Posted on 04/22/2015 6:52:02 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
Turkey's push to carve out an independent foreign policy and purchase arms from countries outside of NATO is raising concerns among members of the defensive military alliance, Emre Peker reports for the Wall Street Journal.
"Turkey is recasting itself as a nonaligned country in its rhetoric, which is making NATO very uncomfortable," a Western official in Brussels told the WSJ.
Ankara's decision to purchase missile-defense technology from China, as opposed to from NATO member states, is the most visible break between Turkey and the rest of the NATO bloc. Turkey chose to purchase from Beijing due to a matter of lower costs and a willingness from China to provide a more technology transfers than Western defense contractors.
There are concerns within NATO that the Chinese missile shield would not be able to be integrated into NATO's overall defensive shield. Western military planners are also concerned that a military deal with a Chinese company could open NATO's door to espionage, especially given that the company is on the US proliferation list.
If the missile-defense deal were an isolated incident, NATO concern over Turkey's actions would likely be significantly muted. However, the arms deal is just the latest move in a string of decisions by Ankara that has left its Western allies uncomfortable.
"You're not in a situation where people in Washington and Brussels are asking, 'Whose side is Turkey on?' But one or two more big negative decisions, and you'll be there," Marc Pierini, a former European Union ambassador to Turkey, told the WSJ.
Turkey's relationship with the West, and especially the US, has been primarily strained by divergent views of the Syrian civil war. Until mid-2014, Ankara maintained an open transit policy which allowed the easy smuggling of supplies and fighters into Syria against the Assad regime.
This relaxing of border controls contributed to a sense of lawlessness along Turkey's border and facilitated the rise of ISIS and al Qaeda's Jabhat al Nusra franchise.
Ankara has also refused to allow the US-led anti-ISIS coalition to launch military strikes from Turkish soil, although there are ongoing discussions to allow US drones to operate out of Incirlik air base close to the border with Syria. Turkey and the US have also begun to cooperate on attempts to train moderate Syrian rebels.
Turkey has also become increasingly connected to terrorist organizations and financing. The Financial Action Task Force, a terror finance regulatory body, almost blacklisted Ankara for being out of compliance with its international obligations for seven years in 2014. This is in addition to Turkey's growing role as a top sponsor of Hamas.
There are unconfirmed reports that $300 million in annual aid flowed from Turkey to Hamas. Additionally, one of Hamas' top leaders, Salah Al Arouri, has found shelter in Turkey. Arouri was responsible for the planned murder of three Israeli teens in June 2014.
Turkey is also still stuck in a corruption scandal that includes the exchanging gold for oil with sanctioned Iran.
And a gas deal with Russia that helped Russian President Vladimir Putin keep leverage on Europe.
This coalescence of factors has led to a steadily growing sense that NATO and Turkey may find themselves at cross purposes. Additionally, NATO is overwhelmingly unpopular within Turkish society as a whole. A Pew opinion poll from July 2014 found that 53% of Turks held a very unfavorable view of the alliance, with an additional 17% holding a somewhat unfavorable view.
There are some, futurists and such, who believe that Turkey will become the new regional power and have hegemony over the Balkins (including Greece) and Western Asia.
Nah. I told you they just financed a 1/10 of a billion dollar mosque in Maryland and our revered president will attend the opening. How could they be any problem. Peace and love is the answer. /sarcasm
F Turkey and F Obama an F the mosque.
I am hoping to attend the opening with pamphlets about why muslims open mosques in foreign counties, and list the way ways that Turkey shows its hates for us.
“The Sick Man of Europe”
That would be bad.
Let's see: Who are NATO's enemies:
Commies - We got one in the white hut;
Dictators - We got one in the white hut;
Radical muzzies - We got one in the white hut;
Liars who attack allies and fail to honor committments - We got one in the white hut;
Turkey is small potatoes, they need to be "uncomfortable" with the US.
The airstrikes were the first since a ceasefire took hold in March 2013, the result of peace talks between the Turkish government and the Kurdish rebels. The PKK and the Turkish army have waged war for thirty years over Kurdish demands for greater autonomy, at a cost of more than 30,000 lives.
Tensions between the two sides have simmered over the past few months as the peace process appeared to stall, but came to a head last week after Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) forces tightened their stranglehold over Kobani, a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria within sight of Turkish troops massed on the other side of the border.
http://time.com/3507187/turkey-kurdish-rebels-pkk-isis-kobrani/
Would NATO defend Turkey if the Kurds demanded an independent state? I’d think the US and EU have enough of their own problems, rather than that impossible situation which could emerge.
Once the Islamists took over in Turkey and turned their backs on the scular state that Ataturk started tey should have been kicked out of NATO. Particularly after they refused to let the 4th ID go through Turkey in 2003.
Bible prophecy ping
Nato should split the blanket and go cold turkey.
It’s not Turkey ,it’s the Insane President they have
Turkey has been aiding and abetting Hamas, Al Qaeda, and ISIS for years, but its decision to purchase lower cost military technology from China is what makes NATO uncomfortable?
Lord help us...
Precisely.
Turkey is north of Israel and will align with Russia. The “king of the north”.
The Turks only joined NATO because they feared conflict with the Soviet Union. They no longer share a border with Russia and do not fear Russia.
They are returning to Islamic government and that will prove mutually exclusive to being in NATO (I hope).
I look for Turkey to return to the mindset of the Ottoman Empire, competing with Iran for power and influence over the Islamic world.
Turkey has always been an enemy of Russia. It is possible that all of the chaos in the middle east was supposed to create chaos in Russia to keep the Russians busy.
What's "always been" is about to change.
>>It is possible that all of the chaos in the middle east was supposed to create chaos in Russia to keep the Russians busy.<<
Meshech and Tubal - Eastern Turkey is one of the countries in the Ezekiel 38 war along with Russia against Israel.
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