The News Behind The News
February 24, 2001
Ankara Reacts to Proposed European Force StructureOn February 23rd, a Reuters dispatch highlighted a top priority item for the Bush-Blair summit being held in Washington on February 24th-25th -- namely, a potential rift in the NATO Alliance. Based on European proposals for a rapid deployment force, Turkish officials have warned of serious security problems should such proposal ignore non-EU NATO allies. According to Bush's National Security Advisor, Condoleeza Rice, the US position is that "We would be supportive of any efforts by the Europeans to enhance their defense capability. . .as long as it is consistent with the enhancement of NATO."
The depth of Turkish reservations were recently (Jan. 24) detailed to an American policy delegation, which included IASPS Strategic Fellow Paul Michael Wihbey. A senior staff officer at The Turkish War Academy outlined strong Turkish concerns about the establishment of the 60,000 strong force commonly referred to as the European Security and Defense Initiative (ESDI).According to the Turkish officer, the establishment of a separate command structure outside of the historic NATO regime means that, "the EU is trying to turn NATO into a marginal institution that will be used as a kind of arsenal in the context of EU led operations. We are concerned with the efforts of our allies to degrade NATO's capabilities, if not solidarity and cohesion. Unfortunately, we can not say that the developments of the ESDI are on a positive direction."
Ankara has clearly signaled its worry that its national security objectives, which have traditionally harmonized through long standing NATO security assumptions, may be facing an entirely new set of assumptions that would not only leave Turkey isolated from Europe, but would also damage the quality of its defense relations with key allies such as the United States. Turkey is demanding that a unitary security system ought to be established for both non-NATO EU members and non-EU Allies.
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