NATO is an organization dedicated to security and democratization. However, one member of NATO has truly fallen out of line from the values of the organization. The Republic of Turkey has not followed the rules of NATO, and this needs to be fixed.

 

What is NATO?

NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a group of 28 countries that have agreed to a Political and Military alliance to ensure the security of the collective area.

 

What Are NATO’s Values?

The official NATO website tells us:

“NATO’s essential purpose is to safeguard the freedom and security of its members through political and military means.

POLITICAL – NATO promotes democratic values and encourages consultation and cooperation on defence and security issues to build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.

MILITARY – NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military capacity needed to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty – NATO’s founding treaty – or under a UN mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organizations.”

 

NATO and Turkey

Turkey has become a problem quite consistently within NATO, in particular with Germany. There have been many issues between the two countries in regards to satire by German comedians, a vote  to recognize the Armenian genocide, and now Turkey has responded by rejecting a German delegation with the Parliamentary Secretary of Defense from visiting German air force troops stationed in Turkey. The Turkish government has not given any reasoning behind this decision, which leads to the belief that this was a political decision.
GLOBALO reached out to a NATO official and asked about their position on this issue as well as others:
How can a country which floats away from democracy into a dictatorship safeguard the freedom of its other members states though the political mans of promoting „democratic values“?
Can a dictatorship become and stay a member in the alliance?

A NATO official wrote us:

“NATO is founded on values: democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. We expect all Allies to adhere to these values. They are a vital source of our unity, which is our greatest strength. The Secretary General stresses the importance of values in his meetings with leaders across the Alliance.”

 

NATO has provided significant air defense options to Turkey in recent years. NATO has transferred Patriot Missiles three times, in 1991, 2003, and more recently in 2013. The latest missile transfer was due to a Turkish jet which was shot down in June 2012 by Syrian government forces. The patriot missiles were provided by Germany.

 

The United States supports Kurdish troops in Syria, while NATO partner Turkey is bombing them.

 

Erdogan has shifting his NATO country towards a dictatorship.

He has imprisoned many journalists, closed independent newspapers, the Kurdish members of parliament can be procecuted by ‘insulting the president’ , he has ended peace with the Kurds and attacked Kurdish troops, and even had a doctor fired for an insulting tweet.

He has snubbed human rights, fined someone for mocking a drink and he has even been accused of buying oil from ISIS.

Turkey is no longer a democracy. It is a dictatorship. Does it belong to NATO any more?

It is time that NATO lives up to its soul and code:

Pressure Turkey to revert back to a democracy or the alliance must kick them out of NATO soon.