Is Turkey Secretly Working on Nuclear Weapons? | The National Interest

While the world worries about Iran’s nuclear program, could another nation in the Middle East have atomic desires?

Hans Rühle

Some months ago it became known that the German Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst – BND) was spying on Turkey. Turkey’s political leadership was none too happy. Yet the BND has good reasons to keep a watchful eye on Ankara. It is not only the crises in Iraq and Syria, drug-smuggling, people-trafficking and the activities of the PKK that make Turkey a legitimate target for German intelligence. For quite some time, evidence is mounting that Ankara is trying to acquire nuclear weapons.

Over the past two decades, discussions within the nuclear community about emerging nuclear powers always centred on the “usual suspects”: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Egypt, Japan, South Korea and Turkey. Not surprisingly, opinions as to the likelihood of a military nuclear program differed. In the case of Iran, for example, the evidence appeared solid. By contrast, the case of Turkey was built on vague indications.

Source: Is Turkey Secretly Working on Nuclear Weapons? | The National Interest

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