Sunday 2 January 2011

NATO, the EU and Turkey

An interesting piece in Sunday's Zaman on the NATO, EU Turkey triangle. The vast preponderance of EU and NATO members have an interest in leaning hard on Greece to allow deeper cooperation between Turkey and the EU, and on Turkey to behave reasonably about Cyprus. This article is a good summary of the Turkish side of the security debate.

Turkey has a vital role to play within the alliance as it engages more and more with the Muslim world, as the perspectives it brings are unique within the Alliance. It's time to put much more effort into this 'entrianglement', as Zaman puts it, to allow Turkey to play a fuller role. Bending towards the Turkish point of view could pay  dividends in relations with Iran, for example, that will do much to enhance regional security, and that of the Alliance as a whole. That would be a much better use of effort than pandering to the Baltic States in preparing for a Russian attack that simply isn't coming.