Israel should reject Turkey’s claims in the Eastern Mediterranean. (November 23, 2022 / Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security) Israel’s recent rapprochement with Turkey need not preclude Jerusalem taking a firm stand on Ankara’s claims in the Eastern Mediterranean. Indeed, Israel must again reject the Memorandum of Understanding signed in October between Turkey and the …
Part of being, or becoming, allies is agreeing who your common enemies are and aren’t. Otherwise, there’d be no need for the alliance in the first place. But that’s easier said than done, especially when at least one ally is on an ego trip worthy of an Ottoman sultan. In the NATO alliance, that would …
Erdogan’s Ego Trip Is Undermining NATO – The Washington Post Read More »
The European Union takes note of the reports indicating that Turkey and the Libyan Government of National Unity have signed an agreement on hydrocarbons based on the 2019 Turkey-Libya Memorandum of Understanding on delimitation of maritime jurisdiction areas in the Mediterranean. The EU recalls that its position on this Memorandum has been clearly stated by the …
Either way, Turkey will still have difficulty overcoming the substantial technological edge the HAF will likely attain by 2030.
Even if Turkey fields 120 Block 70/72 F-16s (40 brand new and 80 upgraded), they will be up against 84 HAF Block 72 Vipers (all in service no later than the second half of 2027), 20-40 F-35s, and, at the very least, 24 Rafales. In other words, no fewer than 128 HAF fighters with equal or superior capabilities to Turkey’s very best jets.
And even if Turkey buys a squadron or two of advanced Eurofighters in addition to its modernized F-16s, the HAF will most likely retain this technological edge.
Seen as a rogue outlier in Nato, Turkey found and acted upon the opportunity to get the West to support its military operation in northern Syria. Turkish forces and alleged mercenaries occupy parts of this region. A vast array of human rights abuses was reported during the peak of its military intervention and Ankara faced condemnation from the Western world. All major NATO members including Germany, France, UK and Canada have refused arms sales to Erdogan’s Turkey. Tensions further escalated when Turkey stepped up its belligerence towards fellow Nato member Greece in the eastern Mediterranean and the West largely backed Athens through this tussle. The list of Turkey’s excesses can go on, but the West has decided to overlook all that now. US President Biden’s own stance on Turkey used to be one of admonishment. Today, that seems to change with Ankara’s new leverage in the game.
Mr Erdogan will now expect Sweden and Finland to adhere to the spirit, and not just the (notably vague) letter, of the agreement. This means he will demand they back a future Turkish operation in Syria to combat the YPG, who happen to be the West’s main allies against Islamic State, support Ankara’s plans to expel and forcibly resettle over one million Syrian refugees in northern Syria, take concrete steps to extradite alleged members of the PKK and Gulen movement to face trial, unlikely to be fair, in Turkey, and keep schtum about Turkey’s poor human rights records and abuses of fundamental democratic freedoms.
Turkey will seize on any hemming and hawing on these issues as evidence of bad faith, if not betrayal, and a just cause to reignite a crisis in Turkey’s relations with the West. Turkey under Erdogan is a fundamentally untrustworthy ally. The NATO deal has triggered a countdown to the next noisy but inevitable conflagration.
A trio of senior administration officials detail the first day of NATO Summit in Madrid. Here’s what they told The Pavlovic Today. The new NATO strategic concept will be released shortly and focuses heavily on Russia. But it also, for the first time, mentions China. The document will note that China’s stated ambitions and challenge …