Next for Turkey? Nuclear Weapons!

by Burak Bekdil • September 18, 2019 at 5:00 am

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan now wants to make Turkey a rogue state with nuclear weapons.
For several decades, Turkey, being a staunch NATO ally, was viewed as the trusted custodian of some of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. In the early 1960s, the U.S. started stockpiling nuclear warheads at the Turkish military's four main airbases
Presently, the nuclear warheads in Turkey at Incirlik airbase still remain at the disposal of the U.S. military under a special U.S.-Turkish treaty. That treaty makes Turkey the host of U.S. nuclear weapons. According to the launch protocol, however, both Washington and Ankara need to give consent to any use of the nuclear weapons deployed at Incirlik.
"Countries that oppose Iran's nuclear weapons should not have nuclear weapons themselves." — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hürriyet, 2008.
If Turkey overtly or covertly launched a nuclear weapons program -- as Erdoğan apparently wishes -- the move could well have a domino effect on the region. Turkey's regional adversaries would be alarmed, and Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Greece might be tempted to launch their own nuclear weapons programs. Erdoğan should not be allowed to possess nuclear weapons.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan now wants to make Turkey a rogue state with nuclear weapons. (Photo by Getty Images)

During the 17 years he has ruled NATO-member Turkey, the country's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has rarely missed an opportunity stealthily to convert Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secular, pro-Western establishment into a rogue state hostile to Western interests. Erdoğan now wants to make it a rogue state with nuclear weapons.

"They say we can't have nuclear-tipped missiles, though some have them. This, I can't accept," Erdoğan said in a September 4 speech, while conveniently forgetting that Turkey has signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1980. In other words, Turkey's elected leader publicly declares that he intends to breach an international treaty signed by his country. Turkey is also a signatory to the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which bans all nuclear detonations, for any purpose.

Continue Reading Article

"Jack... Is a Really Kind, Funny Kid... Totally Non-violent."

by Andrew Ash • September 18, 2019 at 4:00 am

"He [Jack] is a very humane person and he wanted to do something to help." Mr Letts said about his son, then adding, "He is a really kind, funny kid who is very gentle. He is totally non-violent."
As with so much of the mitigating rhetoric that follows the imprisonment of captured British Muslims, Mr Letts's words sit very much at odds with his son's previous murderous statements. How mystifying then, that such a peacenik should end up in the bloody killing-fields of Raqqa.
A far bigger problem than what to do with the likes of Jack Letts and Shamima Begum is the possibility of missing British ISIS fighters returning and making their presence felt.
No matter how heartfelt a plea their parents might make on their behalf after they are captured, their children's real inclinations might best be measured by their actions while they were free to do as they wished.

As with so much of the mitigating rhetoric that follows the imprisonment of captured British ISIS jihadists, the words of John Letts sit very much at odds with his son's previous murderous statements. How mystifying then, that such a peacenik should end up in the bloody killing-fields of Raqqa. Pictured: John Letts and Sally Lane, the parents of Jack Letts, dubbed "Jihadi Jack". (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

"This power [to remove citizenship] is one way we can counter the terrorist threat posed by some of the most dangerous individuals and keep our country safe." — UK Home Office spokesperson, August 2019.

Jack Letts, dubbed "Jihadi Jack", the British convert to Islam who travelled to Syria in 2014 to join ISIS, has been stripped of his British citizenship. The former dual-national, whose British mother and Canadian father stand by their son, exchanged his picturesque hometown of Oxford for Raqqa, to join the ranks of ISIS. He is currently awaiting his fate in the custody of Kurdish forces.

Continue Reading Article