Today I would like to discuss with you whether Turkey is a member of NATO and should simply withdraw from NATO.
Last month, the Nordic countries Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO, and NATO was very happy, and immediately said that it would speed up the approval process and strive to pass it at the NATO summit at the end of June, but did not expect Turkey to stand up and firmly oppose it. The reason is that these two countries, especially Sweden, harbor a large number of terrorists from Turkey, that is, members of the Turkish PKK, and also allow this terrorist organization to operate openly in Sweden, remotely controlling terrorists to carry out actions to divide Turkey.
Because NATO's rule of accepting member states is a one-vote veto system, Turkey is now very angry, and other countries have no way to do it. Recently, the NATO secretary-general has once again put pressure on Turkey, of course, there is also work of persuasion, but Turkey's attitude is still very resolute and refuses to back down. In the end, NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg had to play the round himself, saying that Turkey's relationship with national security was understandable, and announced that the NATO summit at the end of the month would not make any decisions on Sweden and Finland. But this is only a temporary shelving, does not mean that the problem is solved, on the contrary, it is likely to be the beginning of more problems, bigger problems.
Some NATO members are already very dissatisfied with Turkey, and even think that Turkey's behavior is to help Russia, and the mainstream media in the United States accuses Turkey of being a spoiler and even kicking Turkey out of NATO.
Turkey, of course, is not to be outdone, and the biggest opposition party has threatened to say that Turkey cannot survive on NATO and can withdraw at any time. So I think that on the issue of Sweden and Finland, the differences and conflicts between Turkey and NATO and other NATO members are difficult to avoid, and the good drama may be still to come.
Turkey has been very low-key in NATO for decades, and now it is different, and Turkey's unusual, tough and resolute attitude has surprised the United States and NATO. Turkey's opposition to Sweden and Finland's accession to NATO, the public reasons have been said, Western scholars believe that there are other reasons, such as Sweden and Finland, once imposed a weapons ban on Turkey, the United States has also refused to provide Turkey with missile defense systems, and so on, and now it still refuses. But I don't think this is the fundamental reason, the most fundamental reason, the deepest reason, Turkey is not convenient to say publicly, so I will talk about it.
That is, Turkey has always been regarded as a second-class citizen in NATO, NATO wants to take Turkey when it needs it, and when it does not need it, it does not exist, and Turkey is marginalized in all major decisions and can only follow it. Turkey is the old NATO, joined NATO in 1952, the size of the armed forces ranked second in NATO, but its status in NATO is not as good as the small Eastern European countries that joined after the 90s, which can be described as discriminated against.
The identity of most countries in Europe is dual, both NATO members and EU members, according to the reason, NATO needs Turkey, the EU does not need it? At least there is no reason for the EU to exclude Turkey, but that's how the EU discriminates. As early as 1987, Turkey applied to join the European Union, but has been tricked by the European Union, the European Union first pretended to negotiate with Turkey, but then deliberately found various reasons to delay, a few years ago, it was simply decided to terminate the discussion of Turkey's accession to the European Union.
The EU believes that Turkey's democratic politics has regressed, so it cannot be discussed, but when turkey is needed to help, it is no longer disgusted that they have democracy, for example, the EU unceremoniously asks Turkey to help intercept Syrian refugees.
The EU's biggest humiliation to Turkey is in 2020, when Turkey and Greece are in the Mediterranean, because of the sovereignty dispute and the sea confrontation, the EU, whether right or wrong, one-sidedly support Greece, to sanction Turkey, France even sent warships and aircraft to support Greece. Their reasoning is this, saying that Greece is an EU country and Turkey is not, so they have to support Greece. But Turkey and almost all EU member states are members of NATO. Why not mention NATO? The excitement of this event for Turkey is very large.
Turkey once again recognizes that although it is parasitic in the ranks of Western countries, it will always be an outsider. The fundamental reason is here, that is, religious discrimination, racial discrimination, civilizational discrimination, one belongs to Islamic civilization and the other belongs to Christian civilization, which is an insurmountable gap.
If you are not of my race, your heart will be different, and it will be the same for the whole world. No matter how close Turkey and the West are, it is in vain, and everyone should understand why President Erdogan is so tough and resolute on the issue of Sweden and Finland, and it is an unusual determination, Turkey needs to use this way to reflect its presence, can not let NATO continue to treat itself as dispensable, can not continue to take everything that Turkey undertakes for granted, can not continue to take Turkey's interests and priorities worthless. Now that this opportunity has been encountered, Turkey certainly needs to take advantage of it, and it is time to play a show of prestige.
That's why Aldogan is getting tougher and tougher on Sweden and Finland, ostensibly aimed at these two countries, but in fact it's just against NATO, and what I'm interested in is how far and how this thing will end.
What lies before President Erdogan is that since he has reached this point, he can only move forward, can only advance and cannot retreat, and retreat is a complete failure. This is true both in domestic politics and within NATO, but what if Sweden and Finland do not back down?
There are many possibilities that we can observe, but if you want me to give a plan, it is actually very simple, Turkey simply withdraws from NATO, what is the big deal? Go to his NATO, such a big country, such an important geographical location, a huge military strength, and an influence in the Middle East, Turkey does not need NATO to protect him, on the contrary, Turkey is protecting NATO, isn't it? Since nato and Europe have nothing to gain, no respect, no benefits, why bear to swallow their voices and send people to the fence? So if I had to say a word to President Erdogan, it would be simple: if you want to be hard, you have to be hard, to be completely hard.