AKP government celebrates Turkey's 66th year of NATO membership

Head of Turkish delegation to NATO's Parliamentary Assembly celebrated Turkey's 66th year of NATO membership in a message he delivered on February 18
Sunday, 18 February 2018 23:55

Ahmet Berat Çonkar, Head of Turkish delegation to NATO's Parliamentary Assembly and an MP of Turkey's ruling AKP party, celebrated Turkey's 66th year of NATO membership in a message he delivered on February 18, state-run Anadolu news agency reported. 

Çonkar said Turkey's NATO membership "not only marks a step taken for security considerations, but also Turkey's commitment to support world peace", local media reported.

Adding that Turkey needs "to work harder to equip NATO with the right perspective and adequate capability that its global duties require", Çonkar commented on Turkey's ongoing Afrin operation. He said "we expect that all our allies shall support Turkey's fight against threats at NATO's southern border without sparing any terrorist organisations."

Recently, ministers also made statements reminding Turkey's services to NATO by means of the ongoing Afrin operation.

TURKEY'S NATO MEMBERSHIP

Turkey has been a pro-NATO country from past to present and all right-wing governments, from the Islamists to the nationalists, supported Turkey's alliance with the NATO. The AKP government was also the product of the 1980 coup, deepening the pro-NATO junta's neoliberal and reactionary policies.

Despite temporary tensions with the NATO, Turkey's ruling AKP government is not an actor that can give up the support of the NATO. A tension between the NATO and AKP occurred when Turkey's founding leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's name appeared on the enemy chart and a fake tweeter account opened for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as part of the NATO drills in Norway in November 2017. The crisis was resolved when Norwegian secretary of defence apologized to Turkey about the event.  

The first official attempt of Turkey to become a member of the NATO was in 1950, during the administration of the then-Prime Minister Adnan Menderes. Turkey sent more than 5 thousand soldiers to the Korean war to aid in the US invasion of Korea. While 741 of those soldiers died, around 2 thousand of them were wounded. In February 1952, Turkey was officially granted membership to NATO, which came with a bargain on the life of Turkish soldiers.

The establishment of the NATO bases in Turkey followed its membership and NATO directly supported the military coup in Turkey in 1980, attacking the leftist and communist organisations in Turkey and paving the way for neoliberal policies.

Not only in Turkey but also throughout the world, NATO acts as a terrorist organisation attacking the working class and progressive movements for the interests of the capitalist class.

NATO'S NUCLEAR B-61 BOMBS IN TURKEY

According to a recent report by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) in Washington, the US is going to modernise its nuclear B-61 bomb reserve, around 50 of which are deployed in NATO's military base in İncirlik, Turkey. The US is to spend more than 10 billion US dollars for the modernisation of the bombs.

NATO had deployed these nuclear bombs around Europe during the cold war era. While around 150 of these bombs are in Italy, Belgium, Holland and Germany, one thirds of the whole reserve is in Turkey.