Because decades ago during the early stages of the cold war, the US needed a place close to Russia to plant nukes and Eastern Europe was taken, so Turkey was the best option at the time.
But now, with Eastern Europe and the Baltics part of NATO there are better options and Turkey's membership should be reviewed.
Take a look at the number of Syrian refugees each country hosts, compare it to their population and GDP if you feel like it.
Turkey have many problems dealing with its minorities, neighbours, even its own citizens, sure - but on this issue, maybe its time to get off your high horse, before calling any country nefarious. Are we really worse than Spain, worse than France, worse than UK? Why do they have a say in it without helping the problem in the slightest?
NATO's charter isn't "refugee caretaker of the world". It's a mutual defense pact. I'm not interested in playing word games around who is the most humanitarian country (Turkey would lose that one anyway) - I asked a specific, strategic question about what benefit Turkey adds to the rest of NATO alliance members.
I don't think whatever power Turkey has is controlled by NATO. At this point I'm more concerned about the Collective Defense article - would NATO be aligned against Turkey's enemies? I don't think so.
The parent is saying that Turkey will fall into Russia's (or maybe China's) orbit. I'm not sure how accurate that is because Russia backs Assad and Turkey is against them. There'd also be some tension in the Iran/Russia/Turkey triangle.
IMHO, I don't think we should care that much. The middle East's importance is waning and it's been nothing but trouble for 50 years. Better to step back and let others play the game.
Even in a cold war scenario though, I can't imagine that army was ever intended for anything other than defending Turkey and looking after their own interests.
They have successfully played the west in exchange for a few US air bases.
Turkey is a huge trading partner to the US and not really a rival. They make the chassis to our next-gen fighter planes, for example. Why toss that aside?
Why toss that aside? I actually didn't know that the chassis for the F-35 is manufactured in Turkey. Do you have a source for this? If this is the case then it seems incredibly shortsighted to source a critical component from half-way around the world - from a country that obviously doesn't like us very much.
If Turkey leaves NATO, they will further ally with Russia.
Considering Turkey's strategic location, it's better to have Turkey in NATO instead of as an adversary, even if its leadership doesn't align with the values of other NATO members.
Erdogan knows that he has a ton of leverage and chooses to maximize his advantage.
There are a lot of moving pieces here. He's overcalculated a bit and his nationalist policy has hurt the Turkish economy.
Likewise, many European countries rejecting Turkey's EU bids last decade on thinly-veiled Islamaphobic pretenses only strengthened his nationalist message at home.
The west knows it, but they also know that they would rather have Turkey nominally on their side than not.
It will probably take cooler heads and or a major economic downturn to shift that sentiment. Until then, Turkey maintains its seat in NATO.
It cuts both ways, I am not sure US's sketchy and inconsistent behavior in Syria was in the interest of NATO either. This whole affair is a clusterf* and I don't think pushing Turkey further away will do any good to anyone. Also thankfully organizations like that are operated slightly better than HN and Reddit armchair strategists.
because:
a) Turkey is the (almost literal) culture gate between Europe and the Middle East, this is in itself very valuable.
b) Largest army in Europe.
c) Erdogan still has to restrain himself because he has treaties with NATO allies. Otherwise we might get a second unhinged Putin. That would cause a real headache for the EU that tries to stop immigrants from reaching its borders by millions.
>Turkey is the (almost literal) culture gate between Europe and the Middle East, this is in itself very valuable.
If this were true why do ME refugees not want to stay there?
>Largest army in Europe.
Okay, but if they're more culturally similar to the ME, as your first point implies, than to e.g. Germany doesn't it become a little problematic for employing this army in NATO's current theater of operations?
>Erdogan still has to restrain himself because he has treaties with NATO allies...
This is a great argument for why entangling alliances with people who aren't really your friends or are too culturally distant to even pretend as much are a terrible, awful idea. I believe we fought a World War because of this once.
They do, Turkey took in a share of Syrian refugees and really that can't be underplayed.
But to answer your question, Erdogan not the coolest dude ever. Plus Turkey doesn't have the greatest history of human rights especially if you aren't Turkic in ethnicity. Just ask the Armenians, Greeks and Kurds(very much related to this issue). All of which happened in the last 100 years.
In short, if you are getting displaced why not go the extra distance? Just because you've been violently displaced from your home (and everything you know) doesn't mean you can't have upward mobility ::eyeroll::.
> This is a great argument for why entangling alliances with people who aren't really your friends or are too culturally distant to even pretend as much are a terrible, awful idea. I believe we fought a World War because of this once.
People tend to forget that. Thanks for articulating it so well.
You understand it is bad actors, along with industrial complexes, leading to regulatory capture and bad policy - corruption - regardless of the country's name? It logically makes sense that the US having the strongest military in the world, being the most successful, leading capitalism - will be able to do the most damage by bad actors manipulating towards war and violence.
I didn't say anything about Erdogan - however, "two wrongs don't make a right."
And to add - indeed it's not the fault of the Turkish citizens who are against the tyranny, and those are who we need to align with and help support. Likewise, the US needs support from the world to help counter the bad actors we have here. Or we can all just be angry at "everyone" and rage against innocent people - and watch the whole world burn.
