Two senior US officials have signed a letter published in the Financial Times, in which they denounce the Turkish "haggling" over Sweden and Finland's NATO membership and call on the Alliance to be ready to expel Turkey in order not to encourage Tayyip Erdogan!
The letter published in the FT and signed by former US Ambassador to the UN Mark Wallace and Madeleine Joelson - two senior officials at the Program for Democracy in Turkey - refers among other things to Turkey's "Grand Bargain" with regard to Sweden and Finland's NATO membership and criticizes the Allies' strategy, which compromised with the demands of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in order to lift his veto.
"The problem with this strategy is that it rewards Erdogan's bad behaviour. It will encourage him to push for more concessions the next time NATO needs a unanimous vote to deal with a crisis. Every concession extracted by the alliance will be flaunted as a diplomatic victory by Erdogan, helping him build domestic support and aiding his re-election bid next year. The truth is that the bargain only works if you're willing to walk away. As long as Erdogan knows that members are unwilling to take the ultimate step of withdrawing Turkey, even temporarily, he will continue to have the upper hand in negotiations. NATO members already know that while Turkey belongs to NATO, Erdogan does not. They must be prepared to work towards that goal. If NATO rules were amended to allow for the temporary suspension of member states until their leaders realign themselves with the Alliance's values and interests, then Erdogan would understand the prospect of real economic and strategic consequences for his actions," the two U.S. officials note.
They suggest that if Alliance members want to come out ahead in the Grand Bargain, they should first find out where the exits are.
Source: Proto Thema
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