On Wednesday, May 18, former Senator Joe Lieberman and former U.S. Ambassador Mark D. Wallace published an incisive commentary piece in the Wall Street Journal, entitled “Does Erdogan’s Turkey Belong In NATO?” They point out that while Turkey has registered its opposition to the admission of Finland and Sweden to the NATO alliance, Turkey’s own provocative and aggressive actions actually disqualify it from membership and open the possibility that NATO would benefit from removing Turkey from the alliance. Lieberman and Wallace write: “Turkey is a member of NATO, but under Mr. Erdogan it no longer subscribes to the values that underpin this great alliance.” We have seen this with the conversion of Hagia Sophia and the Chora Church to mosques, and numerous other actions against the Ecumenical Patriarchate and other religious minorities in Turkey. We hope that this carefully reasoned piece will be the occasion for a serious reconsideration of Turkey’s role in NATO.
Anthony J. Limberakis, MD
Archon Aktouarios
National Commander
Every member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has enthusiastically welcomed Finland and Sweden except one: Turkey, which on Wednesday blocked an early vote to begin accession talks. For reasons that are political, parochial and irrelevant to the decision, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken a hard line in his efforts to derail the prospective members. This should raise the question of whether Turkey under Mr. Erdogan’s leadership belongs in the alliance.
Similarly, NATO members have shown steadfast resolve since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, except for Turkey. With the exception of permitting the sale of combat drones to Ukraine—a deal between Kyiv and private defense manufacturer Baykar Makina that was signed before the war—Ankara has offered little more than noisy diplomacy. Mr. Erdogan has tried to position himself as a broker of peace between Ukraine and Russia, mirroring his previous and similarly ineffectual offer to negotiate with the Taliban during America’s withdrawal last year.
