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Enough Is Enough: NATO Must Suspend Cooperation With Turkey
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressing the congress of the ruling Islamist AKP Party in March 2021. Photo: Reuters/Umit Bektas.
JNS.org – I don’t know the word for “chutzpah” in Turkish, but whatever it is, it applies in spades to recent comments from Fatih Ceylan, Turkey’s former Ambassador to NATO.
Speaking to Al-Monitor about the security implications of Turkey’s full-throated support for Hamas, Ceylan poured cold water on the proposition that Israel might carry out targeted killings of Hamas and allied terrorists based there, as it has done with spectacular success in Lebanon and Iran over the last week. After dismissing the likelihood of similar operations on Turkish soil, Ceylan added that were one to happen, “[I]n such a case, Turkey will certainly take this move to NATO.”
When it comes to NATO, Turkey—under the brutally authoritarian rule of its diehard Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—has stood out as the alliance’s greatest liability. Indeed, had Turkey not joined NATO in 1952, when it was ruled by a secular, Western-oriented government, there’s no question that it would even be a candidate for membership in the present day. What Erdoğan has done is to leverage Turkey’s membership to undermine the alliance from within, functioning almost as a fifth column.
In Syria, for example, Turkish forces have carried out strikes against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who are, in turn, backed by the United States—Ankara’s ostensible ally and the most powerful of NATO’s 32 members. In October 2023, the situation was so bad that the United States was compelled to shoot down a Turkish drone—one NATO member taking military action against another.
Erdoğan’s relationship with Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia is just as disturbing. Ankara was booted out of the US F-35 fighter jet program in 2019 after it purchased S-400 missiles from the Russians. In the wake of Putin’s aggression against democratic Ukraine, Turkey has actively participated in busting the international sanctions on Moscow and aided corrupt Russian oligarchs in moving funds through Turkish banks.
Turkey has also been actively hostile to other NATO members, especially Greece. Half of the island of Cyprus has been illegally occupied by the Turks since 1974; earlier this year, Erdoğan showed up there to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that invasion. It has tried to stem NATO’s expansion, holding up Sweden’s application for membership, which was finally approved only last March. As my colleague at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Sinan Ciddi, memorably put it: “Pick your theater of vital security interests for the NATO alliance, and you’ll discover a Turkish connection that actively undermines it.”
So when Ceyhan breezily says that Turkey will raise any Israeli operations on its territory with NATO—hoping, no doubt, that doing so will trigger Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, which enshrines the principle that an attack on one member is an attack on all—one might reasonably expect, given this woeful record, that the other NATO members will proffer a middle finger in Ankara’s direction.
Right now, the Middle East is in the most febrile state arguably since the State of Israel’s creation in 1948. As we sit on the cusp of a regional war that would pose an unmistakable existential threat to Israel, Turkey is doing everything it can to stoke the flames. Erdoğan is already known for his vicious rhetorical attacks on the Jewish state, laced with the crudest antisemitism. Since Hamas’s pogrom of Oct. 7, that has only gotten worse, with Erdoğan claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “worse than Hitler” and depicting Israel as a reincarnation of the Third Reich. Additionally, the Turkish president has taken special delight in feting the rapists of Hamas on his home turf, among them the late, unlamented Ismail Haniyeh, who was eliminated on July 31 with wonderful symbolism in Tehran. Haniyeh’s assassination unleashed another foul Erdoğan tirade, along with an announcement of a national day of mourning over the loss of his “brother.” To cap it all, he even threatened at the end of July to invade Israel, boasting: “Just as we entered Nagorno-Karabakh, just as we entered Libya, we might do the same to them. There is nothing we can’t do.”
As a result, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz aptly compared Erdoğan to the late Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein as he called on NATO to boot Turkey from its ranks. The problem with that proposal, however, is that there is no procedure within the alliance to expel a member—even when, as in Turkey’s case, said member makes an active mockery of NATO’s commitment to democratic values and the defense of open societies.
For that reason, NATO has to think honestly, bravely and creatively about Turkey’s future status. Honestly, because it is now painfully clear that Turkey’s stance undermines and contradicts NATO’s core purpose, and that needs to be said out loud. Bravely, because one or more states need to summon the guts to publicly question Turkey’s value to the alliance and get the United States on board—something that might be easier to achieve with a Republican, rather than a Democratic, administration. Creatively, because the absence of an expulsion mechanism means that member states need to figure out another way to get Turkey out of NATO.
That could mean refusing to take part in military exercises with Turkey; ending intelligence sharing with Ankara’s security services; shunning meetings with Turkish military officers; and providing usable intelligence to Israel about Turkey’s support for Hamas and Hezbollah. Erdoğan should also be challenged for his hypocrisy in not exiting NATO voluntarily. If he is the great Islamic leader that he claims to be, if he is aligning himself more and more with Iranian interests, if the murderers and marauders in Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, Syria and Iraq are his new best friends, then what on earth is he doing in NATO? Turkish NATO membership doesn’t serve his goals. Neither does it serve ours.
