Kikapu wrote:Afroasiatis wrote:Kikapu wrote:What are the chances of the West dismantling NATO completely and instead forming a new EU-NATO Force of the 27 EU members, plus the new ones in the future, and the USA as an "honorary member", which would then leave Turkey out of the alliance until if and when she can make it into the EU.? The message to Turkey then would be, "either you are with us or against us".!!!!
I don't think there are much chances for this. Turkey is a vital part of the western alliance for the Westerners to let it go. Probably most of them are encouraging Turkey to come closer to other muslim countries and play some kind of a leading role in a so-called "Muslim world". And this includes better relationships with Iran and worst relationships with Israel.
Many Westerners probably think of Turkey as a controllable country, so they can use its new influence in the Middle East for their own purposes of controlling that region. This perhaps explains partly the western sympathies for Erdogan and AKP. But I guess there isn't an agreement among the Westerners on this.
Everything has a certain amount of "shelf life" to it's usefulness for the purpose it supposed to be used for. Once it become outdated or date due expires, then it no longer has any use for anyone, then comes the time to discard the old and bring in the new.!
Well, I think in the future Turkey will be even more useful to the West as it was up to now. Both as an economic and military partner, but also as a tool for antagonizing the real biggest threat to the West, i.e. South and East Asia, especially in regions like Middle East, Africa, Central Asia. I'm not saying that Davutoglu's neo-ottoman dreams will get realized (Nikitas already pointed to the irrationality of the idea of Turkey dominating countries like Egypt), but I see Turkey serving imperialist western interests for still some decades to come, even if not so one-sided as it used to be in the past.
Kikapu wrote:It seem like I'm not the only one asking the question of Turkey's role (or not) in NATO.
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/201 ... z14av6L1b1
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... s-to-iran/
I think in the western press you'll find different opinions on this, some critical and some defending Turkey (though it's funny seeing critic coming from a country like Greece on this issue). This reflects also the different views among the western elites. Don't forget that Turkey didn't make so many friends among the powerful jewish lobby in the last time. But first, USA aren't the only country in the western alliance, and second, I believe there are parts of the western elites who aren't sure any more that the unconditional support to Israel serves their interests.
In the total picture, I think the dominant opinion will be that advantages that Turkey has to offer to the West with its new foreign policy outweigh the disadvantages.
