Interesting. The question is, what the European members (and I am not talking only of Germany and France) of NATO are thinking about a enlargement into the middle east. I doubt that they want to have Georgia, Azerbijan, Armenia, Afghanistan and Iraq as full NATO-members that they would have to defend in a case of war. Very unlikely. Since America has no sole right of representation in NATO it could get quite difficult to find backing for such an enlargement. NATO-decision making has to be done unisonous.
Furthermore Turkey is the only country in the middle east that was strong enough to give itself a democratic system with western values. All others like Irag i.e. needed the help from outside. The Turkish practice of laicism is indeed the only hope for the muslim world. If the muslims are allowed to vote free, they obviously vote for muslim parties. It happened recently in Iraq where the shiite United Iraq Alliance Party won, it happened in Westbank and Gaza where the islamiac Hamas won. Centralized presidential countries like Afghanistan have a islamistic system that has nothing to do with western democracy. I.e. the Afghan constitution describes Islam as its sacred and state religion. A system of civil law is described, but no law may contradict the beliefs and provisions of Islam. It was widely reported that Sharia law is not specifically mentioned, but in fact Hanafi jurisprudence is one of the six branches of Sharia law. Moreover, concessions are made to Shia jurisprudence in cases arising strictly between Shi'ites. Followers of other religions are "free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites" within the limits of the (shariah) law. There is no mention of freedom of conscience and religion.
Therefore we should be really happy that such a good and relatively free system like Turkey does exist.
Furthermore Turkey is by far the most powerful nation in the whole area. Their armed forces, with a combined troop strength of 680,000 people, is the second largest standing force in NATO after the United States. It would be quite helpful to have them on the right side. :-)
One of the reasons, why America denied a independent Kurdish state, is the fact, that the Turkish millitary is going to invade North Iraq if there would be such a development. Important Turkish millitary leaders released such warnings several times. And believe me - since Turkey really has all means to do it, there is nobody who would or could stop them.
It is obvious that there will be deep change within NATO in the next few years. Cold war is definitly over and the US presence in western Europe or Turkey is obsolete. I.e. the US troops in Germany are going to be reduced to (my information) to a small rest of 23.000 men (compared to roundabout 300.000 during the 80ties) in the next few years. Same thing with Turkey. It is simply not nessecary that US troops are stationed in areas where they are for sure not needed. This is a good development. Nevertheless it is nessecary to keep the contact with such old allies like Turkey. Therefore things should be handled with less emotion. The recent wave of Antiamericanism in Turkey should not distort the view on realities: They are still the most western and the most important country in the middle east.