Dear Dr. Pipes

Submitted by Debanjan Banerjee (India), Sep 7, 2011 at 04:36

Dear Dr. Pipes ,

"I have argued before and repeat here: an ally no more, time has come to remove, or at least to suspend, the Turkish government from membership in the NATO alliance. "

--- Dear Dr. Pipes , Turkey is a fully and functional member of the NATO alliance. Can you kindly suggest how and by which laws Turkey's memeber ship could be suspended by the alliance ?

Besides , being out of NATO will certianly be a blessing in disguise for the Turks. The pact did shelter Turks from a rising Soviet threat in the 60-s and 70-s but since that threat no longer exists there is no need for Turkey to stay within the NATO alliance. These are certain benefits that the Turks can reap if NATO decided to oust them ;

1. Aligning with the Russians . This will bring much needed lucrative energy deals to the Turkish economy which is looking for cheap energy.

2. Aligning with Iran and other newly free countries in the West Asia and north Africa region like Egypt , Libya and so on. The exisitng Turkish-Syria free trade zone can be expanded to a free trade area (irrespective of the existence and continuance of the Assad regime) encompassing Egypt , Libya and Tunisia and Iraq. Iran could also be added later to this list. This free trade area will help boost the much needed free trade prospects for the region.

3. Already the Kurdish leadership in Northern Iraq is asking the PKK and PJAK to give up their armed struggle and return to peace. A joint operation by Turkey and Iran in the Kandils would wipe out that bunch of anarchists who call themselves Kurds i.e. PKK and PJAK. In the long term this could only be beneficial for the Turks as well as Kurds and Iranians as the peace-loving Kurds can live with dignity and peace and prosperity in both Turkey , Iran and Iraq.

4. Ultimately (maybe a decade or two later) there will be no need for Post-World War I artifical borders and anti-democratic , strongmen-ruled states like Saddam's Iraq or Gaddafi's Libya. The overall Western Asian and North African region could think about becoming an united village with peace and prosperity.A 5-year old democratically - elected presidency and legislative body (which would include all the peoples of the region like turks , Iraninas , Arabs , Kurds , Berbers as well as peace -loving non-Zionist Jews) would rule the whole region with a strong military and navy to control its borders and sea lanes. There will be no need for Western military bases nor any NATO bases in this vision as these bases provide nothing but hatred and insecurity in the present term.

Based upon all these reasons I welcome if Turkey is expelled out of NATO. This would also ensure that NATO- is a strictly a non-Muslim alliance and should be treated as an avowed adversary by the people of the West Asian and North African region. This will be a good omen for an eventual unified West Asian region led by Turkey and Iran in the coming decade or two.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".