If Turkey moves out of her borders and strikes first NATO’s Article 5 would not apply in that case.
God willing, the Russians will parade in Constantinople! Sad we won’t be marching with them!
How ridiculous.
With Erdogan the new Muhammad Morsi support for Turkey is more liability, than alliance. And at what cost? Alienating Russia, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Israel, the Kurds. .. Kerry's not the first ditherer to realize too late, that realpolitik abhors a vacuum.
A direct appeal to secular Turks by far the best of the West's limited options. It worked with Egypt.
NATO should have ended when the Warsaw Pact did.
It was created for a specific threat, and was an alliance on convenience, not some brotherhood of strong, freedom-loving countries. Hell most of them couldn’t even stop an invasion from another member.
This was posted almost nine years ago by another FReeper and may be of interest. Looks like the original poster is no longer with FR though.
Caliphate to 6 Day War - My own Time Capsule of Islam in the 20th Century
Picking one article out of a 1924 edition of Time I got this but to see the whole article (and all the others) you have to subscribe. Turkey was an ally of Germany (Wilhelm II)
When Turkey went to war against the Allies in 1914, the most dreaded weapon in her armory was the threat of the Jehad or Holy Warâ€â€power to declare which was vested in the office of the Califate. Dutifully the Calif pushed the button. Nothing much happened. The Jehad did not prevent the British Moslems and the French North African troops from fighting against the Central Powers, nor did it hold back the Arabs from declaring their independence and fighting as Allies of the British in Palestine. The Jehad proved to be a...
One of these days I just might sign up with Time to follow this sequence and others.
Regarding Turkey, a Muslim country run by an Islamist, its needs to be told one thing regarding NATO:
YOU’RE FIRED