These countries include Ukraine, where Turkish drone manufacturer Baikal is setting up a factory and supplies Kiev with Bayraktar TB2 drones.
Independent Foreign Policy
Ankara is keen to maintain its independence in Middle East policy.
“We are determined to create a 30-40 kilometre-deep security corridor along the Iraqi-Syrian border and completely eliminate terrorists from the region,” Guler said of Kurdish militants, some of whom were US allies in the fight against the ISIS terror group but also have ties to the PKK, a Kurdish group classified as terrorist by Turkey, the US and the EU.
“The operation will continue until the last terrorist is neutralised,” he said.
Despite Russia, sanctions and friction over the Middle East, Sinan Ulgen, director of the Turkish think tank Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, stressed that “NATO membership remains at the core of Turkey’s security system.”
Turkish drone maker Baikal building factory in Ukraine | Baikal Press Office/Getty Images
Ankara wants to prevent the U.S.-led alliance from making concessions to an EU-led military effort, especially as Turkey’s NATO membership application has been stalled for a long time. In hiring former Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte as NATO’s new secretary-general, Ankara made it a condition that he not support EU countries as allies.
“The fact that European Union member states are seeking alternatives outside the NATO security umbrella will undermine the alliance’s unity and cohesion,” Güler said.
“NATO is the most effective security organisation in the Euro-Atlantic region. I understand that Europe wants to strengthen its own security, but I don’t think we need another organisation,” he said.
