Erdogan's Turkey, an indispensable NATO ally?

Will President Biden grant an audience to President Erdogan at next week's summit in Washington, even as Ankara's ties to America's adversaries and Islamist terrorists deepen?

Turkey has long been considered an indispensable member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Yet critics now say Mr. Erdogan’s Turkey is turning against the alliance and violating the organization’s core values.

The alliance and Mr Biden need to change their attitude, says Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. NATO is not fully aware of its image problem, he tells The Sun. If it can’t stand up to Erdogan, why should Putin believe it will?

After Mr Erdogan opted for Russian-made S-400 air defence systems instead of their American equivalent widely used by NATO, Washington cancelled Turkey's participation in the F-35 fifth-generation fighter jet programme.

As Turkey has also become a hub for money laundering by Russian oligarchs, Washington has also delayed an order for F-16 fighter jets from Ankara for 2021. Mr Erdogan has upped the ante by refusing, along with Hungary, to confirm Sweden's membership in NATO.

It was only after a series of negotiations between Washington and Ankara that Mr Erdogan finally agreed to lift his objection to Sweden's NATO membership. In exchange, Mr Biden approved the sale of the F-16s.

Meanwhile, Turkey is increasingly seen as a state sponsor of Islamist terrorists. After Hamas’s horrific attack on October 7, Mr. Erdogan stepped up his attacks on Israel. Turkey is now as useful to Hamas as the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is a major supporter of an organization designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

In April, Mr Erdogan met in Istanbul with the Doha-based leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh. In May, Ankara announced a total trade embargo on Israel, even though some of Turkey's largest companies manufacture products exclusively for the Israeli market.

Speaking recently to members of his Justice and Development Party (AKP), Erdogan called Prime Minister Netanyahu a vampire, adding: “America, this blood is also on your hands. European heads of state, you have become complicit in Israel's vampirism because you have remained silent.”

This weekend, an El Al commercial airliner flying from Tel Aviv to Warsaw was forced to make an emergency landing in Antalya, Turkey, after a passenger on board fell ill. Ground crews refused to refuel the plane, forcing passengers to spend hours on board before the plane finally took off for Rhodes, Greece, to refuel.

It is widely believed that Mr Erdogan personally ordered the denial of service to the Israeli plane. Once the situation at the airport escalated, bureaucrats in Antalya likely escalated the matter to the presidential palace, a former Turkish politician told The Sun, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The former politician pointed out that Israel was the first country to send rescue teams to Turkey last year, when it was hit by a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake. Whether or not Turkey violated international aviation rules by refusing to provide services to an EL Al plane, it was certainly not paying Israel in kind, he said.

Riots broke out Monday near the Turkey-Syria border, with local rioters attacking Syrian refugees. Ankara arrested some rioters and Erdogan condemned the violence, blaming opposition parties for the violence.

The riots are not organized from above, but rather organic, xenophobic and racist attacks, fueled by decades of Erdogan’s propaganda, the former Turkish politician said. People are angry at Erdogan’s policies and the poor state of the economy. But they are forbidden to criticize the leader, so they are scapegoating refugees.

Last April, Ankara abruptly postponed Mr. Erdogan’s planned visit to Washington and his meeting with the president at the White House. Neither side has provided adequate explanations. When he lands on American soil next week, will the Turkish president be considered an ally?

The Turkish military is the second largest in NATO, after the United States. But would Mr Erdogan allow his military to fight for NATO causes? Is the large US airbase at Incirlik still irreplaceable, even though the US has better relations with Greece and Cyprus than with Turkey? Could other NATO assets based in Turkey, such as the Malatya early warning radar system, be relocated?

The first thing alliance leaders must do to decouple NATO from Turkey is to dispel the myth that Turkey is indispensable to the alliance, Mr. Rubin says. Perhaps even before that, the White House brass could sideline Mr. Erdogan and his entourage at next week’s summit.