long period of time, the Erdoğan regime did little to assist besieged Kurdish defenders trying to thwart the attempt by ISIS forces to conquer the city of Kobane on the Turkish-Syrian border.

Obviously, Turkey will not be kicked out of NATO any time soon as that would result in too much embarrassment to too many parties involved. NATO members should however not allow Turkey to invoke article 5 (“collective defence”) to bring down Russia and to restore its own Ottoman Empire. There is no long term benefit for NATO to take sides in this centuries old Russo-Turkish war.

Status Quo – In The Army Now (2010) – artists, lyrics, Wiki

ELO – Don’t Bring Me Down (1979) – artists, lyrics, Wiki-1, Wiki-2

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