{"id":41754,"date":"2019-11-29T11:23:54","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T11:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41754"},"modified":"2019-11-29T11:23:54","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T11:23:54","slug":"saudi-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman-visits-expo-2020-with-dubais-sheikh-hamdan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41754","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visits Expo 2020 with Dubai\u2019s Sheikh Hamdan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nANKARA: Ankara is reportedly blocking the approval of a NATO defense plan for the alliance\u2019s eastern flank until it gets the green light over its security concerns in Syria.<\/p>\n

\nAhead of NATO\u2019s 70th anniversary summit in London next week, Turkey has allegedly asked for more political support in its fight against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria in return for backing NATO\u2019s latest defense plan for the Baltics and Poland, according to a Reuters report.<\/p>\n

\nTurkey\u2019s NATO envoy has reportedly been instructed to stall the plan until the alliance formally recognizes the YPG as terrorists. Ankara considers YPG an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK) \u2014 listed by the US, EU and Turkey as a terror group.<\/p>\n

\nThe military plan, aimed at defending Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland against aggression from Russia, can only be approved unanimously by all 29 member states. Turkey\u2019s strategic location on the eastern flank of the alliance makes its approval even more critical because of its proximity to the Middle East and Russia.<\/p>\n

\nAccording to NATO\u2019s founding treaty, an attack against one ally is considered an attack against all, and will trigger the alliance\u2019s military strategies for collective defense.<\/p>\n

\nKarol Wasilewski, an analyst at the Warsaw-based Polish Institute of International Affairs, said that the move is unlikely to make Central European countries sympathetic toward Turkey.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cSecondly, this may be interpreted as a another sign that Turkey is unwilling to contribute to the deterrence policy against Russia and it wants to remain neutral, yet the stakes are located in a different sphere \u2014 Turkey wants to get help when it comes to the safe zone in Syria,\u201d he told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cTurkey will be less and less trusted in NATO and might be seen as Russia\u2019s Trojan horse within the alliance,\u201d Wasilewski said.<\/p>\n

\nThe latest move is seen as a tactic by the Turkish side to break its international isolation on its cross-border military operation into Syria. But it is unclear whether this will pay off or whether this is a new sign of division within NATO if no compromise is reached.<\/p>\n

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\nFAST<\/span>FACT<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n
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\nThe latest move is seen as a tactic by the Turkish side to break its international isolation on its cross-border military operation into Syria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nThe alliance is going through a difficult period. NATO has been the focal point of criticism by US President Donald Trump due to the allies\u2019 spending on defense, while French President Emmanuel Macron recently argued that the alliance was experiencing \u201cbrain death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAccording to Wasilewski, the matter is highly problematic in Poland since up till now Polish decision-makers could argue that Turkey had done nothing that ran counter to Polish interests. The two countries have diplomatic relations dating back more than 600 years.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAnd now it wouldn\u2019t stick anymore,\u201d he said, adding that in Europe this will most probably be seen as Turkey\u2019s endeavor to transfer domestic problems to NATO.<\/p>\n

\nFor Madalina Sisu Vicari, an expert on geopolitics and Turkey, if the report is true then by holding up the upgraded plan of defense for Poland and the Baltic states, Turkey is attempting to build leverage that could enable it to achieve two objectives. The first is noninterference in its Syrian military operation from other NATO members, especially from those who have criticized it (France, Germany); the second is legitimization of the operation as Ankara seeks to obtain NATO\u2019s acknowledgement of the YPG as \u201cterrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhether Ankara will achieve both objectives, and to what extent, is hard to say now, but nevertheless it may get minimization of the public criticism expressed so far by some NATO members, especially European ones, who are mostly concerned and affected by the Syrian operation,\u201d she told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\nMacron, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson are expected to meet on the sidelines of the NATO summit next week to discuss the latest developments in Syria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANKARA: Ankara is reportedly blocking the approval of a NATO defense plan for the alliance\u2019s eastern flank until it gets the green light over its security concerns in Syria. Ahead of NATO\u2019s 70th anniversary summit in London next week, Turkey has allegedly asked for more political support in its fight against the Syrian Kurdish YPG…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}