... Turkey’s internal problems at the expense of international players and leaving control over the implementation of those enshrined in the
Memorandum of Understanding
arrangements up to Ankara. Finland and Sweden have received a formal invitation to join NATO, but ratification by the member states’ national authorities will now be required, leaving significant room for manipulation by Turkey [
2
].
Another indication of the mitigation of the problem of internal divisions is the text of the new Strategic Concept itself. In its preliminary versions, the lack of internal solidarity, primarily between the US and the EU, was cited as one ...
... as pro-Ukraine, but this is not to say that Turkey is completely in the Western camp when it comes to the issue of Ukraine. Despite the arms shipments to Ukraine, Turkey still positions itself as an independent foreign policy actor in this situation. Turkey has separated itself from other NATO members as the only member state that has not placed economic sanctions on Russia. Turkey also is not providing military aid to Ukraine, hence their clarification that the drone shipments are sales, not aid. Moreover, Turkey has an ongoing high-level ...
... era” course and neglect its vital national security interests in Nagorno-Karabakh and Syunik, it will not only risk transforming Armenia into a Turkish client state, as this will also threaten to end Russia’s presence in Transcaucasia, creating a new Turkey-NATO threat on Russia’s southern frontiers. Currently,
NATO
stands a mere 135 kilometers (84 miles) from Peter the Great’s “window to Europe,”
St. Petersburg
. With an active support of the ambitious Ankara, it could soon follow this act by ...
... follow Ankara’s example and learn from its experience in developing relations with Kiev without taking the position of Moscow into consideration.
In this context, it is worth noting a certain incongruence between the approaches of the United States and Turkey’s other NATO allies to its actions in the Caucasus and Ukraine. France could not (and cannot) tolerate Ankara’s unequivocal support for Baku, while the United States has adopted a position of cautious restraint. Washington and Paris are co-chairs of the OSCE ...
... find themselves in close proximity to S-400’s operated by Russian personnel.
The arguments about “collecting intelligence” were obviously contrived, and the United States merely wants to punish the obstinate Turkish leader. For similar reasons, NATO became extremely concerned about the plight of Kurds following Turkey’s armed intervention in the north of Syria, and
initiated a blocking of military-technical cooperation
with Turkey, even though Ankara had regularly conducted anti-Kurdish operations (including operations in adjacent states) in the past. Another ...
... stability, normalisation and prosperity, but considering the above-mentioned potential consequences, and its interest clashes with the JCPOA, its long term damage to the stability of the Middle East should be concerning. Given the fact that the US and NATO are now withdrawing their troops from Afghanistan, the region will experience a vacuum of power in which regional hegemons such as the Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey will try to fill the empty space. A strategic opportunity for such major influences to expand their sphere of control in the region. In the same context, the GCC and Israel due to their normalizing relations and their common threat perceptions ...
... tourism dropped by 75%, and the economic impact on Turkey was severe; it is estimated that Turkey lost 1% of GDP between 2015-2016 due to punitive measures imposed by Russia. Militarily, the two sides have worked closely on several occasions. Despite its NATO membership, Turkey recently made a highly controversial purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system. This high-profile acquisition was decried unanimously by NATO members who believed Turkey’s use of the S-400 would jeopardize the integrity of NATO weapons ...
... hostile actor and promoter of anti-Indian terrorist activities.
Turkey
Michael Lambert:
Power without Soft Power: China’s Outreach to Central Asia
Turkey’s position in Afghanistan presents many opportunities for the only Islamic-majority member of the NATO alliance. Turkey’s foreign military presence under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been significant with active involvement in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey’s relationship with the United States and other NATO allies has been tense in recent ...
... thanks to Moscow and President Makarios that in 1964 a Turkish invasion and/or the island being divided between Greece and Turkey was prevented. Such a solution would have strengthened NATO, since Cyprus would no longer exist other than as a part of NATO members Greece and Turkey. Moscow had issued the following statement: ‘The Soviet Government hereby states that if there is an armed foreign invasion of Cypriot territory, the Soviet Union will help the Republic of Cyprus to defend its freedom and independence against ...
... on the international arena because it doesn’t have its own army. So, in terms of security, the EU depends on a relatively complicated relation with NATO, given that there are NATO member states which are not members of the European Union, such as Turkey, and EU states that are not NATO members, such as Finland or Cyprus. Moreover, as a coincidence (in which I don’t believe), the states from the Eastern bloc joined NATO first, joining the EU only after. The European Union must apprehend the security-related issues as a geographic ...
