Staff Reports
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president with a firm grip on power since 2014, operates Turkey like a personal fiefdom. Having previously served as prime minister for over a decade, his commitment to dismantling Kemalist secularism and reinstating Turkey’s Islamic identity is as bold as it is alarming. Erdogan has been vocal about his desire to revive the Ottoman Empire’s former glory while promoting a narrative increasingly hostile to the West, especially the United States. This begs the question: why is Turkey still in NATO?
Recently, Erdogan displayed his disdain for Western countries during a speech in Ankara, where he gleefully proclaimed the impending downfall of Western civilization. This rhetoric is not just bluster; it reveals Erdogan’s deep-seated ambition to position Turkey as a central player on the world stage, burdened with sibling rivalry against the West. While Erdogan laments that Western triumph is built on a foundation of oppression and bloodshed, it ironically echoes his own regime’s history and raises eyebrows about the sincerity behind his claims of a “human-centered civilization.”
Turkey’s Erdogan Makes Us Ask Once Again: Why is This Country in NATO? –
https://t.co/7QOM9uuFsU pic.twitter.com/239zrnFhnP— Robert Spencer (@jihadwatchRS) December 5, 2024
Some might have expected NATO’s supposed camaraderie to inspire loyalty and restraint in Erdogan. Instead, he used his platform to project grievances onto the West, painting a picture where Europe is a villain, despite its long history of combating jihadist threats. Erdogan is fully aware of the historical context yet prefers ignoring the longstanding fear Europeans endured under the yoke of armed Islamic expansion. His elaborate narrative overlooks the fact that many European nations are grappling with the consequences of various waves of migration driven by exactly the kinds of ideologies he champions.
It’s a curious situation that NATO stands alongside a leader who has turned migration into a political weapon, nearly holding Europe hostage by threatening to unleash a torrent of migrants as a bargaining chip. This diplomatic tactic plays to Erdogan’s strengths while ignoring the pitfalls that accompany such an alliance. If Austria’s closure of a handful of mosques was grounds for Erdogan’s outrage, one is left to wonder what he would propose as a solution: slow surrender to creeping Islamization?
On a related note, Erdogan’s claims of a systematic assault on Islamic values serve to support his victimhood narrative and manipulate sympathies among Western leaders. By portraying Muslims as terrorized innocents, he skillfully pivots circumstances to garner support while simultaneously turning a blind eye to the very ideologies that foster conflict. This theater distracts from the dangerous implications of his rhetoric.
Ultimately, Erdogan’s comments should rattle cages within NATO. If any clarity is to emerge from Erdogan’s bluster, it should prompt a thorough reassessment of the alliance’s future. With Turkey’s unwavering leadership leaning heavily toward an expansionist, Islamic agenda, questioning Turkey’s role in NATO may be the wise course for Western nations unwilling to accept the terms of Erdogan’s theater.
