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Written by Uriel Araujo, researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts
In a rather surprising development, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz is demanding that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expel Turkey over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent remarks about intervening in the Jewish State over the latter’s widely condemned military campaign in Palestine.
The Israel’s Foreign Ministry has stated, according to The Times of Israel, that “in light of Turkish President Erdogan’s threats to invade Israel and his dangerous rhetoric, Foreign Minister Israel Katz instructed diplomats… to urgently engage with all NATO members, calling for the condemnation of Turkey and demanding its expulsion from the regional alliance.” Kat is also accusing the Turkish authorities in Ankara of joining the “Iranian axis of evil”, as he calls it, “alongside Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen.” The Atlantic Alliance in any case does not even have, as of now, a mechanism to expel a member, and back in 2021 NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that creating such a system “would never happen”.
The Israeli move is arguably quite arrogant, given the fact that the country is not even a NATO member itself – although it is, as the US government calls it, a “major non-NATO ally” (MNNA), in the spirit of the so-called Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) since 1994. Israeli leaders however have traditionally viewed their country as a “natural partner” to the political West. Back in 2007, then Leader of the Opposition (and today’s Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu said, at the Second Annual NATO-Israel Symposium, that “Israel is NATO – we are the West. We are the same.” Although a rhetorical statement, 17 years on, his thinking remains quite the same on that issue.
During a speech to his Justice and Development (AK) Party on Sunday Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country could intervene militarily in Israel’s war in Palestine. “We need to be very strong so that Israel cannot do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just as we entered Karabakh, just as we entered Libya, we can do something similar to them.” Erdogan’s statement prompted the Israeli Foreign Minister to say in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that, by supposedly threatening to attack Israel, the Turkish leader would be following the steps of Saddam Hussein (who ended up captured by US soldiers). The reference is odd, considering the fact that, unlike Iraq, Turkey is a NATO member state. In a rejoinder, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted that “just as genocidal Hitler ended, so will genocidal Netanyahu”, referring to the ongoing massacre of Palestinians (which many have described as a genocide). Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has gone so far as to state that Erdogan has “become the voice of humanity’s conscience.”
It is a bit ironic that Erdogan should mention the Nagorno-Karabakh region (also known as Artsakh) as an example of an area where Turkey intervened. This is arguably a stance where Ankara sided with the aggressor: it backed the the Azerbaijani September 19 military campaign, which has been described by David J. Scheffer (a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations) as the “ ethnic cleansing” of the ethnic Armenian population of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in Azerbaijan.
Thus, it is fair to assume that Armenians in general certainly do not see Erdogan as “the voice of humanity’s conscience” at all. Ironically, Israel too helped the Azerbaijani capture of Nagorno-Karabakh, supplying it with weapons. The country is a major supplier of oil to Tel Aviv, plus it is a strategic ally against their common enemy Iran. So in that particular conflict, Turkey and Israel are aligned, even indirectly. Beyond that, the two countries do not agree on much.
Over the last decade, the relationship between Tel Aviv and Ankara has been deteriorating. In March 2022, as I wrote, there were attempts at a reconciliation with Turkey then seeking rapprochement with its traditional foes – but Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza (launched in October 2023 with the Operation Swords of Iron), changed everything. It has not only halted any Turkish-Israeli steps towards reconciliation: since the 2020 Abraham Accords, a number of Arab states had normalized their relations with the Jewish state and, in some cases, even deepened strategic cooperation agreements. In this context, Saudi Arabia was seen as potentially being the next one in line. Until the Gaza crisis came about.
Likewise, the current Red Sea crisis (with the Houthis rebels disrupting naval trade) is in itself a direct spillover effect of the US-backed disastrous Israeli operations in Palestine.
The Israeli military campaign started as a response to Hamas’ October 7 unprecedented violent attacks and has prompted massive demonstrations across Ankara and Istanbul (and also in many cities in Europe and all over the world). According to UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Israel is deliberately starving the Palestinian population, which constitutes genocide.
Back to Turkish-Israeli tensions, it is not the first time top Turkish officials compare Israeli leaders to Nazi ones, and there has been a war of words for a while, especially after the US-backed country launched its military operations in Palestine. Erdogan’s latest statement however marks an escalation of tensions. One may recall Turkey restricted some of its exports to Israel in April and is said to have stopped all trade with the country in May.
