Turkish Union’s New ‘Civil Defense Mechanism’ Seen as First Step to ‘a Turkic NATO’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 23 – Plans announced by the Organization of the Turkic States to create a “civil defense mechanism” to coordinate actions in that area among the group’s members are a first step toward the creation of “a Turkic NATO” and one that inevitably will bring the OTS into contflict with Russia and China, Viktor Nadein-Rayevsky says.

            The IMEMO specialist on international relations says that not all the countries in the OTS favor such a development, but Turkey’s contribution to Azerbaijan’s victory over Armenia is a powerful argument in many capitals for increasing military cooperation among them (rosbalt.ru/world/2021/11/23/1932327.html).

            The idea of a Turkic military alliance has roots in the nineteenth century when the Ottoman Empire hoped to use such a grouping to expand. Ataturk rejected that approach, but Pan-Turkic ideas did not disappear but rather, especially after the end of the USSR, assumed “softer” forms, Nadein-Rayevsky says.

            But there can be no question that moves to establish a common “civil defense mechanism” are a first step toward the establishment of a Turkey-led NATO-type alliance or that such a grouping will not come into conflict with Moscow and Beijing. Moscow has already warned Ankara about moving in that direction, and Beijing is “categorically” against it too.

            That sets the stage for new conflicts in the enormous region between Turkey, Russia and China and most critically within each of these three countries, the Moscow specialist on international relations says.