NATO options in the face of the Turkish regime’s regional threats

Mohamed Yosry

A case of controversy raised by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding the blackmailing of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with the card of refugees, ISIS terrorist elements, and the military intervention in Libya. So will NATO, which includes Ankara, take a firm stance towards these actions that threaten everyone in light of the possibility of an attack on another NATO member, such as Greece?

“Turkey in the era of Erdogan is among the most important difficulties facing the alliance,” said Ro Khanna, a Democrat in the US Congress, in a report published by the International Policy Digest.

He explained this by Erdogan’s recent military actions, stressing that this “entails a review of Ankara’s status as a member of NATO.”

Erdogan’s mistakes with NATO

At the forefront of the Turkish regime’s mistakes is the threat to NATO interests through Ankara’s rapprochement with Russia as part of its military interventions in northern Syria, where Erdogan used the Russian S-400 missile system, which angered members of the alliance. The West fears that Moscow will use the S-400 missile radar technology to acquire confidential information on NATO, which has prepared defense plans to protect the Baltic states and Poland Russia’s aspirations to expand.

The serious matter is Ankara’s exploitation of this vision based on its geographical location and proximity to Russia, as well as its control of European crossings, especially Russian gas lines. During the NATO summit in London, Ankara insisted upon satisfaction with its military intervention in Syria, Operation Peace Spring, which some members of NATO have classified as “illegal”.

Ankara also stipulated the designation of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) as a terrorist organization, threatening to return ISIS elements to Europe, which clearly reveals that Erdogan is controlling the distribution map of these terrorist elements and that Europe is within the range of ISIS lone wolves operating under Turkish sponsorship.

This was confirmed by the announcement of Turkish Interior Ministry spokesman Ismail Catakli at the beginning of January 2020 that his country’s authorities had already deported 150 fighters to their countries who were being held on charges of having links with militant groups.

Syrian refugee card

Another issue that Ankara is exploiting is the refugee card, which he uses to blackmail Europe. The latest incident occurred on September 13, 2019, when Erdogan issued a threat to open the doors for refugees to travel to Europe unless more aid and support is provided for the Turkish “safe zone”. He said in an interview with Reuters, “If you are not able to accept this, we will open the doors.”

European reactions

The Turkish regime is exploiting the provisions of the treaty that established the NATO alliance, which is free of any decisive sanctions or membership suspension. This was expressed by a member of the US Congress in the report published by the International Policy Digest, in which he explained, “To be fair, there is no provision in NATO’s founding treaty that regulates the suspension of membership rights, let alone expulsion, which makes this move truly historic,” hinting at the possibility of taking this step.

Despite the difficulty of NATO’s abandonment of Turkey, there have been a number of decisions taken by a number of member states against the alliance’s troublesome member (Turkey), including the suspension of aid and the cessation of arms sales.

On October 12, 2019, France announced the suspension of all arms sales to Turkey, warning Ankara that its attack on northern Syria threatens European security. Spain, Austria and Belgium joined Germany and France two days later, and Switzerland, Norway and Finland had previously announced the suspension any shipments of new weapons to Turkey and the cessation of all arms agreements with Ankara.

On October 31, 2019, Denmark joined the list of European countries that banned arms exports to Turkey in order to prevent any future plans for arms deals with Ankara, against the background of its recent military operation east of the Euphrates in northern Syria.