Robert Spencer : Turkey is advancing its own interests; no one could expect anything
else. Turkey asserts that “historically Turkey has never undermined a
NATO consensus and will still try not to do it. However, it will not be
unconditional.” Of course not. It should be obvious that Turkey will do
what is best for its own ambitions. Islam was not an obvious big global
threat during the World World II era and the immediate postwar period,
although NATO should have been more cautious given the historical facts
about Islam and the Grand Mufti’s alliance with Hitler.
In 2018, the Turkish daily newspaper Yeni Şafak, which is close to
Erdogan, called for an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) “army of Islam” to attack Israel. Last April, Erdogan declared Israel to be an enemy of Islam. He called upon
all of humanity to “follow closely Israel’s hostility against Islam.” A
month later, when Israel was being attacked by a barrage of Hamas
rocket fire and was forced to defend itself via Operation Guardian of
the Walls, Erdogan asked the pope to “mobilize the Christian world” to support the jihad against Israel. Erdogan also falsely accused Israel of a “massacre” of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“Why does Turkey oppose Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership?,” by Umut Uras, Al Jazeera, May 17, 2022:
Sweden and Finland’s historic bids
to become NATO members have hit a roadblock after top Turkish officials
took a tough stance against a Nordic expansion of the transatlantic
alliance.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that
Swedish and Finnish delegations “should not bother” to travel to Ankara
after Stockholm announced the two countries would send officials to try
to change Turkey’s stance.
All 30 NATO members must unanimously
give the green light for the two historically neutral countries to join
the alliance. Sweden and Finland recently announced their intention to
join NATO in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Turkey
became a member of NATO, together with Greece, as part of the alliance’s
second expansion in 1952, less than three years after it was
established.
Here is what you need to know about Turkey’s move.
Why does Turkey have a problem with Sweden and Finland’s proposed membership?
Erdogan on Monday accused the two Nordic countries of backing “terrorism”.
“Neither
of these countries have a clear, open attitude towards terrorist
organisations,” Erdogan said, referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK), which Ankara has designated a “terrorist group”, and other armed
Kurdish groups active in Turkey and its periphery.
“How can we trust them?”
On
the same day, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu slammed Finland and
Sweden for not extraditing suspects wanted in Turkey despite Ankara’s
requests.
The wanted individuals were either accused of having
links to the PKK or to the Gulen movement, which is blamed by Turkey for
a 2016 coup attempt that killed hundreds of people….
Turkey’s ambitions under Erdogan include a revived Ottoman Empire and the destruction of Israel, not a stronger NATO alliance.
By a unanimous vote, Turkey should be expelled from NATO.
