The statement issued by the North Atlantic Council on Tuesday (28 July) said little but was still unable to hide the disunity within NATO, Willem Oosterveld and Sijbren de Jong wrote today for EU Observer, the Brussels-based online newspaper. Worse, the statement also exposed Europe’s inability to be heard. Even more dangerously, by not mentioning the PKK or the military operations undertaken by Ankara at all, let alone condemn them, it showed that Turkey’s gamble to thrust itself into the turmoil across its southern border might be paying off—for now.
However, Ankara’s current strategy is fraught with danger: it jeopardises the peace process that had been underway with the country’s Kurdish population since 2013; it complicates the fight against ISIS since Turkey now attacks one of its few effective adversaries; and it antagonizes NATO allies including the United States in a time of peril. Furthermore, if the larger aim of this strategy is to help president Erdogan’s AK party carry home a majority of the votes in possible snap elections should a government coalition not be formed, it is far from certain that this will be achieved. The full article can be read here.
Experts
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