The first link below documents the gradual slide of Turkey away from the Western alliance and toward the Iranian axis. This is a very worrisome development with huge implications of the balance of power in the world. If Turkey joins the Iranian-Syrian axis, it will be indirectly allied to the Gog-Magog powers of Russia and China as well because Iran is firmly in the Gog-Magog alliance prophesied in Ezekiel 38. In one sense it is an odd development because Turkey is a Sunni Moslem nation and Iran is a Shiite Moslem nation. Most Sunni Islamic nations in the Mideast feel threatened by Iran’s Shiite radicalism. This does allow for the chance that Turkey is playing Iran against the EU nations to strengthen its application for joining the EU. This is a dangerous time for the Israelis with Turkey sliding toward Iran and President Obama becoming the most anti-Israeli President of the USA on record. I’d like to thank an alert reader for tipping me off to this story and the related links.
The second link below addressed the currently-troubled relationship between Germany and Turkey. Germany has opposed Turkish admittance to the EU, and Germany is increasingly leading the EU nations. The link notes the tensions between these two nations over the issue of whether the sizeable numbers of Turks in Germany should be educated in the German or Turkish language. Germany’s Prime Minister, Angela Merkel, is due in Turkey soon for a state visit, and I’m sure there will be important issues discussed privately between the two national leaders which will not be reported in the press. Turkey’s strategic location on the Bosporus and Dardanelles and the importance of its large military forces to the NATO alliance will surely be stressed by Turkey’s leader. If Turkey slides out of NATO, the NATO alliance’s European nations will be much weakened and they will have no choice but to substantially boost their military forces if they wish to not only be secure but also to be taken seriously on the world scene. If Turkey slides out of NATO, the European NATO nations will have no choice but to lean more heavily on the USA for their security. This brings us to the third link below.
NATO’s Secretary-General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has warned that “Europe will be a ‘paper tiger’ in military terms unless it reverses the decline in its defensive [i.e. military] capabilities.” He notes that Europe’s military spending and forces are declining and that this trend must be reversed. In the modern world, if nations do not have significant military strength, they simply will not be taken all that seriously in global geopolitics. The plain fact is that Europe is militarily weak. France and the UK have some nuclear forces, but Germany is especially weak in military forces in spite of it being an economic powerhouse. Hopefully, it appears that NATO’s European nations are starting to see just how militarily weak they really are. If Turkey is playing Iran off against NATO to get a better deal on joining the EU, it is playing its cards well. NATO badly needs Turkey. I’m sure that point will will be made very clear to Germany’s Angela Merkel during her state visit to Turkey. If Merkel begins to soften her opposition to Turkey’s admittance to the EU after her state visit, it will be a clear sign than Turkey has effectively made the point that if the EU doesn’t want Turkey in the EU, NATO cannot take Turkey’s membership in NATO for granted.
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http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,685647,00.html
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_NATO_MISSILE_DEFENSE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-03-27-07-59-53
