"Amid concerns among NATO allies, primarily for the U.S., regarding
Ankara’s decision to buy Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile batteries,
which are not compatible with NATO’s defenses, Ankara has stepped up
taking further role in missions of NATO, in an apparent sign of
anchoring to the alliance." "One of them is assuming the command of NATO’s Very High Readiness
Joint Task Force (VJTF) in 2021. The formation of such a force was
decided at the NATO Wales Summit 2014 as a “Spearhead Force” to the NATO
Response Force (NRF) for the intervention of a possible crisis within a
week. Then-Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu announced on May 2015 that
Ankara had offered to assume the responsibility as a framework nation in
the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force for 2021. The official
decision among allies is expected to be taken at a ministerial level
meeting in December 2018."
"Seven NATO members contribute to the mission in six groups: The
German-Dutch forces, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Poland,
and Turkey. It is a force of around 5,000 formed in five battalions
supported by air forces, navies, and special forces of member." Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Walkway in front of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) headquarters
in Brussels on July 10, 2018, ahead of NATO meetings. AFP PHOTO /
ludovic MARIN
"There is no doubt in Europe [and possibly in Ankara too] that the bridges between Turkey and the EU have been burned —
both on substance, with the massive deterioration of the rule of law in
Turkey and at the personal level, with Erdogan’s repeated assaults on
EU leaders in the past year and a half. No warm embraces can be expected
on the margins of the NATO summit." Marc Pierini, a former Turkish ambassador to the European Union
Relations between the European nations that make up NATO -- and Turkey have never been more fraught with suspicion and frustration than at present. Turkey, as a country that bridges Europe and the Middle East is the only Muslim NATO member. Kemalist Turkey was recognized as a nation of democratic values and imperatives, a secular government maintaining a strict separation between 'church and state'. Turkey's human rights record has always been on the edge of abuse, but the prevailing opinion was that it was improving.
That is all history. No longer is Turkey Kemalist in its outlook, judgement values and presentation. It has become Erdoganist, the country transformed from a Muslim-style democracy to an emerging dictatorship. Last year's attempted coup provided Recep Tayyip Erdogan with just the opportunity he was looking for, to impose martial law on the country, to accuse his detractors of being traitors to Turkey as he sacked over a hundred thousand civil servants, military, police, judges, lawyers, teachers and imprisoned 40 thousand others; journalists, military members, police and those he accused of trying to overthrow his government.
The elections that have been held in the past two years have been rife with corruption in lock-step with the government itself. Kurdish politicians have been put out of contention by being incarcerated and ruled ineligible to run for office. The conflict with secessionist Turkish Kurds has never been more destructive. Erdogan's manipulative machinations to change the constitution, remove the position of prime minister to grant himself as president all responsibilities and decision making of a neutered parliament, firmly ensconcing himself as an Islamist dictator.
His disruptive conniving to incite destabilizing Islamist perturbations by expatriate Turks living in Germany and other European countries has not endeared him to his fellow NATO members. Turkey's long aspirational efforts to be welcomed into the European Union has hit a snag that will never be surmounted. Erdogan's support of the Islamic Republic of Iran, despite sectarian differences, and his newfound friendship with Russia's Vladimir Putin has placed NATO in a dilemma of dissension.
Turkey's decision to arm its military with Russian made arms and the S-400 air defence system from Moscow, along with the installation of a Russian-built nuclear power plant represents a clear conundrum that a NATO member has assumed close cooperative ties with the very country that NATO was originally established 70 years ago to counter. The air defence system is not compatible with that used by other NATO members; yet another anomaly.
This is what NATO should be worried about.Photographer: Ivan Sekretarev/AFP/Getty Images
NATO's Very High Readiness
Joint Task Force that Turkey trumpets it is prepared to lend its forces to is meant for the very specific purpose of deflecting any potential moves on the part of Moscow to threaten the stability and sovereignty of any of the Baltic countries, former USSR satrapies, nervous of Vladimir Putin's irascibility and mercurial decision making. Turkey has the third largest military in NATO, and without doubt it is seen by some as a vital part of Western defence, but that rationale appears on the evidence to lack credibility.
Leading to the question, why doe Turkey want to remain within NATO? And why would NATO willingly remain prepared to continue to put up with including a member whose values, thrusts and alliances are so clearly incompatible with the priorities and stresses and values held by the greater balance of NATO members?
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
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