When Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in 1952 it was a very different country to what it is today. It was one of those rare beasts a mostly secular country with hundreds of years of Islamic history behind it. Built on the ruins of the sclerotic and corrupt Ottoman Empire after World War One by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his followers, Turkey was a country that could be described as mostly democratic, although its history has been punctuated by periods of military rule.

Now things are very different in Turkey. The secularism of Ataturk is being gradually eroded and Islamic politics is becoming more and more high profile. The government of Prime Minister Erdogan has appeared to do very little to keep religion as a matter for the private sphere and stop Islamic religious groups from gaining political power. Worse still, they have appeared to turn a blind eye to the activities of the Jihadist group ISIS who are attacking the Kurdish people in Iraq because for the Turkish government the Kurds, who make up 1/5^th of the population of Turkey, are a troublesome minority. The behaviour of the Turkish Government regarding the plight of the Iraqi and Syrian Kurds looks very much like the behaviour of politicians who hope that ISIS will wipe out the Kurds. The Turkish government is doing very little to protect Kurds and according to some reports are strengthening forces at the border with Iraq not to protect Kurds from ISIS but to prevent Kurdish refugees and defenders from crossing the border.

One of the major principles of NATO is that an attack on one member is an attack on all which could bring down retaliation on the aggressor from other NATO members. As the free world is currently under threat from ISIS and those like them it causes great concern to see a NATO member not standing up against such a threat. The actions of the Turkish Government in not conspicuously lining up against ISIS is worrying and makes Turkey look like an untrustworthy ally.

The actions of the Turkish government over the threat of ISIS and the plight of the Kurds raises many questions about whether Turkey could be trusted to defend the free world in the event of a military attack by Islamist groups on other NATO members? Would they jump in to defend the free world or would they sell the free world down the river?

Although Turkey is an important regional power and is in a geographical area that is of great strategic importance that doesn’t mean that the current Turkish government should be trusted. If the free world cannot rely on Turkey it is to be wondered whether or not they should even be a member of NATO? If Britain was attacked would you trust the Turks to come to our aid, or would they just make the right political noises but do nothing to help? With the advance of Islamist politics in Turkey it is becoming less and less certain that if the chips were down, and the free world was faced with attack from an Islamic enemy, that Turkey would abide by any of the defence treaties that they have signed. The last thing that is needed at the moment is a fair weather friend like Turkey.