Even though Erdogan has made ISIS the wealthiest terror organization on the planet. He's been buying the oil and antiquities and bombing Kurds while we've been turning a blind eye to the evil son of a *****?
If that's an ally hey why don't we just let Boko Haram into NATO too and call they an ally?
Turkey has been in NATO for more than 60 years. Should their alleged link to ISIS warrant expulsion? If so what would that loss entail
You can not really believe that Turkey's Ergodan....who has been supporting ISIS since day one...is a real ally.
Turkey sits firmly by ISIS side.
I have already stated that it is not a matter of belief. We are bound, as a member of NATO, to stand by Turkey in the event she is attacked. Turkey's role as a member of NATO is an important strategic one that seems to transcend any involvement with ISIS. I am ambivalent about that since I know ISIS is our enemy and I really don't think Turkey should be helping them. But there may be other cusl factors at work here.You and I are not privy to all the data.
There should be no gray area here whatsoever. ISIS has become the world's largest terror organization on the planet with Erdogan making out like a bandit and making them the wealthiest terror organization on the planet.
This is now costing millions of dollars to put up some sort of dog and pony show to prove we really don't back ISIS.
They must be expelled from NATO.
I wouldn't be too quick to go with Turkey's expulsion from NATO. Turkey's strategic location makes it a stop gap for Russian expansion in the area.
Consider that Turkey was also a founding member of the United Nations besides now being a member of NATO. So what makes Turkey a desirable "friend" of the West?
Only the USA has a larger standing armed force in the NATO coalition. Turkey's 495,000 deployable forces are nothing to sneeze at. But here is the clincher:
Turkey is part of the nuclear sharing policy of the alliance with Germany , Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Are you ready for this? at least 90 B61 nuclear bobmbs are hosted at the incirlik Air Base...40 of which are allocated for use by the Turkish Air Force in case of a nuclear conflict..albeit with the approval of NATO.
Are you still so ready to kick Turkey out of NATO?
The European NATO partners might not be eager as you are.
Russian expansion? All hell has been breaking loose because of NATO and the EU not Russia. And to have Erdogan running Turkey and Turkey in NATO is playing with fire because they can't control him. He is a hard line Islamist.
This is not the Turkey of old. Not at all.
When you say this is not the Turkey of old, I have to wonder if you are talking about the Ottoman empire or some other era. I really don't want to go there. But in modern times, I think the role of Turkey in NATO has changed since the cold war ended. The strategic emphasis has shifted from the Soviets to the middle east. Not entirely, mind you, but much more than before the Berlin wall came down.
Turkey for the longest time was secular and extemely advanced and a wonderful example of mid east democracy. When I was younger I was enthralled with fashion and Istanbul was divine for shows. Advanced culture. Truly remarkable in the ME.
Under Erdogan the country has reverted to hard line Islam. He embraces the Muslim Brotherhood. He has been supporting al Nusra and ISIS. This is not the Turkey who originally joined NATO.
Great article here. Made my hair stand on end on how hard line Turkey has become.
"The cosmetic reforms that have been attributed to Erdogan and his Government, bringing him high repute, turned out to be window dressing to impress the West. Indeed, they all melted away swiftly within the repressive structure of emerging political Islam. Law came at the top the list of casualties. Government supporters are granted privileges and are above the law, while opponents are meted out the harshest sentences. Formal law is no longer implemented with the purpose of delivering justice but rather as a tool to deliver punishments to detractors.
It was only his Western counterparts and pundits who were hoping that someone with strong loyalties to Sharia would abide by secular law. By now, they must be amazed at how wrong they got it.
AKP has transformed Sunni identity into the dominant one in Turkey through religious references. Addressing the West, the AKP claimed that it was waging war on deeply rooted nationalism, but all the while it was spreading a far more insidious ideology. In fact, any scholar who works on Turkey knows that Middle Eastern style nationalism has always relied on religious pillars to survive.
In the course of Turkey's republican history we had the best attempts at democracy that could have come out of Islamic countries, despite stumbling, interruptions and the tests of perseverance we had to endure. AKP has been calling this political system the regime of secular elites who think it is their right to govern the republic.
Yet political Islamists have been involved in various centre-right organizations and parties, and have been the recipients of many privileges - strengthening their presence progressively. For example, some of the staff who have served Erdogan include ministers and high level bureaucrats who have held these positions ever since they became civil servants decades ago.
However, Turkey's political Islamists were not content with the symbiotic relations they had created with the centre-right parties. They worked diligently to take over the host organization and reached managerial positions with a perseverance that is praised and advised in Islam through the act of
taqiyya (a form of religious dissimulation that permits believers to conceal the truth in pursuit of their goals).
So we have come to this situation. The system that protected social rights and liberties, and was supported by a considerable number of citizens, has been destroyed by an invisible bulldozer, and the political Islamists now claim absolute victory. In their eyes, 'the infidel, heretic' secular republic has been defeated."
More at link:
The rise of political Islam in Turkey: how the West got it wrong
