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When Türkiye `made things difficult` for NATO 0
(Dan Tri) – In an alliance that operates based on consensus, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan often makes decisions that go against the majority, causing NATO headaches to find solutions.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Photo: Getty).
This month, when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to block Finland and Sweden from joining NATO, Western officials were angry, but not surprised.
In 2009, Mr. Erdogan blocked the appointment of a new NATO Secretary General, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, because he thought Athens was too tolerant of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and `sympathized with those who
It took Western leaders hours of persuasion and US President Barack Obama is said to have had to pledge that NATO would appoint a Turk to the leadership position before Mr. Erdogan was satisfied.
After rifts in relations between Türkiye and Israel the following year, Mr. Erdogan prevented NATO from working with the Jewish state for six years.
In 2020, Mr. Erdogan sent a gas exploration ship supported by fighter jets near Greek waters, forcing France to send ships to support Athens.
Now, the Turkish leader continues to go against the crowd and once again invoke the Kurdish issue, accusing Sweden and Finland of being sympathetic to Kurdish fighters, who he claims
`These countries have almost become havens for terrorist organizations,` he said this month.
Many disagreements
Observers believe that the Turkish President’s resolute stance is a reminder of a long-standing problem in the consensus mechanism of NATO, the world’s leading military alliance currently with 30 members.
In the context that NATO is trying to respond to Russia due to the Ukraine crisis, they are deadlocked over Türkiye’s stance.
For the Russian leader, Sweden and Finland being prevented from joining NATO would be a significant victory.
This is where the US has a large air force base and stores nuclear weapons.
As prime minister and then president, Mr. Erdogan did not pivot much toward Europe but maintained a populist politics, especially after the failed coup against him in 2016.
He bought an advanced missile system from Russia that NATO officials called a threat to their integrated defenses, and in 2019 he launched a military offensive to fight the Russians.
`In the four years I was there, the alliance often fell into a situation of 27 against one,` said Ivo H. Daalder, a former US ambassador to NATO during the Obama administration, when NATO had 28 members.
Ankara’s opposition to Finland and Sweden joining the alliance even raises new questions about whether NATO could function better without Türkiye.
In an essay this month, expert Joseph I. Lieberman, a former independent US senator, said that Mr. Erdogan’s Türkiye would break the alliance’s standards for democratic governance in other countries. Join new members in the future.
An essay published in the Wall Street Journal warns that Ankara’s policies, including its close relationship with Russia, have undermined NATO’s interests.
Important position
NATO is a military alliance, and Türkiye, with the second largest army in the organization, an advanced defense industry, an important geographical location, plays a very important role indeed.
Western officials say that Türkiye will cause more problems if it stands out of the alliance and tightens ties with Russia.
“Türkiye is weakening its own image,” said Alper Coskun, a former Turkish diplomat and current Carnegie Endowment for International Peace senior fellow, but emphasized that Ankara “remains a important member of the alliance`.
Once again, the question is what will appease Mr. Erdogan and ensure the leader’s support for admitting Sweden and Finland to NATO.
Most analysts believe that Erdogan will not ultimately prevent Sweden and Finland from joining NATO, but he wants to emphasize Turkey’s security concerns and gain some domestic political benefits.
In Türkiye, the PKK is accused of attacking non-military targets and killing civilians in Türkiye.