Alfred Johnson: NEC-SE Director, Pushing Turkey out of NATO, New Paradigms w/Sargis Sangari EP #138

On Monday, 20 FEB 23, Alfred Johnson, NEC-SE, Director of Research for #Southeast #Asia and #Japan, joined me on New Paradigms w/Sargis Sangari EP #138 to discuss who is pushing #Turkey out of #NATO and Why? If this happens, we also analyzed the possibility of Turkey flying to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (#SCO).Show more

We began our discussion by focusing on the 6.3 magnitude #earthquake which hit hours before our interview in the region of #Samandag in #Hatay province of Turkey, which also damaged parts of northern #Syria. The death toll from the three earthquakes, including a 7.8 magnitude quake followed by a 7.5 magnitude which struck Turkey and Syria on 6 FEB 23, has reached 50,000 plus people.

Al discussed how the #economic trendlines for Turkey were bleak as they are for Syria and #Pakistan. In Pakistan, the nation must take enormous steps to unfreeze a $6.5 billion credit line from the International Monetary Fund (#IMF) over the next few weeks.

As Turkey had just begun putting monies into #infrastructure development, they were suddenly hit with a tremendous disaster, which laid bare some of the construction shortcuts tied to past corruption. All these issues highlighted the Turkish government's inability to respond to the tragedy and made it difficult for an easy election of Turkish President Tayyip #Erdogan who is still planning on holding elections on 14 MAY 23.

Since the last big earthquake in 1999, Turkish people have been paying an earthquake tax to fund the #AFAD, the state's emergency organization. Yet, weeks after the most recent devastation, thousands of people were without blankets, let alone tents.

As the Turkish public saw the failures of the current Turkish administration, they also saw no or limited U.S. governmental support during the recovery process. What is worse for the U.S. is that an #Iranian rescue mission was on the ground with their planes parked on the tarmac next to the #Israeli rescue mission in the earthquake region hours after the 6 FEB 23 earthquakes.

As #Iran and #Israel, geostrategic competitors to turkey, were on the ground working to rescue Turks, the U.S. Secretary of State Antony #Blinken and the #NATO Secretary-General Jens #Stoltenberg were pressuring Turkey to ratify #Finland and #Sweden membership bids.

As we discussed the failures in understanding the optics in dealing with the disaster in Turkey, we also noted how on #PresidentsDay, President #Biden had made a trip to stand with the #Ukrainian people and Ukrainian President #Zelenskyy rather than the people of #eastpalistine as they were dealing with the tremendous ecological disaster of their own along the #Ohio and Pennsylvania border.

Al and I discussed the recent comments made by President Erdogan at the 2022 SCO Summit held in Uzbekistan, where he emphasized the Turkish people's historical and ethnic closeness to the East rather than the west.

As Turkey is under pressure by NATO to accept Sweeden's bid to be a NATO state, it has to deal with the effects of the burning of the #Quran by a Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus #Paludan. It also has to deal with the U.S. #Congress blocking Turkey from receiving its 70 F-16 fighter jets to include the upgrade of its current Jets unless it approves Sweden's entry.
Turkey has allowed #Russian economic support flows through the #Bosphorus and #Dardanelles Straits. In addition, under the 1936 #Montreux #Convention #Ankara has been implementing an international pact on naval passage to the #BlackSea.

Al and I discussed whether some in the U.S. consider dealing with Russia and Turkey more practical if Turkey is no longer a NATO member. Whether it's strategically a positive or negative, with all of the pressures Turkey is under, the relationship between U.S. and Turkey has built closer to being fractured than being rebuilt for the betterment of Turkey, remaining a NATO-partnered nation.

Join us for this critical discussion on what will happen to Turkey as a NATO partner.