NATO leaders have acquired guns and ammunition. Hopefully, they will realize the defensive significance of this without a personal accident. But more strongly, we hope they will understand the importance of the NATO defense framework plan they approved, not just for the Western world, but for the entire world.
While Trump may not understand it, the established US defense, procurement, and diplomatic structure (formerly known as the bureaucratic-military-industrial complex) has certainly grasped what the gun symbolizes. However, it may take time for Europe to understand and internalize the fact that the defense supplies, which have been served to them in the US since 1945, will no longer be readily available.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, in an effort to prevent further estrangement between Trump and the complacent European leaders (and, in a sense, to prevent Trump from becoming completely pro-Turkey), took certain precautions, both through his fiery statements before the Ankara Summit and through the noteworthy expressions he included in the joint declaration issued at the end of the summit.
For example, the phrase “Our alliance of free and democratic nations” in the first article was not present in the Hague Declaration. With this phrase, is the Secretary General, who drafted the joint declaration, reminding all members that all other members are “free and democratic” like themselves, or is he reminding them that they too should be “free and democratic” like other members? Is the reference to Article 5 of the NATO founding treaty in the same article merely a reference to Trump?
Or is this article, in its entirety, a “warning” intended to appease Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis, who has gone so far as to say that the host country threatens the territorial integrity of his own country?
First, NATO must relearn that Greece currently occupies the Dodecanese Islands without any legal basis, whether you call it treaty law or law derived from force; the transfer of these islands, which Turkey “entrusted” to Italy for its security during the war, to Greece under the 1947 Paris Treaty is illegitimate.
Neither Article 1 nor Article 5 of the NATO treaty eliminates this illegality; before his “heroic march,” the Greek Prime Minister should thoroughly examine what Turkey has done, and has not done, since 1947 to prevent this aggression and ensure the restoration of its rights, along with the reasons behind it.
Paragraphs 4 and 5 of the declaration, which are not in the Hague Declaration, directly place Ukraine and Iran within NATO’s sphere of interest by name. The declaration goes even further, emphasizing that Iran should never possess nuclear weapons. Yes, perhaps the 32 countries, after their discussions and evaluations, reached a consensus on which countries should and should not possess nuclear weapons. Has any NATO member attacked, or is attacking, a country that opposes possessing nuclear weapons for this reason?
The whole world knows that Iran, accused of obstructing freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, did so for national defense purposes. It is Israel and the US that have forced Iran to defend itself. Their attack is not based on a reason that would necessitate the alliance’s assistance under the NATO agreement. The US entered this war not because of an aggression against it, but for a reason that even its own people and parliamentarians rebel against: to support Israel’s expansionist-Zionist ambitions. The US caused the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which the whole world has had to endure, not to protect NATO countries, but because it could not manage its relationship with Israel, which essentially manipulates it like a puppet.
Rutte and the unelected leaders of the EU cannot use Article 5 to threaten Iran with statements like, “We, the allies, warned them repeatedly.” It is the Europeans, not NATO, whom Trump accuses of not helping Israel wage war against Iran. As Trump said, it’s the Europeans who can’t even handle a gift gun!
Source: https://www.milliyet.com.tr/yazarlar/hakki-ocal/madde-5-israile-de-yunanistana-da-yaramaz-7622126
