Hüseyin Çiçek about the relation between NATO and Turkey. A guest commentary in the Austrian Standard
On the occasion of the NATO-summit in London Hüseyin Çiçek, associated EZIRE member and political scientist, commented on the tense relation between Turkey and the other NATO member states in the Austrian newspaper Standard on December 5.
According to Çiçek it was the main concern of the Turkish president Erdoğan to draw attention to his power politics at the summit. Especially regarding Syria the interests of Turkey and the other NATO member states were hardly reconcilable. While Erdoğan was fighting for the retreat of the Kurdish YPG at the Turkish-Syrian border, whereby also jihadist militias were being deployed, the YPG was enjoying sympathy of other member states.
Since Erdoğan was aware of the minor support on behalf of the NATO, he was looking for militarily support in Russia. In spite of these political and militarily solo actions the NATO-states were hesitating to run rings around Turkey and even the US-sanctions came to nothing. Against this backdrop it was to be expected, that the divide within the NATO will be further deepened.