Turkey: NATO’s Pro-Putin Ally •

by Burak Bekdil, GATESTONE

• Western leaders shrugged it off when, in 2016, Erdo?an said in plain language that Turkey did not need to join the European Union “at all costs” and could instead become part of a security bloc dominated by China, Russia and Central Asian nations.
• Erdo?an’s popularity, since he came to power in 2002, has worked as a self-poisoning instrument in the Turkish society, increasingly fuelling anti-Western sentiment, particularly anti-Americanism.
• The… poll also indicated that 48% of the Turkish public think that the U.S. and NATO are responsible for the situation in Ukraine. Turks also think that Russia is their country’s third most important partner.
• Nearly six out of 10 Turks (58.3%), according to the GMFUS poll, see the U.S. as the country’s biggest threat, while 31% said Russia and 29% said Israel. The percentage of Turks who say the U.S. should help solve global problems stands at just 6%.
• While sending smiley messages of reconciliation to the West and the West’s partners in the Middle East, including Israel, Erdo?an keeps fuelling anti-Western sentiments in Turkey.
• When they are not reading pro-Erdo?an newspapers, Turks are watching pro-Erdo?an television channels featuring commentators who blame the war on Washington and NATO’s eastward expansion.
• Turkey… dismissed the idea of send its S-400 missiles to Ukraine to help Kyiv resist Russian troops.
• “”The Russians are buying houses and other properties in Turkey, taking advantage of the law that allows foreigners to become Turkish citizens if they invest at least $250,000. Many Russians are able to circumvent Western sanctions by transferring their money from Russian to Turkish banks and converting their rubles to Turkish liras or other currencies. All NATO member countries, with the exception of Turkey, have imposed strict sanctions on Russia…” — Wall Street Journal, April 13, 2022.
• “Turkey’s central bank took in about $3 billion in just two days in mid-March… That money was likely largely composed of deposits from Russians.” — Wall Street Journal, April 13, 2022
• This is how NATO ally Turkey is “fighting” the Western battle against Russian aggression. In return, the Biden administration seems to be rewarding Erdo?an.
• The Biden administration, evidently, at the behest of Turkey, has tried to kill the EastMed gas pipeline project, which could supply gas from Cyprus and Israel, via Greece, to Europe.
• Worse, the US State Department, in a March 17 letter to Congress, said that a potential sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey would be “in line with U.S. national security interests” and would also “serve NATO’s long-term unity.”
• Greece, which recently has experienced countless illegal Turkish overflights, not to mention the last few years, must be thrilled.
• Turkey needs to start acting like an ally; not a deceitful, pro-Putin ally.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s popularity, since he came to power in 2002, has worked as a self-poisoning instrument in the Turkish society, increasingly fuelling anti-Western sentiment, particularly anti-Americanism. Turkey needs to start acting like an ally; not a deceitful, pro-Putin ally. Pictured: Erdo?an meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, on March 10, 2017. (Image source: kremlin.ru)<
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Turkey’s “balancing act” during the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the result of the country’s Islamist leader’s two-decade long indoctrination of a generation of Turks to make them “pious.” President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an may or may not have raised pious generations, as he declared was his political mission, but he has definitely raised an anti-Western generation. That anti-Western sentiment once again makes Turkey the odd-man-out in NATO.

Western leaders shrugged it off when, in 2016, Erdo?an said in plain language that Turkey did not need to join the European Union “at all costs” and could instead become part of a security bloc dominated by China, Russia and Central Asian nations. Earlier, in 2013, Turkey had signed up as a “dialogue partner” saying it shared “the same destiny” as members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation — China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) — which was formed in 2001 as a regional security bloc.

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