Tel Aviv in turn is threatening to end its free trade agreement with Ankara. Could things escalate militarily? Erdogan’s statement, if taken seriously, seems to point in that direction. This would further complicate an already intricate geopolitical chessboard. With Israel’s recent assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, the long-going proxy Israeli-Iranian war (the so-called “secret war”) risks escalating into direct warfare – which is a disturbing prospect. I wrote about this scenario in July 2022, and today it looks closer than ever.
Turkey’s attempts to project itself as a regional or even a global leader (as the “voice of humanity’s conscience”, in the words of its Foreign Ministry) are part of wider ambitions that many have described as a Neo-Ottomanist agenda. Such has always faced opposition in the Middle East and beyond. One may recall that as early as 2021, Gulf nations (with the exception of Qatar) thought of Ankara and Tehran as a larger threat than Israel – with Turkey involved in a number of proxy wars with Arab states in North Africa.
Moreover, normalization agreements with Tel Aviv were on the rise. With that in mind, despite the tensions involving Persians, Arabs and Turks, one could argue that today Israel is inadvertently doing more for bringing together Muslim countries than anyone else. Meanwhile, the deepening division within NATO and the wider political West are clearly exposed, with Turkey increasingly being the odd man out (who does not hesitate to use leverage, as seen in the case of Sweden’s accession to the organization), and there being no way of out this awkward situation for the Atlantic Alliance.
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i like this article :) and i can’t wait how u.s. hegemon solve the dilemma calm turkey and don’t piss off tiny hats at the same time. as you probably noticed, biden is senile and his administration stupid. they even insulted saudis, their maybe last significant ally among gulf states. it requires utmost stupidity to unite saudis and iran but biden did it.
btw this crisis has one more dimension. turkey and greece are on the edge of war because of cyprus invasion. hence nato article 5 paradox . if turkey start war against greece, all nato members are in a war each other. if turkey invade israel, all nato members must attack israel according to article 5. so funny.
it’s all been coming apart since (3 buildings 2 planes), when those nasty pictures of torture and murder kept streaming in from guantanamo and baghdad with $billions of worthless $usd dropped from c-130 air cargo planes on wooden pallets… and in return iraqi gold looted by america’s finest in the u$a. and all becomes saddam was ready to dump the $usd and make deals in other currencies… this is why he had to die.
suffice it to say payback is one ugly bitch that will never go away from america given it’s self inflicted karma.
sadam was going to dump the $us for the euro. gadaffi was going to dump the $us for the african gold backed rand. what happened to libya’s gold? remember, the first thing that happened after the ukraine coup d;etat, the gold was flown to the $us, then returned to the netherlands, around the same time as mh17, to pay back wwii gold reserves.
israelis lack strategic thinking
and as per usual (even after the betrayal of the uss liberty and 9/11) and the blackmailing and bribing of all the u.$. politicians… they will “again” do everything in their power to protect their money lender at all c0$ts…
article 5 provides that if a nato ally is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other member of the alliance will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the ally attacked.
so, non-nato israel, attacking nato turkey, would result in all of nato defending turkey. interesting times.
erdogan is all talk and no action. it took 7 months of the holocaust against the palestinian people for the little two faced sultan to stop some of the exports to israel. he’s still allowing the azeri oil to flow unimpeded to israel to be used in the slaughter of innocent people including children in palestine.
you must understand. erdogan has different goals then helping palestine. the problem of turkey is that they sit on that damned bosphorus and every superpower want to cross through it so they dont dare give turkey a harsh lesson. and erdogan really thinks he is the important one.
erdogan knows what they need and cannot get, so he plays it to his advantage. aren’t the turks masters of bartering?
oh this is funny: “the israeli move is arguably quite arrogant, given the fact that the country is not even a nato member itself ” israel needn’t to be part of nato as israeli lobby (deep state or the swamp) is pulling the ropes. israel commands the entire u.s. and the u.s. is bullying their incapacitated nato vassals including naughty turkey
haughty turkey is better
‘the israeli military campaign started as a response to hamas’ october 7 unprecedented violent attacks’
do the editors read the propagandist bs they approve? zio-isr (the occupiers) has from 1948 and before ‘officially’ espoused the destruction of the palestinian people as the primary way to steal their land, culture and resources.
for 75+ yrs the palestians have been officially ‘expendable targets’ in wave after wave of zio-usa violence. ‘unprecedented’ ffs, the word is ‘overdue’.
culture? r u joking?
