Don’t Blame Turkey for NATO’s Woes

Source:Foreign Policy Date:03Dec2019

Provides a long-term insight into Turkey’s recalcitrance to approve NATO’s Baltic and Poland defense plan:

It is under these circumstances that Washington moved to block the implementation of the NATO defense plan covering Turkey that had already been agreed at the political level.Washington moved to block the implementation of the NATO defense plan covering Turkey that had already been agreed at the political level. The reason was that the plan as it was adopted in early 2016 had, reflecting Turkey’s legitimate concerns, labeled the YPG a terrorist entity.

Yet the United States prioritized its own interests in a way that was diametrically opposed to the interests of one of its NATO allies—even going the extra mile to block a political-military plan to which it had given its prior consent. Washington also remained aloof to arguments by the Turkish side that the bilateral disagreement over the YPG should not become a broader NATO issue, turning it into a dispute that could divide and weaken the alliance.