For too long, NATO leaders have been in denial about Turkey which is considered crucial, as it has the second largest military in the alliance, situated in a location connecting three continents in the Middle East and being the patron of the Turkish Straits. Therefore, it has been regarded as an indispensable part of NATO.
Turkey lives in a very fragile region. NATO provides a crucial anchor and a security guarantee for Turkey to maintain its stability, security and well-being in its land and around the borders as well as in the Middle East.
Turkish Armed Forces have been deeply integrated with the NATO regarding military, political and technical dimensions. They are amalgamated with NATO. Almost all Turkish assets, whether they are made indigenously or exported, are produced according to NATO standards and contain critical components that are imported from Western Allies. Moreover, maintenance and operating procedures, spare parts, technical manuals, field manuals, signals, messaging standards are generated and maintained as such, that requires specific training and foreign language i.e. English, know-how, all of which takes a long time to acquire. NATO’s countries are Turkey’s most critical foreign arm suppliers.
In a nutshell, Turkey has benefited from its participation as a member, by way of:
- Access to NATO’s intelligence system (platform)
- Access to advanced military technology
- Access to NATO’s logistics support system
- Participation in joint ally exercises
- Guarantee of security by NATO
In parallel, Turkey has strategically taken advantage of NATO for integration to Western values and accession to the EE.
NATO is irreplaceable for Turkey for the purposes of strategic orientations, conceptual/doctrinal and technical integration maintaining its territorial integrity. Turkey develops an advanced military industry, gaining the know-how from decades from joint production and upgrading projects with other NATO’s members countries and partners. Turkey is utilizing its position within NATO to foster domestic defense industrialization, aiming to move from a state of foreign dependency to one of strategic autonomy. The alliance is the only international framework offering assistance in case the country comes under attack. Turkey it lacks a credible source of alternative military backing.
The prevailing view is that NATO and Turkey are locked in a marriage of convenience. Turkey has adopted an approach of balancing everything so pragmatically to maximize their own interests. Turkey conducts an independent and interventionist foreign policy, not making clear-cut distinctions between allies, partners and adversaries. The appeasement policy towards Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has apparently failed. The time has come for NATO to illustrate the red lines. Although Turkey gains much from NATO and depends on NATO’s strategic umbrella, it does not value the collective defense and prestige of belonging to the alliance.