Three Historic Summits Held in Brussels While the Russia-Ukraine War Continues

It is unbelievable, while we sit in our warm seats and watch the conflicts, it can be said that the only thing we do in an environment where the war in Ukraine has completed its first month and stray sea mines are being thrown into the straits is just watching. Yes, dear readers, unfortunately, we are content to just watch what is going on with eyes full of worry. You see, the summits are chasing each other, by the way, Brussels hosted not one, but three summits. While the reconstruction fund was decided for Ukraine at the European Union (EU) Leaders' Summit, the NATO and G7 summits challenged Russia to "stop the war immediately". Come see who will listen to the unsanctioned challenge of Brussels...

You think that Putin has no eyes to say “yes sir” to the heavy salvo of NATO and the Riches Summit to “stop the war immediately” or “Yes, my mother” in the Cypriot accent. Biden, the leader of the New World Island, who set foot on the Old World Island (Africa-Eurasia), was content with the dust of his feet only with the "New World Order". I am trying to consciously express the word "Martaval", which means "Exaggeration, Making Up, Shaking from the Tripe, Throwing Out of Stupidity", that is, do not perceive it as the approach of "At Martini Debreli Hasan". We all know that only the blood and tears of the peoples come after this debacle. Fathers are starting to bury their children. Except for the place where the fire fell, they are not from there at all. Wasn't this the case in Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq for the second time in 2003, Syria and Libya after 2011?

The Ukraine Attack, which started with the attack and occupation of Russia, is actually the mutual Challenge & Respond of the Global Powers and the showdown, the places chosen away from their homeland are sacrificial altars such as Ukraine. While countries are hurting, the USA's problem is "Unipolarity" and "New World Order". What the USA wants from the "New World Order" is its own interest and sovereignty. Towards the end of the Second World War, the “An Order in which the Strong is Right”, which has dominated the world since the Yalta Conference in Crimea. The USA has never had a stance in favor of an "Order where the Right is Strong", and it cannot be. The idea that a more just world is possible does not interest him at all. In the meantime, let's say that Putin, who is currently an aggressor in the world, objected to this situation with his historical speech at the Munich Security Conference in 2007. He openly objected to a world dominated by one sovereign, one power, one power center, one master. He was right.

In the document published after the EU leaders' summit, it was decided to establish a solidarity fund to be used for reconstruction works after the war in Ukraine. International partners are invited to contribute to the fund. An international conference is also envisaged to fund the fund. It is planned that the fund will primarily be used for the functioning of institutions in Ukraine, to cover defense needs and emergency aid against Russia, and for reconstruction and large investments in the long term. This means that even if the Ukrainian people free themselves from the RF, they are indebted to the West. All the efforts of the Ukrainian people from now on mean that they are trying to raise Ukraine to its feet.

Is it only the interests of the USA, in the foreground? Certainly not. The RF weakness and weakness of the countries whose security has been provided by the USA since the Second World War continue. I'm putting aside the other trade relationship. The arms sales of the three colonial states of the old world island to the RF continue unabated. Despite the RF's annexation of Crimea, that is, the arms embargo implemented since 2014, arms sales by France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, Croatia, Finland and Slovakia continue. Let's especially point out that 346 million Euros of arms sales to the RF between 2015-20 belong to France for 152 million Euros, 121.8 million Euros to Germany and 22.5 million Euros to Italy. To give some striking information, weapons, vehicles, equipment and equipment such as missiles, rockets, bombs, warships sold to the RF are still used by the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine. Among the equipment sold to Russia are thermal cameras aimed at equipping more than a thousand Russian tanks, navigation systems for warplanes and helicopters of the Russian Air Force. Thermal cameras, which also have the ability to open fire, can target people at night and have the ability to detect vehicles at a distance of 10 kilometers. To put it in an optimistic way, France, which is the country that sells the most weapons with 152 million Euros, only stopped selling chemical weapons to Russia under pressure. (one)

What shall we say, in the phrase that the late President Turgut Özal loved and used all the time, 'This is what a diet, what a sauerkraut'. Generation Z expresses this better. "Brother what are you 

did you say? What are you doing now?"

