American orientalist researcher Daniel Pipes thought that Turkey should be excluded from NATO because of the general policies it has followed in recent years and its attitude towards Sweden and Finland joining the alliance.
“From 1952 to 2002, Turkey was a very good NATO ally, but for the last 20 years it has been a very bad ally,” said Pipes, chairman of the Middle East Forum, a conservative think tank. a television interview.
Analyzing that Turkey is no longer an “ally”, Pipes added that it follows anti-NATO policies, is aggressive with NATO members and members such as Greece, participates in the invasion of Syria and threatens Europe. of Syrian refugees. ”
Describing Turkey’s policy as ‘blackmail’, Pipes, based on the principle of “Give us what you want and we will give you what you want”, said, “I don’t think Turkey belongs to NATO. I said that ten years ago, and there is no need to remove Turkey from NATO. ” The time came: “Let him go to Russia, to China. This is a good salvation. ”
Pipes said that under Article 5 of the alliance agreement, “the Turks have great doubts whether they will help Finland, Sweden or Poland, for example”.
“The Turks have their own views – a radical view of Islam. This has nothing to do with the other 29 NATO members. Turkey belongs to some kind of alliance supported by Iran, not supported by America and Europe. ”
However, Pipes stressed that Turkey is an important country with “NATO’s second largest army”, and some sections of the Pentagon see Turkey’s difficult behavior within NATO as a temporary issue. ”And that Turkey has been a member of NATO for two years. added that he could return to his country. “Good ally.”
Pipes said he disagreed with this view, saying “Turkey’s transformation in the last two decades is similar to the change that took place in Iran after the Shah”.
Erdogan has two main goals. The first is to enforce sharia law in Turkey and encourage other countries to do the same. Second, the restoration of Turkey’s role as a superpower and a return to the Ottoman era. ”
Earlier, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stressed that Turkey is an “important ally” of NATO and that all security concerns should be removed, after Ankara announced that Sweden and Finland were did not take a clear stance against the terrorist organizations that Turkey is fighting. . and therefore cannot approve their accession to NATO at this stage.
source: danielpipes.org
Source: Arabic RT
