NATO in crisis after Turkey defence move blocked

NATO was facing one of the worst crises in its 54-year history yesterday after France, Germany and Belgium blocked military planning for steps to defend Turkey in the event of war against Iraq.

Their move prompted Turkey, nervous about possible counterattacks from Iraq, to formally seek consultations for the defence of its territory during a meeting of the North Atlantic Council.

Turkey’s move was the first explicit invocation of NATO’s Article IV in the alliance’s history. The deadlock over the Turkey defence issue appeared to have put another dent in NATO’s already battered credibility.

“It puts NATO at the limits of any relevancy to what is going on in Iraq,” Britain’s former Assistant Chief of Defence Staff Timothy Garden said.

“The long-term future of NATO has been in doubt for some time. When we look back perhaps in 20 years time we might say this Monday was the final nail in the coffin.”

NATO was formed in 1949 to counter post-war Communist expansion as the Soviet Union sought to extend its influence in Europe. Members originally agreed an armed attack against one shall be considered an attack against all, and that they will come to the aid of each other.

Originally consisting of 12 countries, NATO expanded to include Greece and Turkey in 1952 and West Germany in 1955. However, then, as now, the alliance was militarily dominated by the US. NATO increased its peacekeeping duties in the 1990s.

The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland became the first former Warsaw Pact countries to gain NATO membership in 1999.

NATO ministers meeting in Prague in November 2002 to decide which aspiring new members to admit issued formal invitations to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania.

Croatia, Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia have also applied to join but have not yet been formally invited to do so.

Many analysts predict expansion will make an already unwieldy alliance less effective militarily and that, rather than spreading stability throughout Europe, it is simply drawing new lines of confrontation.

The new relationship with Russia is seen as confirmation NATO has decided to transform its agenda to focus on combating international terrorism threats and the spread of weapons of mass destruction.