As usual, the secretary general of the atlantic Alliance Jens Stoltenberg has been careful. But he could not avoid the subject. “The Nato military authorities will investigate to clarify the situation and shed light” on the incident, which involved the Courbet and frigates, the Turkish in the Mediterranean Sea last June 10, he said Thursday, during a press conference after a meeting of defence ministers of the Alliance.

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The Turkish question was not the order of the day but it has imposed after the minister for the Armed forces Florence Parly has raised the tone. “You have to look in the face of the excesses which occur”, she commented later, during a hearing before the defence committee of the Senate. “It can’t be any complacency,” with the behavior of Turkey, she insisted.

On 10 June, the Courbet, under Nato command, had attempted to “interrogate” a Turkish cargo ship suspected of violating the embargo on deliveries of weapons to Libya. Ankara supports the national unity government of Fayez el-Sarraj against the forces of general Haftar, backed by Russia. Then he had a procedure, “legal”, insists to Paris, Courbet was set at three times by the radar firing control of the frigates, the Turkish escorting the cargo. In the Face of the warning and threatening, the Courbet has not been outbid. “It is an act extremely aggressive,” said Florence Parly. Within the French navy, there is an emphasis on the “exceptional” one such incident between Nato allies.

The Alliance paralyzed

Turkish Side, the incident of Courbet is denied in block. “It is obvious that these accusations ( … )” are unfounded,” said a senior Turkish military to the AFP. The Turkish ships have used the built-in camera on their radar for “observing the French vessel, which carried out a dangerous at a very short distance, and this measurement of security,” he added. “At no time, the radar has lit up” the Courbet, a-t-he assured.

The explanations have not convinced. Eight member States on the thirty of the Alliance have officially supported the critical French, including a number of major countries, such as Germany or Italy. So far, Nato is paralyzed in the face of such a situation: there is no mechanism intended to punish an ally. The United States, for their part, do not seem to be bothered by intervention in Turkish, which is opposed to the ambitions of Moscow in the region. Then on Thursday, Jens Stoltenberg is simply to remind you of the support of the Nato “the implementation of the decision of the UN to impose an arms embargo on weapons to Libya.” “We support the efforts of the UN to find a solution to the conflict,” he insisted. The disagreement with the attitude of Ankara is marked but without a means to oppose it.

on the French Side, it highlights the last several months of the existence within the Nato of a problem Turkish: Ankara seeks to take advantage of the libyan crisis to push its pawns in the region. She has as well claimed via a “Memorandum of Understanding” signed with the government of national unity of libya for a new delimitation of the maritime zones in the Mediterranean to its advantage. And also a member of Nato, Greece has firmly opposed and the memorandum of agreement has not been recognized. “It was important to denounce it”, says one to the ministry of the Armed forces.

” The Alliance is strong, she has seen other. But one cannot claim that there is not a problem. “

Ministry of the Armies,

It is not the only dispute between Turkey and its allies. She has acquired Russian missiles S400 making risky interoperability of armaments among allies ; she has led an offensive against the militias the kurds allied to the west against Daech, it carries a blackmail within the Alliance that are recognized as terrorist groups, the kurdish YPG and PKK in the name of interests of internal policy ; it threatens regularly to Europe to “reopen the floodgates of immigration” that he or she controlled since an agreement reached in 2016. “The Alliance is strong, she has known other, explain in the ministry of the Armed forces. But one cannot claim that there is not a problem.”

During the Nato summit in London in December, the head of the State, Emmanuel Macron, accompanied by German chancellor Angela Merkel and british prime minister Boris Johnson, had spoken directly with the president of turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The meeting did not result in any compromise that is tangible.

The editorial team conseilleAu Sahel, violence on the increase décrédibilisent the arméesSplendeurs and miseries of the health service arméesSujetsFayez El-SarrajAngela MerkelFlorence ParlyEmmanuel MacronBoris JohnsonRecep Tayyip ErdoganJens StoltenbergTurquieFranceLibyeRussieotancourbetdéfense7 commentairestrigole 18/06/2020 20:02

Incident ? What is the modesty of a gazelle, to discuss what is a declaration of war, an aggression in good and due form !

andré pierrele 18/06/2020 19:49

I’m at the regret to announce you that the west does not have men or women of the stamp of Erdogan.
The posturing of our minister for the armed forces will come to nothing. Turkey acts in accordance with the legality of an agreement signed with the only legal authority in libya recognized internationally. And who has asked for help to Turkey. And can the minister tell us by what channel France sends weapons to haftar ?

Michel ASTEGIANOle 18/06/2020 19:47

Sometimes it appears, but in a much more serious, sometimes it disappears from the radar screens, such as the unlawful interference of the USA in Iraq , which has made the region to blood and fire, and until the present day, that has permitted the rise of the islamic state, grew a movement that has committed terrorist attacks (including in us, archaeologists still have not found the weapons of mass destruction, they have found that the tears of the victims of his such hoaxes

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