John Bolton, NATO Membership | John Bolton: – Turkey must be expelled from NATO

John Bolton, NATO Membership |  John Bolton: – Turkey must be expelled from NATO

John Bolton was for a time the US National Security Adviser during the Donald Trump administration. Bolton also served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations in the administration of President George W. Bush in the early 2000s.

In a recent interview with Swedish television, Bolton called for Turkey’s exclusion from the defense alliance NATO. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as you know, stopped the process of including Sweden as a member of NATO.

– If Erdoğan tries to steal the election in May, and gets re-elected incorrectly, I think NATO should have a serious discussion about excluding or suspending Turkey. This kind of behavior does not belong to an ally, says Boulton on SVT”agenda».

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Complete NATO solution

The Atlantic Charter has no exception clause. Bolton says in an interview with SVT that the coalition could exclude Turkey using the paragraph “rebus sic stantibusIn international law, which according to him can be applied to almost anything.

Another possibility, according to Bolton, is to completely dissolve NATO and reform the alliance without Turkey as a member state.

Bolton, who has been referred to from many quarters as an American war hawk, summarizes several points he believes make Turkey unsuitable as a NATO member:

  • Turkey purchased the Russian S-400 air defense system in 2017, which is “compatible with Russian air defense systems, but not at all compatible with NATO air defense systems.”
  • General oppression of the Turkish people.
  • Attempts to “rig municipal and regional elections” in Turkey in 2019.
  • Erdogan’s rejection of Kemal Ataturk’s constitution guaranteeing Turkey as a secular state (Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was the founder of the Turkish Republic in 1923 and, among other things, replaced Islamic law with secular law).
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– I should also add: With the complete and unwarranted membership bans of Sweden and Finland, it is time for a discussion about whether we can take Turkey’s role as an ally seriously, says Bolton.

– It will create a problem with NATO’s credibility

Magnus Christianson, a lecturer in military science at Swedish Försvarshögskolan, was unimpressed by Bolton’s proposal to exclude Turkey from NATO, or perhaps to dissolve the entire alliance in order to restore the defense pact without Turkish membership.

Christianson tells SVT Agenda that he does not consider Bolton’s proposal “the pinnacle of diplomatic finesse”.

He explains to Netavisen that dissolving NATO or excluding a member state will help cast doubt on NATO’s Article 5 at a time when the alliance needs it.

In short, NATO’s Article 5 refers to ensuring military assistance from the alliance’s member states if one member state is attacked.

Doing something like this now that Biden’s message is to defend every inch of NATO territory will create a problem in NATO’s credibility. If Turkey is excluded from NATO, Christianson tells Netavisen, they will end up in Putin’s arms.

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– The way Turkey looks now, it’s becoming increasingly authoritarian, and then it’s more like the situation the United States was in with many of its allies during World War II, says Christianson and refers to the quote “He may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch” .

The quote has been attributed to former US President Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt allegedly uttered the words about the notorious and brutal Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza García.

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– He does not like multilateral associations

Christianson also notes that Bolton is not a particularly big supporter of international associations.

John Bolton does not like multilateral organizations at all. He supports American foreign policy which is “my way or my highway”. And he says he has this attitude towards all multilateral organizations, including the United Nations.

Great enthusiasm surrounds the Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for mid-May.

Some observers believe that Erdogan, who is suffering from declining support in opinion polls, is actively using the Swedish NATO issue in the election campaign to win over and mobilize conservative and nationalist voters.

Christianson believes that Turkey will finally agree to Sweden’s membership in NATO once a new National Assembly convenes in the fall.

– I think maybe Edogan will succeed in retaining power, and there will be a turbulent period after that. Some believe there are rumors that Turkey will send signals to Sweden that it is ready to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership once the new Turkish parliament is formed sometime in September or October, he said.

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– We did not realize how Erdogan is actually under pressure. This is his political life and career at stake. Now he can sit down at a press conference and say that Turkey might be able to agree to Finland, but not Sweden. It makes it look like he’s deciding NATO’s operation. Christianson says he doesn’t.

He points to Sunday’s remarks in which Erdogan opened a scenario allowing Finland, but not Sweden, to join NATO. Finland and Sweden have so far coordinated the entire process with NATO’s request.

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He adds that he is building an image of himself as a bigger player in world politics than he actually is.

Delivery required from Sweden

The crux of the dispute is that Erdogan wants to extradite people from Sweden he described as terrorists. This applies to 130 people living in Sweden who Erdogan claims are linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Gulen movement. Erdogan accuses the latter of being behind the coup attempt against him in 2013.

Turkey has the second largest standing army in NATO after the United States with less than 500,000 soldiers, and thus has the largest army among the European NATO countries. In addition, the location of the country is extremely important strategically for the Defense Alliance.

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As mentioned, NATO does not have its own exclusion clause. Professor Geir Olfstein of the Department of Public Law at the University of Oslo previously told Nettavisen that the Vienna Convention could be used to ban Turkey from joining NATO.

– It is true that the Vienna Convention contains such a provision. The treaty law of the Vienna Convention requires a fundamental breach by a state if there are grounds for termination of the agreement. The NATO charter is based on the organization being a collaboration of democratic nations that uphold human rights. Olfstein stated that there is good reason to question whether Turkey meets these conditions Internet newspaper.

Jabori Obasanjo

Jabori Obasanjo

"Coffee trailblazer. Certified pop culture lover. Infuriatingly humble gamer."

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