NATO chief congratulates Turkey on 70th anniversary of membership
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg congratulated Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on the 70th anniversary of Turkey’s membership in the bloc on Wednesday.
Akar, who is currently in Brussels to attend NATO meetings, held a meeting with Stoltenberg at the bloc’s headquarters.
The defense minister also held bilateral meetings with his Letonian counterpart Artis Pabriks, North Macedonian counterpart Slavjanka Petrovska, Greek counterpart Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, Romanian counterpart Vasile Dincu and British counterpart Ben Wallace. In his meetings with his European counterparts, Akar discussed bilateral relations, cooperation on regional defense and security, as well as the defense industry.
Turkey has become one of the countries that make the most contribution to NATO in terms of its mission, operations and joint budgets.
Turkey joined the military alliance of 29 North American and European countries in 1952. The country has also been providing permanent naval assistance to NATO missions in the Aegean Sea while leading regional initiatives, including the Standing NATO Maritime Group’s (SNMG) activities in the Black Sea region.
Turkey also hosts many NATO initiatives. There is a NATO headquarters in western İzmir province, an air base in southern Adana province, another one in Diyarbakır and a NATO Rapid Deployable Corps in Istanbul. It also hosts the AN/TPY2 radar in eastern Malatya province as part of the organization’s missile shield project.
Apart from all these, in 2018 alone, Turkey contributed $101 million to the common funding of NATO. But despite the country’s commitment to the organization, it has not received the support it expects.
The first disappointment came in 1964 when Turkey decided to take action in Cyprus where Turkish Cypriots were suffering under Greek Cypriots. The U.S. president at that time, Lyndon B. Johnson, sent a letter to President İsmet Inönü, saying that in case of an invasion on the island, NATO would not side with the country.
In the late 1990s, when the fight against the PKK was at its height in Turkey, particularly in the eastern regions of the country, Germany claimed that Turkey was using weapons against civilians and issued an embargo on the country instead of supporting its fight.
Over time, siding with terrorists rather than Turkey became a pattern for many NATO member countries, particularly the U.S. The U.S. has supported the PKK’s Syrian offshoot, the YPG, in Syria for years now, despite Turkey’s warnings that the group is a security threat.
The U.S. has provided military training and supplied truckloads of weapons to the YPG, disregarding warnings from Ankara that partnering with one terrorist group to fight another is not acceptable. Turkey says the weapons are ultimately transferred to the PKK, which is designated as a terrorist group by the U.S., Turkey and the EU, and used against Turkey.
Regarding the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), NATO has shown some support to Turkey. On the first anniversary of the failed coup attempt in Turkey, Stoltenberg said, “I reiterate my strong message that any attempt to undermine democracy in any of our allied countries is unacceptable.”
FETÖ, led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gülen, sought to topple the Turkish government and seize power on July 15, 2016. The coup attempt was prevented by loyal military troops, police and millions of Turkish citizens. Some 250 people, mainly civilians, were killed by putschist soldiers. Still, the U.S., despite receiving evidence regarding FETÖ’s role in the coup attempt, has not extradited Gülen to Turkey.
NATO also failed Turkey in supporting the country from the destructive nature of the civil war in Syria. In 2012, Turkey asked that NATO patriot missiles be placed on its borders to secure them. However, although the missiles were in Turkey for some time, before long, NATO countries took them back, leaving Turkey alone to defend itself.
The series of incidents has significantly damaged NATO’s image in the eyes of the Turkish public. Despite this fluctuating relationship, NATO continues to express Turkey’s worth in the organization, saying that it is a strategic ally.