TIME TO KICK TURKEY OUT OF NATO?
The mess in Syria only confirms an inconvenient truth: The Turks are
no longer reliable allies.
By JONATHAN SCHANZER
October 09, 2014
The Kurdish town of Kobane in western Syria is under siege by the
Islamic State. A U.S.-led coalition has hit at the jihadists sieging
Kobane–with 13 strikes on Wednesday and Thursday–but bombs alone
may not suffice. It is the Turkish military, whose tanks are currently
sitting on the Syrian border, that may be in the best position to save
stave off a mass slaughter. But the Turks refuse to join the fight,
even though the Turkish Parliament voted on Oct. 2 to deploy the
Turkish army to fight in Iraq and Syria, and to allow foreign troops
on Turkish soil. A week after the vote, Turkey has not participated
in any U.S.-led operations against the Islamic State.
Turkey’s stock as a Western ally is plummeting. Ankara stubbornly
resists joining the coalition unless it broadens its fight to topple
Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. Turkey’s 200 or more F-16 fighter jets sit
idle as the Islamic State makes alarming gains across Syria and Iraq.
This stands in sharp contrast to other Muslim world allies – including
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and even
Jordan – that have taken part in the aerial campaign against the
Islamic State.
Turkey’s absence is conspicuous. It’s the only NATO ally among these
Muslim world partners. To be clear, the fight against the Islamic
State is not a NATO mission, but it serves as a reminder of how little
Erdogan’s regime has done to help preserve order in the Middle East.
In many ways, Turkey has made the fight against the Islamic State
more difficult. Apart from permitting some unarmed American drones
to fly out of its territory, Ankara has refused to allow the West to
operate from Turkish airbases. This has forced strike aircraft to fly
their sorties from the Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, Shaheed Mwaffaq in
Jordan or Al Dhafra in the UAE. As for the Incirlik air base that
NATO operates in Eastern Turkey, Ankara has made it clear that for
the time being, it is currently off limits for armed operations.
But this should come as no surprise. Incirlik has long been off
limits. Ankara refused to allow the United States to utilize the air
base for kinetic operations in the 2003 Iraq war and its aftermath.
Instead, the base has been used for logistics, support and training.
Turkey owns the facility, but technically, according to Article 5 of
the NATO charter, it cannot restrict the NATO activities on the base
in an approved operation. Still, it can restrict U.S. personnel and
equipment. And it has consistently done so, to the frustration of
American military planners.
Admittedly, one could argue that the Turks were right to hold off on
joining America’s ill-fated war in Iraq. But that would be ignoring
Turkey’s role in other international conflicts. Take the NATO-led
mission in Afghanistan since 2001, where Turkey limited its role to
logistics and training and refused to take part in combat. Similarly,
Turkey deployed nearly 400 personnel to NATO forces in Kosovo, as well
as other personnel to other international operations in the Balkans,
but with responsibilities limited to training, observation and support.
Jonathan Schanzer is vice president for research at the Foundation
for Defense of Democracies. He tweets at @JSchanzer.
Read more:
From: Baghdasarian