Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz has demanded that NATO expel Turkey over President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s threats to send troops into Israel.
“In light of Turkish President Erdoğan’s threats to invade Israel and his dangerous rhetoric, Foreign Minister Israel Katz instructed diplomats … to urgently engage with all NATO members, calling for the condemnation of Turkey and demanding its expulsion from the regional alliance,” the Israeli foreign ministry said Monday according to media reports.
Erdoğan told a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) earlier on Monday that Turkey “must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine.”
“Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we will do [something] similar exactly to them,” Erdoğan said, referring to Turkey’s past military interventions.
His saber-rattling sparked a furious response from Israel and contributed to fears of a wider regional conflict.
Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, whose party is the largest in the Netherlands, called Erdoğan an “Islamofascist” and “totally nuts” in a social media post on Sunday, adding that Turkey “should be kicked out of NATO.” Wilders has long proposed expelling Turkey from the alliance. The Netherlands, unlike Israel, is also a NATO member.
Turkey joined NATO in 1952 and has the alliance’s second-largest army. NATO does not have a specific mechanism to suspend or expel a member, though members may voluntarily withdraw.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg dismissed the possibility of creating such a mechanism in 2021, saying it “would never happen.”
The post Israel urges NATO to expel Turkey over threats to ‘invade’ appeared first on Politico.