NATO has faced a few external tests since its formation, but Turkey is the biggest internal one since French President Charles de Gaulle withdrew from NATO’s command structure in 1966. It is also more dangerous since de Gaulle’s objections to US domination of NATO didn’t drive France into the hands of the Soviets. To protect themselves and what the alliance stands for, NATO members have only one option: suspend cooperation with Turkey and do all they can to secure Turkey’s departure from an alliance that it only disgraces.
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Israeli FM’s Tweet Raises Storm in Turkey
Then-Israeli transportation minister Israel Katz attends the cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Feb. 17, 2019. Katz currently serves as the foreign minister. Photo: Sebastian Scheiner/Pool via REUTERS
JNS.org – A tweet by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Friday accusing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of destroying his country has garnered nearly 40 million views and has drawn a sharp reaction from Erdoğan’s supporters.
In the Aug. 2 tweet, Erdoğan stands in the foreground as a Turkish flag and the city of Istanbul go up in flames.
“Erdoğan is turning Turkey into a dictatorship just by reason of its support for Hamas’s murderers and rapists, against the stance of the entire free world,” Katz tweeted in Turkish.
“[Erdoğan’s Turkey] blocks Instagram, interrupts sports broadcasts because an Israeli athlete beat a Turkish athlete, threatens to invade a democratic country with which Turkey is not in a military conflict, and inflicts an annual loss of $6 billion on Turkish exporters by severing trade relations,” the foreign minister said in his tweet.
“Erdoğan is taking and destroying a Turkish state with scientific, cultural, technological and economic capabilities, and eliminating the legacy of [President Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk, who built a progressive and prosperous Turkey,” Katz concluded.
Senior officials in the Turkish government were quick to attack Katz and Israel in response.
The tweet also united Erdoğan’s political opposition. “We are not going to learn democracy and law from someone whose hands shed the blood of tens of thousands of children,” tweeted Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a member of the secular Republican People’s Party.
“Everything will be fine, when Palestine is free,” he said.
Katz had tagged İmamoğlu in his tweet and İmamoğlu had to respond as he did in order not to appear as an Israeli “collaborator,” Channel 12 reported.
Other leaders came out in support of Katz’s tweet. “President Ronald Reagan once called [Libyan dictator Muammar] Khadaffi the Mad Dog of the Middle East. Today that title suits #Erdogan,” the leader of the Netherland’s Party for Freedom, Geert Wilders, posted to X.
Erdoğan, whose ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered a historic defeat in local elections on March 31, has become ever more hostile towards Israel and closer to Hamas since the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre.
On July 28, Erdoğan threatened to invade Israel. Katz called on NATO to expel Turkey in response.
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US Says Moves in Middle East Are Defensive, Goal Is Deterrence
Illustrative: The world’s largest aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford steams alongside USNS Laramie (T-AO-203) during a fueling-at-sea in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in this photo taken on Oct. 11, 2023 and released by the US Navy on Oct. 14, 2023. Photo: US Naval Forces Central Command / US 6th Fleet / Handout via REUTERS
The United States is deploying additional military might in the Middle East as a defensive measure with a goal of de-escalating tensions in the region, a White House official said on Sunday.
Regional tensions have increased following the assassination on Wednesday of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in the Iranian capital Tehran a day after an Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a senior military commander from the Lebanese group Hezbollah. Both groups are backed by Iran.
There are mounting fears that Israel’s war against Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, which began last October, could escalate into a wider Middle East conflict. Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s killing, and they, together with Hezbollah, have vowed revenge. Israel has not claimed or denied responsibility.
The Pentagon said on Friday it would deploy additional fighter jets and Navy warships to the region.
“The overall goal is to turn the temperature down in the region, deter and defend against those attacks, and avoid regional conflict,” Jonathan Finer, White House National Security Council deputy adviser, said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”
The United States and Israel are preparing for every possibility, Finer added.
There was a “very close call” of regional conflagration in April, Finer said, when Iran launched an attack on Israeli territory with drones and missiles after what it called an Israeli strike on its consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus on April 1 that killed seven officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The United States wants to be prepared should that situation rise again, Finer added.
US President Joe Biden on Saturday expressed hope that Iran would stand down despite its threat to avenge Haniyeh’s killing.
The United States on Wednesday urged its citizens who wish to leave Lebanon to start making plans immediately.
“This is no prediction about future events. It is prudent planning for them and for our government,” Finer said on CBS.
The British government advised its nationals to leave. Canada told its citizens to avoid all travel to Israel, saying the regional conflict endangers security.
Haniyeh’s death was one in a series of killings of senior Hamas figures in the Gaza war and it fueled concern that the conflict in Gaza was turning into a wider Middle East conflict.
Hamas said it has begun a “broad consultation process” to choose a new leader to replace Haniyeh, who was the face of the group’s international diplomacy.