Let's also make the determination that there are still disagreements in favor of the RF among EU countries regarding the sanctions that are being tried to be applied to RF. The differences of opinion among the EU countries, especially on the sanctions in the energy field, could not be overcome. Why is that? In Europe, where winter is dominant, people do not want to be cold. In other words, EU countries, which are highly dependent on Russian natural gas in the field of energy, draw attention to the fact that sanctions against Russia should not have harmful consequences for them.

While the group, which includes Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium, defends this stance in energy, Poland, Finland and the Baltic countries, which are geographically closer to Russia and perceive the Russian threat more intensely, said, "Not to finance the war through energy purchases from Russia. They argue that the EU should import 90 percent of the natural gas used for electricity generation, heating and industry supply, while the RF meets 40 percent of Europe's natural gas needs and about 25 percent of its oil needs.

But it's also a fact, Biden, in his statement at the NATO summit, announced the creation of a new "quadruple combat group" consisting of Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary, which are "Biden's new tin soldiers", the "obedient servant" in NATO. strengthens the state. In fact, it is a strong sign that we will jointly defend and protect every inch of NATO territory, similar to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's motto "There is no defense, there is surface defense, that surface is the whole homeland". (2) It spawned the new Biden concept. What can we say, he studied his lesson well.

After all this, "What is the solution at the NATO summit?" If you ask me, I would say that even the sudden resolution of the issue of increasing defense expenditures, which has been a controversial issue within NATO for decades, is important in terms of showing how far NATO has come in this issue in a short time. The second one, I think, is also very important. The fact that US President Joe Biden left the NATO headquarters in Brussels during the hot war in Ukraine and attended the European Union summit and the cooperation statements made from there, Transatlantic ties through the USA, NATO, EU axis were established in the strongest possible way. It has been a case in point. The United States and Europe have never been so close to each other since the end of the Cold War. They have risen from the stance of siblings who are almost at a distance from each other to the level of siblings who desire to join forces. One of Putin's biggest strategic goals in the Kremlin, to dissolve NATO and weaken Transatlantic ties, has triggered the opposite process with the invasion of Ukraine. Putin has made a significant contribution to the unification of Europe. In other words, Putin's move has served as both a catalyst and glue, giving NATO a new spirit, reviving its institutional functioning, in short, strengthening the alliance in terms of the results it has created in the field. (3)

The dynamic created by the NATO Enlargement process has expanded the Alliance's core tasks in the current Strategic Concept adopted by NATO Heads of State and Government at the Lisbon Summit in 2010 as follows:

1) Collective defense (Defense of Alliance territory)

2) Crisis management (Missions and operations outside the territory of the Alliance)

3) Collaborative security (partnerships)

With this expanded mandate, NATO's deterrence is based on three pillars.

1) Conventional capabilities

2) Ballistic missile defense system

3) Nuclear capabilities constitute.

For this reason, NATO, which focused on the collective defense of Europe against a possible USSR attack until the end of the Cold War, focused on the crises in the world after the Cold War and firstly, it played an important role in resolving the crises that emerged in the Balkans. Contrary to what is known, in this context, NATO entered the actual combat environment for the first time in 1994. Following the Dayton Peace Agreement, NATO deployed its 60,000 existing Implementation Force (IFOR) in the country under the UN. This was followed by the deployment of the 32,000 present Stabilization Force (SFOR) from December 1996. NATO transferred its presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina to the European Union, which launched Operation EUFOR-ALTHEA in 2004. The idea of ​​the European Army is a product of this expansion. The terrorist attacks that took place in the USA on September 11, 2001 constituted a new turning point for NATO. Following the attacks, NATO invoked Article 5 of the Washington Treaty for the first time in the history of the Alliance on September 12, 2001, on the basis of the consensus of all Allies, to demonstrate Allied solidarity with the United States. In this context, in the period of October 2001-May 2002, the air 

