The NATO Summit at The Hague [Photo: NATO]
NATO’s 36th Summit of heads of state and government will convene in Ankara on July 7–8. It has been reported that, alongside the leaders of the 32 member states, including US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will also attend the summit. While President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkish government prepares to roll out the red carpet for imperialist war criminals led by Trump, a de facto state of emergency will be declared in Ankara to suppress mass protests.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking before Congress on June 3, said this summit “is probably the most important meeting in NATO’s history.” This meeting will be a historic war summit. It will be driven by escalating imperialist war abroad and the suppression of the social and democratic rights of the working class at home.
The war of aggression against Iran waged by the US, which leads NATO, and its principal ally in the Middle East, Israel, continues. As part of Washington’s drive to bring the Middle East under its complete control, Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its invasion of southern Lebanon also continue with its backing.
As NATO’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine enters its fifth year, the strikes on Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, and Germany’s announcement that it will produce weapons systems with a range of 1,500 kilometers together with Ukraine are increasing the risk of a nuclear conflict.
At the same time, as workers’ struggles intensify in the United States, anger is mounting in Europe over genocide, war and their devastating consequences. They have led to general strikes in Italy and Belgium and other forms of mass opposition. Ankara, where the summit is to be held, itself saw significant miners’ struggles that reverberated across the country.
The gathering in Ankara will function as a general staff meeting at which the fronts of both the imperialist redivision of the world and the class war against the working class will be coordinated.
US-Europe tensions
The summit will also take place under conditions in which the rift within NATO is deepening. Trump has repeatedly declared his criticisms of and “disappointment” with NATO. Washington accuses its European allies of having leaned on the US military umbrella for decades while building “social safety nets.” The inability to use bases in Europe as desired in the war against Iran, and the failure of the European powers to take an active role in forcibly opening the Strait of Hormuz, have deepened this rift. In early May, it was reported that the US would withdraw some 5,000 troops from its ally Germany.
The Trump administration’s claims over NATO member Canada and over Greenland, which belongs to Denmark, and its negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin of a separate agreement that would exclude Europe from the spoils of the Ukraine war, are also heightening tensions within the alliance.
The European powers, which view Trump’s deal proposals as a threat to their own interests, cannot tolerate even a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine. They want a relentless escalation of the war against Russia and a share in the plunder of the rich resources of both that country and Ukraine. But they do not want a complete collapse of the transatlantic alliance before they have secured their military independence from the US.
Last year’s Hague Summit convened under similar tensions. At Trump’s demand, NATO leaders pledged to devote at least 5 percent of their GDP to military spending. In the period that followed, the European powers put into effect the largest rearmament program in their history under the banner of “European strategic autonomy,” aimed at reducing their military dependence on the US.
Germany’s military funds of hundreds of billions of euros, overshadowing the Hitler era, the steps toward reintroducing conscription, the British- and French-led “Coalition of the Willing” and plans to continue the war against Russia with European armies are directly preparing the continent for war. All this is accompanied by cuts to social spending, attacks on living and working conditions, the destruction of democratic rights and the promotion of the far right.
In Türkiye, where official inflation stands at 32 percent and real inflation at 53 percent, increases in military spending are likewise accompanied by cuts to healthcare and pension spending. While falling real wages, unpaid wages and deteriorating living conditions are met with growing resistance within the working class, the Erdoğan government is responding by intensifying police state repression.
The end of Türkiye’s balancing policy
Türkiye will host the leaders of the imperialist war alliance for the second time, after the 2004 Istanbul Summit. Possessing NATO’s second-largest land army, Türkiye is regarded as an indispensable forward outpost of the alliance at the crossroads of the Balkans, the Black Sea, the Caucasus and the Middle East.
In addition to the İncirlik Air Base in Adana and the Kürecik Radar Base in Malatya, Türkiye hosts NATO command and control centers spread across dozens of cities. It has come to light that the NATO presence in the country is to be reinforced with a new corps. Türkiye is also strengthening its army with investments in its own air defense systems and drone technology. Particularly in the context of its growing rivalry with NATO ally Greece, it is preparing to enshrine the “Blue Homeland” doctrine in law in order to expand its influence in the surrounding waters.
The Erdoğan government is seeking to exploit the country’s growing geopolitical importance and the Turkish army’s position within NATO to advance the interests of the Turkish bourgeoisie. With Trump’s return to power, the Erdoğan government has pursued a line increasingly aligned with US aggression in the Middle East, while simultaneously stressing that it is indispensable to Europe’s defense.
Ankara is calling for a solution through diplomacy and negotiation in the war against Iran. Nevertheless, the critical bases in Türkiye remain part of the infrastructure of the war. While Erdoğan promotes the narrative that Israel provoked the war against Iran, he signed the Riyadh Declaration condemning Iran’s exercise of its right to self-defense.
Ankara continues to mediate the transit through Türkiye of Azerbaijani oil, which is vital to Israel’s war machine operating against both the Palestinians in Gaza and Iran. Türkiye has also joined Trump’s Gaza “Board of Peace” and played a significant role in imposing the agreement on Hamas.
As NATO’s and Ukraine’s war against Russia spreads to the Black Sea, Ankara, which is deepening its ties with the European powers, is approaching the end of its “friendly” relations with Moscow. Ankara is turning a blind eye to the attacks, carried out with NATO’s covert backing, on commercial vessels departing from Russia in the Black Sea. The establishment in Istanbul of a naval headquarters directed against Russia by the British- and French-led “Coalition of the Willing” is an indication of Ankara’s growing integration into the war.
An article published in the New York Times on June 7, titled “Erdoğan and Putin: The End of an Unlikely Partnership,” reflecting the outlook of US imperialism, writes that Ankara has repositioned itself against Moscow, stating: “Ankara has abandoned its balancing policy between Moscow and NATO and tipped the balance against Putin.”
A decade after the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016, which aimed to overthrow Erdoğan with the tacit support of the main NATO powers, Ankara is acting almost entirely in line with the war policies of Washington and the European imperialist powers. This includes policing Türkiye’s large refugee population on behalf of the European Union.
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