{"id":20914,"date":"2010-07-27T11:20:17","date_gmt":"2010-07-27T09:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=20914"},"modified":"2023-07-25T14:59:01","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T11:59:01","slug":"turkey-going-nuclear-a-game-changer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/07\/27\/turkey-going-nuclear-a-game-changer\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey Going Nuclear \u2013 A Game Changer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The World Tribune\u2019s Gregory Copley has broken the news that \u201cU.S. powerlessness and EU confusion\u201d have opened a \u201cwindow of opportunity\u201d for Turkey to seriously consider acquiring nuclear weapons. Just last month, Turkey defied its traditional allies, including the United States and Israel, by voting against a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran, in punishments for Tehran\u2019s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons. Further, Turkey\u2019s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has displayed growing Islamist sympathies and exercises an undemocratic stranglehold on power, raising legitimate questions about Turkey\u2019s commitment to secular democracy as well as to NATO.<\/p>\n

\"\"The news that Turkey is considering \u201cgoing nuclear\u201d is a game changer, and it should shake the Obama Administration to its core. A nuclear-armed Turkey would ride a coach-and-horses through Obama\u2019s chief foreign policy goal of \u201cgetting to zero,\u201d and it would expose his profoundly foolish strategy of neglecting traditional allies in order to engage America\u2019s enemies. It would legitimize Iran\u2019s illicit pursuit of nuclear weapons, and it would so profoundly change the balance of power in the Middle East that the ramifications could not be predicted with certainty for decades.<\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently stated that Turkey\u2019s strategic drift away from the West is due in part to the European Union\u2019s reluctance to grant Turkey full EU membership. Certainly the EU is not negotiating with Ankara in good faith, but Brussels cannot be entirely to blame. Ankara has distanced itself from Europe and the U.S. and has instead prioritized its relations with Russia and the Muslim world, especially Iran.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s formerly close relations with Israel have deteriorated steadily since the AKP\u2019s rise to power, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has demonstrated that he is willing to exploit anti-Israeli sentiments to boost his own political popularity. On its current trajectory, Turkey\u2019s traditional strategic relationship with the West will devolve into a looser affiliation, while Ankara simultaneously enters into a closer alliance with Iran and other Middle Eastern powers hostile to U.S. leadership.<\/p>\n

Much of this is entirely predictable. President Obama\u2019s policies\u2014namely, his commitment to eradicating nuclear weapons per se, the uncertainty surrounding the future of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, and his water-treading missile defense program\u2014have raised significant doubt in Turkey\u2019s mind about the reliability of the half-century-old U.S.\/NATO nuclear and defense umbrella.<\/p>\n

President Obama and NATO should not stand idly by and watch this happen. The destabilization brought to the European continent from a premature removal of American nuclear weapons, or an unacceptable degradation of its force, would be a major setback for global security and stability. America should stand behind its nuclear guarantee to Europe and adopt a protect-and-defend strategy that includes robust missile defenses.<\/p>\n

Washington should also make clear to Turkey that Ankara\u2019s acquirement of nuclear weapons will not be tolerated and would cost it both its strategic relationship with the U.S. and potentially its membership of NATO.<\/p>\n

In 2006, now-Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Philip Gordon said the U.S. would soon have to ask itself, \u201cWho lost Turkey?\u201d Unless he wants the answer to be \u201cPresident Obama,\u201d the Administration should address this issue as a matter of urgency.<\/p>\n

AUTHOR:<\/strong> Sally McNamara<\/em><\/p>\n

Source: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The World Tribune\u2019s Gregory Copley has broken the news that \u201cU.S. powerlessness and EU confusion\u201d have opened a \u201cwindow of opportunity\u201d for Turkey to seriously consider acquiring nuclear weapons. Just last month, Turkey defied its traditional allies, including the United States and Israel, by voting against a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":20915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[2344,2265,2381,1713],"class_list":["post-20914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-irans-nuclear-programme","tag-irans-nuclear-threat","tag-nuclear-bombs","tag-nuclear-weapons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}