The United States and international partners including France, Britain, Italy and Egypt continued diplomatic contacts seeking to prevent further regional escalation.
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, will travel to Iran on Sunday in a rare visit to discuss regional developments with his Iranian counterpart, Iranian state media reported.
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CENTCOM Chief in Mideast to Mobilize Against Iranian Attack
Illustrative: File photo: A F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, Red Sea, February 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
JNS.org – Gen. Erik Kurilla, commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), arrived in the Middle East on Saturday amid sky-high tensions as Israel prepares for an imminent attack by Iran and its terrorist proxies.
The trip by the general in charge of American forces in the region was already planned. However, in light of Tehran’s pledge to retaliate for the targeted killing of Hamas terrorist leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil on July 31, his visit will focus on building a multilateral defensive alliance similar to the one that fended off the vast majority of the more than 300 missiles and explosive drones Iran fired at the Jewish state in mid-April.
Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy, has separately vowed revenge for the targeted killing of senior member Fuad Shukr in Beirut on July 30.
Israel took responsibility for the Shukr killing, which occurred after Hezbollah murdered 12 children on a soccer field in the Druze Golan town of Majdal Shams on July 27. Jerusalem has not commented on the Haniyeh hit.
Kurilla is expected to visit several Gulf states, Jordan and Israel. Amman is an important stop because King Abdullah II played a pivotal role during the April 13 onslaught.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi will visit Tehran on Sunday to discuss the security escalation in the Middle East following the Haniyeh assassination, the Qatari newspaper Al-Arabi Al-Jadid reported.
US increases defense posture in the region
Meanwhile, the Pentagon said on Friday that the US is boosting its defense posture in the Middle East in preparation for an expected attack against Israel by Iran and its terror proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “has ordered adjustments to US military posture designed to improve US force protection, to increase support for the defense of Israel, and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to various contingencies,” the Pentagon statement from deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said.
Austin ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group. In addition, destroyers and cruisers capable of ballistic missile defense will be sent to the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.
“The secretary has also ordered the deployment of an additional fighter squadron to the Middle East, reinforcing our defensive air support capability,” said Singh.
CENTCOM forces destroy Houthi missile and launcher
CENTCOM reported on Saturday that its forces had destroyed a missile and launcher of Iran’s Yemen proxy the Houthis in an area of Yemen controlled by the terrorist group.
“It was determined these weapons presented an imminent threat to US and coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. These actions were taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure,” CENTCOM said.
Iran planning larger attack
The Houthis could join the Iranian attack along with Tehran’s other regional terror proxies, with US officials expecting an attack “potentially larger in scope” than in April.
Three US and Israeli officials who talked to Axios reporter Barak Ravid said they expect Iran to attack Israel as early as Monday.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered a direct attack on Israel following the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran, The New York Times reported on July 31.
Iranian officials said that the drones and missiles would aim for “military targets in the vicinity of Tel Aviv and Haifa, but would make a point of avoiding strikes on civilian targets,” the Times reported.
However, Tehran said on Saturday that it expects Hezbollah to expand its scope beyond just military targets.
“We expect … Hezbollah to choose more targets and [strike] deeper in its response,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations said, as quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
“Secondly, that it will not limit its response to military targets.”
Report: Mossad hired Iranian agents to kill Haniyeh
Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency hired Iranian agents to plant explosive devices in the room where Haniyeh was staying in Tehran for the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to Iranian sources who spoke to British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
According to the report, the original plan was to kill Haniyeh in May when he visited Tehran for the funerals of Iran’s President Ibraham Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19. However, that plan was postponed after a large crowd gathered in the building where Haniyeh was staying.
Instead, the Mossad hired two Iranian agents who planted explosives in three rooms where Haniyeh was expected to stay at an IRGC guesthouse in the north of the capital, according to the report.
The agents, who were captured on CCTV entering and leaving the room, immediately fled the country, but left behind a source in Iran, according to the Telegraph. The regime in Tehran arrested dozens of suspects in connection with Haniyeh’s death, the Times reported on Saturday, including senior intelligence officers, military officials, and staff workers at the guesthouse.
“They are now certain that Mossad hired agents from the Ansar al-Mahdi protection unit,” an IRGC official told the Telegraph from Tehran, referring to the IRGC unit responsible for protecting high-ranking officials.
A second IRGC official told the Telegraph that “this is a humiliation for Iran and a huge security breach.”
“It’s still a question for everyone how it happened, I can’t make sense of it. There must be something higher up in the hierarchy that no one knows about,” the second official said.
“There is now an internal blame game taking over the IRGC, with different sectors accusing each other of the failure,” the first official said, adding that Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani has been summoning people for questioning, arrests and possible execution.
“The breach has humiliated everyone,” said the IRGC official. “The supreme leader has summoned all the commanders several times over the past two days, he wants answers. For him, addressing the security breach is now more important than seeking revenge,” he added.
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