Kick Turkey out of Nato: Think tank demands action over Erdogan’s rising autocracy

It comes as separate calls were made for Britain to place Turkey on its Human Rights priority list. 

“When Turkey wanted to join Nato in 1950, it was forced to adopt a multi-party political system. That’s because democracy is a basic tenet of every Nato member,” said Gregg Romano of the US Middle Eastern Forum think tank.

“Yet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s infractions grow more outrageous and egregious – not only towards his own citizens, but to other Nato allies.

“He has gone so far with his political cleansing that Turkey has more journalists in jail than China, and more counter terror professionals than Isis members. 

“This is not the behaviour of a member who is supposed to protect our common interests and values.”

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His comments follow a furious walk-out led by Turkish delegates of Nato’s Parliamentary Assembly during a conference on Tuesday.

The event, hosted by MEF in Philadelphia, was supposed to focus on how Nato deals with Middle Eastern policy. But it was turned to farce by the presence of Turkish dissident Emre Çelik, a supporter of Fethullah Gülen -accused by Erdogan of orchestrating last year’s attempted coup.

Organisers had presented a full guest list in June, which was cleared by Nato Parliamentary Assembly chiefs in Brussels.

A few days before the conference, however, they received a letter from Ankara protesting Çelik’s inclusion. 

Acquiescing to Turkey’s demands, Nato PA dismissed the option of a Turkish boycott and told MEF to that the event would be cancelled unless Çelik, was removed from the guest-list.

Furious, organisers agreed to the demand but kept his invitation open. When MEF’s president David Pipes rose to address the conference, he gave way so Çelik could speak.

Turkish delegates stood up in protest and called for Çelik to be silenced before Lord Joplin, the assembly’s former Vice President, led a mass exit.

Speaking last night MEF director Gregg Roman said the think tank had offered to have Celik speak to interested parties after the event but that, too,  was rejected by Ankara. 

“We  had already made an agreement with Mr Çelik,, and  had spent more than £25,000 in catering and hotel bills. We believed this was an important event which would offer a full analysis of a very important topic and didn’t want to abandon it.

“We were in Philadelphia, the cradle of American democracy, and wanted to stand up for our democratic values. 

“We felt this was essentially a Turkish diktat to a US organisation, using Nato as a cudgel against us. So we removed Çelik from the list, but continued to invite him.”

Lord Jopling, who now heads the sub-committee on democratic governance, took to the stage and accused MEF of breaking a “solemn promise” before leading the delegation out.

Roman added: “There is no solemn agreement with a dictator who gasses protesters, jails dissidents and murders opponents.”

While Nato’s military commoners contuse to support its membership, Erdogan’s actions over the past twelve months have caused many to question Turkey’s role. 

Earlier this week Ankara announced a new controversial school curriculum which sidelines the legacy of Ataturk, the secular founder of modern Turkey, leaves the theory of evolution out and espouses the value of Islamic jihad. 

Militarily, President Erdogan’s decision to go ahead with a £2.5bn Russian missile defence project has also alarmed the Pentagon.  

Roman added: “Erdogan is looking to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which features Iran and Russia as members; he has expelled German Nato troops from Turkish soil and threatened to do the same with British troops; he is buying Russian arms, he has thrown the head of Turkey’s Amnesty international in jail, he’s fired 100,000 Government workers and decapitated its armed forces by removing hundreds of seasoned generals. 

“In my view It shook be expelled, or at least suspended – but there isn’t even a mechanism to do that.”

Nato’s Parliamentary Assembly is the military alliance’s legislative arm, consisting of politicians from every member parliament. 

Last night Secretary General David Hobbs conceded that they were “keeping a close eye” on developments but that, while Turkey continues to have a functioning parliament and opposition MPs, it would be classified as “democratic”.

 “We are partly to blame for what happened on Tuesday because we did not initially spot the link between Mr Çelik and Gulan,” he said.

“From Turkey’s point of view it’s akin to inviting a member of the IRA to share a platform with British politicians at the height of the troubles. MEF agreed not to let him speak and they broke their word.”

But Roman rejected this, adding: “ The IRA were proud of what they did. Gulan had always maintained he had nothing to do with the coup. Both the US and the EU support this. “ 

Last night the charity Human Rights Watch and former chair of the Foreign Affairs select committee Crispin Blunt MP criticised the Government’s recent decision not to place Turkey on the Foreign Office Human Rights priority list. 

 “Turkey’s human rights situation has reached a nadir, the trajectory over the last year has been profoundly negative, and the UK is particularly well placed to influence change,” said Blunt.

“The Foreign Office has made a serious error of judgment.”