it’s 75 years of genuine reciprocal hate. as a result of 1400 years of the big book bs and extorting nature of the ….culture
yes, culture! science, mathematics, architecture etc. without the early islamic scholars your world would scarcely function.
one example: the basic algorithm for navigating aircraft over a spherical surface is based on 9th century islamic ‘quibla’ mathematics, calculated some centuries before ‘the west’ even realised the earth wasn’t flat.
so yes, culture.. (buried, stolen, trashed and plagiarized by the west). time to wake up to what’s really going on
aren’t israel and turkey after the same assets that israel demands, in order to create the greater israel ii project? especially where the natural resources of syria and palestine lay? then you have crimea, and not forgetting constantinople to crimea and how those behind the creation of israel are desperate for crimea. the reason for the montreux treaty 1936, just before wwii kicked off.
2) ironically us never signed off on it, just like they have never ratified the law of the seas convention, which provides international law to the oceans and also covers the arctic. us has no say in any of it.
haha. this is all theater. donmeh erdogan won’t attack his fellow jews. his goal is killing anyone who isn’t jewish or sunni muslim, much like the gulf states.
precisely, just another red herring/distraction, as ptn regularly finds out.
this sponsored pro-zio-west article is pointless, as all one has to do is remember erdogan’s top 6 priorities:
(1) erdogan, (2) erdogan, (3) erdogan, (4) family, (5) followers, (6) turkiye. (there’s no m.e. there!)
erdogan won’t say a single thing before a prestigious/advantageous deal/payment is agreed that follows the above rules..
jiddish nazis crying fould is the peak of all peaks of comedy.
adolf would be so proud of benjamin. <3
here is walkthrough: erdo is official masonist ergo zionist.
following his speech:
he speaks only to decept his people. he always cleaning ground for zionist actions.
this time he threatened israel to prepare for the murdering of haniyeh. just before the assassination he braged about invading israel. now we see why.
he tries to trick iran, just to backstabbing it.
the turks have the best army in nato no way the us would force turkey out. they would be too fearful of a russo turkish alliance also.
stupid demand by a stupid copy hitler, netanyahu. he, the copy hitler, knows fully well that he’s out on a limb and can only be saved by the banjrupt disunited states of a. but little copy hitler, like his inspirator, isxafter what adolf hitler strived for – lebensraum.! pity his dream of lebensraum for the jews will collaps and the jews seen swimming in the med! hohoho from the river to the sea!
and think about it – squeezed between iran in the south and turkey in the north ! both sizeable military powers and what can the disunited states ofvdiscontent do if erdogan decides enough is enough.. go to war against a fellow nato-member – don’tbthink so!
it will probably never happens. if turkey attack israël, erdogan will be killed. turkey is in nato, the country is full of western spies ready to give the exact location of any unobedient turk. as we say in france : ” you cannot dance with the devil and lead the dance.”
just imagine if all these people on their hit lists weren’t pussies and carried around their own firepower all the time.
the sad thing is that little hitler is so emboldened by the idea that the disunited states has its back so they disregard an obvious threat from one of the local military force and has sent blinken to disarm erdogan. moreover turkey’s access to the jews in palestine is hindered by syria unless assad and erdogan can come to terms – however unlikely!
the chamber pot calling the kettle dirty?
the only thing endrogan is good at, killing bunch poor kurds with ak47. all traiters and faroahs and criminals of 21st centry will meet their end this decade
erdogan has told satanyahu to go fuck himself according to reports 😂
southfront just said turkeys apart of nato then said their not…put down the vodka u braindead pig ork
israel didn’t get the memo: no member can be expelled from nato, only accepted unanimously…
country full of delusional crybabies with a fairytale “religion” 👶
all the near east religions are derived from the great jew fairy tale..
little hitler is wishing for something that won’t happen! similarities between thevreal hitler and little copy hitler. a both perpetrator of genocide. b looking for lebensraum and c operating concentration camps. in the ah case it was dozens, like ravensbruck or therezienstadt and copy hitler runs gaza with 2 million locked away palestinians. and the row as quiet as a mouse!
nato – israel’s private army, despite israel not being a part of nato. 1947 – cia formed and ‘operation paperclip’,the first cia exercise, provided safe passage for bolshevik and nazi elite, post war. israel, created the same year. if not for adolf, there would be an israel. no doubt all part of the plan and game. funny that. nato came along in 1947, with many of the ‘operation paperclip’ escapees in full charge.