2024-04-04 09:38:30
Turkey has an important strategic location between Europe, Asia and the Middle East and controls many waterways, which makes it play a pivotal role in supporting international peace and security through its membership in NATO.
On April 4, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established following an agreement signed by 12 countries in Washington (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, and Iceland ).
The idea of establishing the alliance, with its leadership based in the Belgian capital, dates back to approximately a year before its founding, when the Treaty of Brussels was signed on March 17, 1948, which includes joint defense between the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
This treaty is essentially also an extension of the Dunkirk Agreement signed between France and Britain in 1947, and stipulates joint defense against possible attacks from Germany or the Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II.
NATO was established at the beginning of the “Cold War” to confront the expansion of the Soviet Union and its potential attacks against the West. Then the alliance’s strategy changed little by little after the end of the war, aiming to unite member states militarily and politically to repel external armed threats against any member state, and achieve peace and stability based on common values. In the Euro-Atlantic region.
NATO countries represent nearly one billion people, and about 50% of the total global product, and member states in the alliance contribute a share of military equipment and forces, as member states must contribute 2% of their total economy annually to the alliance’s joint military budget.
According to the alliance’s official website, the number of member states has reached 32, and according to Statista statistics for the year 2023, the number of NATO army forces has reached 3.37 million people.
NATO has a strong spending budget that increases year after year, as it announced an increase in its military budget for the current year by 12%, to 2.03 billion euros.
The importance of Türkiye in NATO
Turkey officially joined NATO on February 18, 1952, becoming the first member after the 12 countries to sign the founding agreement.
Turkey has an important strategic location between Europe, Asia and the Middle East and controls many waterways, which makes it play a pivotal role in supporting international peace and security through its membership in NATO.
Muhammad Suleiman Al-Zawawi, professor of political science at the Turkish University of Sakarya, confirms that Turkey represents an important geostrategic addition to the alliance that makes it able to reach the regions of Eastern Europe and Eurasia, repel potential threats, and enhance the capabilities of risk prevention, early warning, and reconnaissance.
In his interview with TRT Arabi, Al-Zawawi pointed out that Turkey’s positive role in conflicts and its military capabilities, in addition to its strategic location, represent an important balance within the international organization, “and its contribution to the decision-making process within the organization ensures the rationalization of the alliance’s orientation with its negotiating capabilities.”
This is evidenced by Turkey’s role in the Russian-Ukrainian war, saying: “We have seen Turkey’s capabilities in negotiating to bring peace and alleviate the economic suffering resulting from the war, using its diplomatic tools and its ability to influence both sides of the conflict, as well as its noted neutrality in international conflicts.”
On the other hand, the political science professor points out that Turkey’s possession of long and extended coastlines along the Black and White Bahrain makes it indispensable in operations to combat piracy, human trafficking, smuggling, and organized crime.
Al-Zawawi believes that Turkey’s participation in NATO operations in Muslim countries makes it more acceptable to the local population, “as it has proven in its operations in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Darfur, Somalia and Iraq.”
On the other hand, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, in a statement to Anadolu Agency, praised Turkey’s role in NATO membership, noting that it is considered one of the members most involved in the alliance’s operations and missions in a large number of countries such as Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, “even though it “The ally most affected by chaos, violence, and instability in the Middle East, and the most exposed to terrorist attacks.”
As for the Turkish army, which is the second largest army in NATO after the United States, Al-Zawawi says that it represents an operational addition, a greater ability to deploy, and an additional advantage for the alliance, especially in ground operations, especially with the progress of Turkish military industries in recent years in the fields of armored vehicles and drones. And other areas that make Turkey an important asset in the alliance and one of its basic pillars.
The strength of the Turkish army in NATO
The Turkish army ranks eighth, according to the annual ranking of the world’s most powerful armies for the year 2024, published by the Global Firepower website, which specializes in ranking countries in military terms.
The website explained that the Turkish Air Force possesses 942 military aircraft, in addition to 3,598 unmanned aerial vehicles.
In terms of land forces, Turkey has 55,580 thousand land vehicles, including tanks, armored vehicles, missile launchers, and others, while it has 147 naval units, including frigates, submarines, minesweepers, and corvettes.
While the number of Turkish army personnel distributed in military units is 775 thousand people, including more than 400 thousand active personnel at the present time.
At the level of the strongest NATO armies, the Turkish army comes in third place, after the United States and the United Kingdom.
In terms of the number of soldiers, according to Statista statistics for the year 2023, Turkey ranks second on NATO’s list, as the number of troops in the Turkish army reaches 461.5 thousand people, while the United States ranks first with the number of troops in the army with 1,346.4 thousand people. American.
Türkiye’s contributions to NATO
In a meeting in mid-February with Anadolu Agency, the Permanent Representative of Turkey to NATO, Ambassador Levent Gumrukcu, spoke about Turkey’s role in NATO over the past 72 years, and pointed out that Turkey is among the leading members of the alliance in all categories. The three “defense expenditures, contributions to missions, and the military capabilities it possesses,” which “are taken into account when evaluating the position of any ally within NATO,” indicating that Ankara is the eighth member that contributes the most to the alliance’s budget.
On the other hand, Turkey is among the top five countries most involved in NATO missions and operations, as it has made significant contributions in recent years to NATO operations in many regions such as the Balkans, Afghanistan, the Black Sea, and the Mediterranean, according to a report by Anadolu Agency.
In Afghanistan, Turkey was responsible for securing and operating the Hamid Karzai International Airport in the capital, Kabul, as a framework country, and it continued this mission until the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan.
As for the Balkans, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey contributed to the operations of the Implementation Force (İFOR) after assigning the task of monitoring the implementation of the Dayton Agreement to NATO in 1995. It also participated in the Stabilization Force operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SFOR), and with a military unit to support the mission of the Kosovo forces ( KFOR) to maintain security there.
The report also states that Turkey supports NATO air missions in Eastern European countries with its national early warning aircraft, and the Konya Air Base in central Turkey hosts NATO AWACS reconnaissance aircraft to support early air warning operations.
In the state of Izmir, western Turkey, the Allied Land Command (LANDCOM), which was established in the same year in which Turkey joined NATO, also hosts the Kurcek region in the state of Malatya in central Turkey, an observation base, which is part of the NATO missile defense system.
Turkey also assumed command of the High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) for a full year in 2021, then handed it over on January 1, 2022 to France.
In addition, Turkey has the headquarters of the NATO Counter-Terrorism Center of Excellence and the Center of Excellence for Maritime Security. In addition to fighting many terrorist organizations such as ISIS, the PKK, and Al-Qaeda, Turkey is on the front lines of combating irregular migration.
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