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The Prospects of a Proposed Turkic NATO

The Prospects of a Proposed Turkic NATO

In the wake of regional threats in the South Caucuses and Middle East, it is of pivotal importance for all of the Turkic countries to unite as part of a common NATO-like defense pact, where an attack on one member would be considered an attack on all.  Such a defense pact will strengthen the Turkic countries. 

The importance of having such a defense pact is great in light of Armenia’s thirty year occupation of Karabakh and the seven Azerbaijani districts in violation of four UN Security Council resolutions.   If such a defense pact was in place, Armenia would have thought twice before attacking Azerbaijan and illegally occupying an entire region for thirty years in defiance of the international community.   

The defense pact could initially include Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, all of which share common linguistic and cultural ties.  However, it can eventually expand to include all Turkic-speaking states.       

The fact that Turkey is part of NATO will help for the Turkic NATO to be enhanced both strategically and operationally, and model their organization effectively off of NATO.    However, this Turkic alliance would have to be careful to avoid an escalation from Iran in the wake of forming such a union, as such a union is a direct challenge to Iranian hegemony in the Middle East region.   Historically, the Ottoman and Persian Empires were rivals, and thus a Turkic NATO can be seen as a rival to the Shia Crescent, which Iran created and that presently includes Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran.    

Historically, in the Middle East, there are also other alliances that are similar to this and they have shaped our world.  For example, the Gulf Cooperation Council has a collective security mechanism and the Arab League Joint Defense Pact also serves a model.  The Turkic NATO would need to learn from these examples, thus ensuring strong political will, adequate funding, and effective coordination among member states.  

The proposal for a Turkic NATO, while ambitious, is grounded in the strategic need for enhanced regional security and cooperation among Turkic-speaking nations. With Azerbaijan potentially playing a leading role, bolstered by its recent military successes, the alliance could offer a new paradigm for regional stability. However, careful planning, substantial investment, and diplomatic finesse will be essential to navigate the complex geopolitical landscape and establish a viable and effective military alliance.

 

Author

Rachel Avraham

Rachel Avraham is the CEO of the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy and the editor of the Economic Peace Center, which was established by Ayoob Kara, who served as Israel's Communication, Cyber and Satellite Minister. For close to a decade, she has been an Israel-based journalist, specializing in radical Islam, abuses of human rights and minority rights, counter-terrorism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Azerbaijan, Syria, Iran, and other issues of importance. Avraham is the author of “Women and Jihad: Debating Palestinian Female Suicide Bombings in the American, Israeli and Arab Media," a ground-breaking book endorsed by Former Israel Consul General Yitzchak Ben Gad and Israeli Communications Minister Ayoob Kara that discusses how the media exploits the life stories of Palestinian female terrorists in order to justify wanton acts of violence. Avraham has an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from Ben-Gurion University. She received her BA in Government and Politics with minors in Jewish Studies and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Maryland at College Park.