14.05.2025, 21:41
Zitat:Military briefing: How Turkey became vital to European security
Published16 HOURS AGO
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It was feted as a military “first” and a return to the Imperial glories of the 16th century when the Ottoman navy, led by Admiral Hayreddin “Red Beard” Barbarossa, dominated the Black Sea and Mediterranean.
A one-tonne TB3 attack drone last month took off from a Turkish-made aircraft carrier and, after a short mission, landed safely on the flight deck — the first time a self-piloted vehicle had achieved such a feat anywhere, claimed Selçuk Bayraktar, chair of Baykar, Turkey’s largest drone company.
“Just as we once ruled the seas, you as descendants of Barbaros Hayreddin, have today . . . opened the doors to a new world,” he told the crew of TCG Anadolu.
Nato member Turkey’s military is on a roll — just as Europe seems willing to overlook the latest democratic backsliding by its strongman president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan because it needs a well-armed ally to protect its south-eastern flank from Russian revanchism.
“It has become clear that European security cannot be thought of without Turkey . . . especially with its defence industry,” Erdoğan said last month, weeks after the arrest of his main opposition rival Ekrem İmamoğlu triggered mass street protests and financial turmoil, but little public rebuke from the west.
Turkey and Europe have long talked at cross-purposes, with accession talks with the EU frozen for six years. Yet now, given Trump’s dismissive attitude towards Nato and apparent lack of concern for European security, Turkey’s role “as a country condemned to strategic significance” means a closer partnership with the bloc is inevitable, a western diplomat said.
https://www.ft.com/content/1de61da8-2481...4ffba8b210
Jetzt mal weg vom fiktiven Szenario, hin zum Gedanken das die Türkei mit einem Rückzug der USA aus Europa für die Sicherheit Europas an Bedeutung gewinnt. Vor allem zur Sicherung der Südostflanke gegenüber Russland. Was meint ihr dazu würde die EU die Türkei benötigen um den hegemonialen Bestrebungen Russlands entgegen zu wirken ?