Home - NATO Support to Turkey - NATO LibGuides at NATO Multimedia Library

Keywords

When searching for information on this topic, potentially useful keywords to use include :

NATO-Turkey relations
Turkey's air defence capabilities
Patriot Deployment to Turkey
Turkey/Turkish foreign relations
NATO-EU

Notes

This LibGuide includes links to content found on the web (e.g. websites, news & blogs, reports, etc.) as well as a select number of articles and books available from the NATO Multimedia Library.

Please note that this is not a comprehensive collection of material on the topic. The selection criteria for the websites and documents included was based on each item's currency and relevancy to this topic.

Furthermore, quick search boxes for online databases subscribed by the Library (available to staff working at NATO HQ) as well as links to the library catalog are available for you to locate additional resources.

NATO Support to Turkey

On 21 November 2012 the NATO Secretary General received a letter from the Turkish government requesting the deployment of Patriot missiles. In this letter, the Turkish government stressed that the deployment would be defensive only, and that it would in no way support a no-fly zone or any offensive operation.

On 4 december 2012, NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs agreed to augment Turkey’s air defence capabilities by deploying Patriot missiles at a meeting in Brussels.

Three NATO Allies agreed to provide Patriot missiles to augment Turkey’s air defences: Germany, the Netherlands and the United States.

On the specific "NATO Support to Turkey" web page you will find a timeline of events leading to NATO’s decision, a map of Patriot Batteries in Turkey, the Fact Sheet : PATRIOT DEPLOYMENT published on 20 February 2013, together with more stories and additional information about this defensive action.

This LibGuide will help you to find out new publications and analysis related to this defensive action.

Turkey: NATO, EU and its evolving foreign and security policy

This LibGuide is also intended to provide a few starting points to assist you with your research on issues related to Turkey and its relations with NATO and the EU as well as Turkish foreign and security policy. It contains English language and where available, French language material on issues related to these topics.

Turkey joined NATO in 1952 and shortly after Turkish forces fought with the allies in Korea. During the Cold War, Turkey was a "wing country" under NATO's strategic framework, standing tough against the Soviet Union for decades.

Following the United States, Turkey has the second-largest number of troops in the alliance.

Good places to start your research include the following web pages and documents:

Turkey-NATO relations:

Turkey-NATO anniversary - 18 February 1952
On 16-17 February 2012, the NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen thanks Turkey for its vital role in the Alliance.
On 18th February 2012, Turkey commemorates its 60th anniversary of NATO membership. To mark this occasion, NATO's Public Diplomacy Division creates a dedicated module in Turkish.
A 6-page paper by S. Hafdell, published in March 2012 by the Global Political Trends Centre (Istanbul Kültür University), offers a brief presentation of "Turkey-NATO relations at the 60th anniversary";
A good overview, by a former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Robert W. Pearson in Turkey and NATO: New images, Old Questions, published by the Atlantic Council in 2008;
Turkey's Security Perspectives and its Relations with NATO by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Turkey
a paper written by former Turkist diplomat Ambassador Yalim Erlap, NATO'S Lisbon Summit: New Strategic Concept and the Missile Defence (December 2010)

Turkey's foreign relations:

The Foreign Policy page by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Turkey
The U.S. State Department's webpage on Turkey (Background Notes: Turkey) and a very detailed US Congressional Report on Turkey-US relations (January 2012)
An article by Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol on Turkey's Maturing Foreign Policy, published in Foreign Affairs in July 2011.
Turkey 2020 by Soner Cagaptay et al. "On May 21, 2011, Washington Institute Turkish Research Program director Soner Cagaptay joined a group of leading experts on Turkey at NYU's Center for Global Affairs in a dialogue on likely scenarios for the future of Turkey to the year 2020. Their objective was to identify and develop three plausible, distinct, and consequential scenarios that merit the attention of U.S. policymakers."
In January 2011, Brig. Rumel Dahiya offered an interesting analysis on Turkey's recent change of geopolitical focus towards NATO, the EU and Russia (see Changing Face of Turkey in Strategic Analysis, vol. 35, nr. 1).
In an article published on 20 May 2010 in Foreign Policy (Turkey's Zero-Problems), Turkish Foreign Minister Mr Ahmet Davutoğlu explains the three methodological and five operational principles which drive Turkey's foreign policy today.
An article written by a specialist, Stephen F. Larrabee in "Survival" (April 2010): Turkey's New Geopolitics
In March 2010, scholars from the Transatlantic Academy wrote a report ("Getting to Zero: Turkey, its Neighbors, and the West") "after a yearlong study evaluating key questions and policy issues, Turkey’s evolving global and regional role, internal change in Turkey, and how these affect the transatlantic relationship."

Turkey-EU relations:

Turkey in Europe: Breaking the Vicious Circle "the second report of the Independent Commission on Turkey published in September 2009, analyzes the key developments in EU-Turkey relations and puts forward concrete steps necessary to revive negotiations."
The Ministry for EU Affairs (Republic of Turkey) has an informative page on Turkey-EU relations. A brief history is provided as well as links to official documents and the institutional structure is outlined.
EU-Turkey relations by EurActiv, provides a good overview of the key issues and positions involved for this topic. As well, there is a useful timeline and page to external links.