NATO membership will keep Turkey from going to war?
Here's one time where multilateralism may prevent a war. For the last couple of days, we have watched a frightening temper tantrum by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Yaakov Katz argues that as bad as Erdogan's fury has been, his country's NATO membership - and Israel's standing with NATO - may prevent Erdogan from going to war. Why NATO? Because while Turkey is clearly escalating the current standoff with Israel, its continued membership in the Western military alliance is what defense and diplomatic officials in Israel believe will prevent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan from making a move that could lead to a military confrontation with another Western country.In other words, Turkey isn't going to start firing missiles at Noble Energy's ships off the coast of Cyprus and it's not going to start escorting every flotilla that wants to go to Gaza either.
This does not mean that Israel is not concerned with the possibility that the Turkish navy will send one of its advanced Barbaros frigates armed with Harpoon missiles, torpedoes and surface-to-air missiles to Israeli waters. The scenario is so frightening since it could potentially lead to war with Turkey that defense officials preferred Tuesday to not even talk about it in hypothetical terms.
On the other hand, it is not being ignored by Israel and as one senior government official said: “This is a direct challenge and threat to Israeli sovereignty, which even if it is unlikely cannot be taken lightly.”
Or will it?
Read the whole thing.
Labels: NATO, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish obsession with Israel
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:56 AM
2 Comments:
Turkey was a member of NATO when it invaded north Cyprus.
The horror will be Erdogan firing on civilian drilling facilities (or just plain civilians). But the big problem will be if Cyprus defends themselves and Turkey triggers NATO to join him because someone fired at something Turkish. Erdogan can get away with firing outward (eg at No. Cyprus) even though they are a NATO member. But if anybody fires back, Erdogan will squeal like a stuck pig and demand NATO join him in strafing. Kind of like Libya. Does that sound like what you think, Professor Miao?
Post a Comment
<< Home