NATO Summit and Erdogan-Biden Meeting

News:

After the NATO summit, President Erdogan used the following statements in his speech; “The situation the World is facing has shown the importance of the spirit of alliance and solidarity, upon which NATO was built. The role and the responsibility of the NATO in the preservation of global stability has increased. Member states should stick by the founding principles and strengthen the Alliance. The Alliance should assume an active role wherever the security umbrella of NATO is needed, from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, Europe to Asia. It is an era of sharing the burden, not of evading responsibilities. NATO should undertake more effective initiatives particularly in the face of global challenges” (Official website of Presidency of the Republic of Turkey Directorate of Communications)

Comment:

The NATO summit held last June and the Erdogan-Biden meeting due to this summit received widespread coverage in the Turkish media. Media outlets kept saying that the meeting between Erdogan and Biden, which will be held on June 14, is important, and that Biden’s meeting with Erdogan due to this summit is a great success. Because Biden has never met Erdogan face-to-face since the day he took office, he only made a phone call on April 23 (a day before the anniversary of the so-called Armenian genocide events), in which he said that he would describe the 1915 events as genocide and that they would hold a bilateral meeting at the NATO summit. (Deutsche Welle Turkish) Considering the date of April 23, when Biden had a phone call with Erdogan, it is seen that the main purpose of this call is related to the Armenian issue that he will say in the press release the next day. Regarding the Erdogan-Biden meeting on 14 June, we would like to state the following:

1. At the press conference after his meeting with Biden, President Erdogan criticized America’s relations with the YPG/PYD by saying, “Unfortunately, the distorted understanding that classifies “good terrorists” and “bad terrorists on the terrorism issue still exists.” However, during the same speech, he proudly said they had cleared the north of Syria from ISIS terrorism and told: “We deported nearly 9 thousand foreign fighters”. In fact, there can be no more lack of foresight than a good sense person using two contradictory sentences together. Because while Erdogan complains about the YPG/PYD organization, which is supported by the United States, and which completely dominates the north of Syria and receives tens of thousands of truckloads of weapons from the United States, he also confesses that by clearing the north of Syria from ISIS, he handed this place to the YPG/PYD organization on a silver plate. In fact, Erdogan is trying to deceive his own people with these words. However, when the Kobani incidents started, Erdogan allowed the Peshmerga to cross into Kobani via Turkey and paved the way for them to fight the ISIS, pressured PKK members in Turkey to leave Turkey by laying down their weapons, and forced a significant part of them to cross into Syria and to take part in the YPG/PYD organization.

2. According to the news in the media, since the Erdogan-Biden meeting is important, I wonder if Erdogan was able to achieve a result in favor of Turkey in any issue that caused crises between the United States and Turkey in this meeting. In this meeting, none of the issues such as the S400, F35 fighter jets, the extradition of FETO, the Halkbank case, Biden's declaration of Armenian genocide was discussed, and no results were obtained in the favor of Turkey on these issues. Moreover, when a journalist asked Erdogan at the press conference if he talked about the Armenian issue, he replied, "Alhamdulillah, it was not brought to the agenda." Regarding the S400 issue, the Russian S400 military experts who were in Turkey were sent back to Russia within the framework of the fulfillment of the orders from the United States before the Erdogan-Biden meeting. In fact, after returning to Turkey, in his speech in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum 2021, Erdogan said that he reminded Biden about these issues in the meeting with Biden, and Biden did not respond.

3. On the other hand, in the sentences in Erdogan's speeches due to the NATO summit, he clearly states that he protects the interests of the West. He says that the founding mission of NATO should be taken seriously and everyone should take responsibilities. In other words, Erdogan once again repeated that he put forth every effort for the interest of the West, especially the United States, and with the statement “We took decisions to strengthen NATO's political and military dimensions.”, he repeated his actions in front of the NATO members.

Lastly, nothing regarding Turkey's interests was discussed at the NATO summit and in the Erdogan-Biden meeting on the occasion of this summit. On the contrary, the interests of colonial countries, especially America, were discussed. America's demands have been fulfilled. America, the powerful state of the world, uses Turkey in its foreign policy as a requirement of the proxy war. While withdrawing its soldiers from Afghanistan, it leaves its place to Turkey to protect its interests. If America is our enemy, as Erdogan and his associates says, why are they cooperating with the United States in Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, the Ukraine issue, NATO, Africa and in many other areas? However, they should never forget that the Islamic Ummah is working with all its might to establish the Rashida Caliphate State, which will reveal the true faces of the rulers like Erdogan, who constantly lie to their people, and the victory is near with the will of Allah.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Muhammet Hanefi YAĞMUR