Seven NATO AWACS aircraft carried out Operation "Eagle Assist" in the US airspace to support the a defense. Likewise, Active Endeavor was launched in the Mediterranean on October 26, 2001 within the scope of Article 5 and continued uninterruptedly until it was terminated in October 2016. (4)

Turkey is one of the Allies making the most comprehensive contributions to NATO's Command and Force structure. After Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014, NATO created the "Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF)", which Turkey assumed the command of this force throughout 2021. Turkey allocated about 4,200 soldiers to this force. The command of this force passed from Turkey to France at the beginning of this year. The interesting thing is that if the war in Ukraine had broken out last year, Turkey would have had to command this force and transfer the troops it had allocated to NATO's eastern front. Luck has been on Turkey's side. In addition, NATO Land Command (LANDCOM), which is in the Command Structure of the Alliance, is located in our country. In addition, NATO Rapid Deployable Corps Headquarters (NRDC-TU) (3rd Corps Headquarters, Istanbul), one of the nine High Readiness Level ground force headquarters in NATO's Force Structure, is provided by our country. He led the Very High Readiness Task Force within the NATO Response Force (NRF) in 2021 until 31 December 2021. However, judging by the statement made by the Ministry of National Defense on February 18, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Turkey's accession to NATO, Turkey in 2022, within the scope of the same joint task force (VJTF), this time (in the second place) "Pioneer Follow-up Force". Group performs its task. This force can be deployed against the RF at any time with a mission to be given by the NATO Commander-in-Chief.

Within the scope of NATO Ballistic Missile Defense architecture, our country hosts the detection and tracking radar (X-Band radar) located in Malatya / Kürecik. The other components of NATO Ballistic Missile Defense are the interceptor systems (Aegis Ashore) in Romania and activated in Poland in 2020, and the four “Aegis Ashore” destroyers of the USA using the Spanish port of Rota as a base.

Turkey also has the NATO Counter-Terrorism Center of Excellence (COE) and the Partnership for Peace Training Center (BiOEM) in Ankara, which it offers as a contribution to the Alliance with national means; It also hosts the Multinational Maritime Safety Center of Excellence (MARSEC CoE) in Istanbul (MARSEC's accreditation process is ongoing). From this sentence, Turkey in 2023 to its naval power; It will lead the air power in 2025.

While the Republic of Turkey continues its western adventure on a long and narrow road, it is seen that the lucky time periods it has been in have helped the current foreign policy initiatives. Particularly in the Ukraine issue, it describes both Russia and Ukraine as "two countries that are our neighbors from the Black Sea", pays utmost attention to behaving equally and distantly to both countries, and uses a cautious language. President Erdogan especially emphasizes that the decisions taken are steps to strengthen NATO's deterrence and defense structure, and that "NATO is not in a structure that could pose a threat to Russia or any other third country".

After all, what I would say is that the Republic of Turkey must carefully avoid using a language that would jeopardize its relations with the RF in any way, while at the same time jeopardizing the mediation role it wants to play in this war, dear readers.

Footnotes:

(1) Yeni Çağ Newspaper, “EU countries sold weapons worth millions of euros to Russia. Here are those countries that broke the embargo” 23 March 2022; https://www.yenicaggazetesi.com.tr/bu-nasil-ambargo-ab-ulkeleri-rusyaya-milyon-euroluk-silah-satmis-ulke-ulke-aciklandi-523534h.htm/Access Date 27.03.2022/

(2) “Today's establishment of four new battle groups in Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary is a strong signal that we will collectively defend and protect every inch of NATO territory.”

(3) Sedat Ergin, “Some questions put before Turkey by the NATO summit statement”, Hürriyet Newspaper, 26 March 2022; https://www.hurriyet.com.tr/yazarlar/sedat-ergin/nato-zirve-bildirisini-turkiyenin-onune-koydugu-bazi-sorular-42030139/Access Date 27.03.2022/

(4) NATO General Information Note, https://www.mfa.gov.tr/data/nato-bilgi--notu.pdf/ Accessed 27.03.2022/