‘Chronic dissenters’: Why Türkiye’s growing NATO role is making Israel nervous?

In the last three years, Israel has attacked not only Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank but also several sovereign Middle Eastern states – from Lebanon to Syria, Yemen and lately Iran – reinforcing its image as a trouble-maker in the volatile region. 

While Türkiye, a NATO member, has long pursued peaceful resolutions to end different conflicts from Ukraine to Gaza and Iran, Israel has tried every dirty trick to negate Ankara’s peaceful efforts. 

“Israel’s hostile attitude against Türkiye has particularly increased in the last two years, sending belligerent messages towards Ankara with a military tone,” says Gokhan Batu, an Ankara-based political analyst on Israeli and Middle Eastern politics, referring to escalating tensions in the turbulent region since October 7, 2023. 

Türkiye has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel since Tel Aviv launched its genocidal war in Gaza, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and turned the Palestinian enclave into a pile of rubble.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced increasing scrutiny around the world, with a global court even issuing an arrest warrant for him. 

He is also facing increasing criticism at home, with political leaders, military officials and the public venting their anger for using wars as a tool for political survival. 

Batu says that Israel’s growing antagonism towards Türkiye must be seen in the context of recent geopolitical churnings.

“This behaviour (of Israel) could be better understood in the context of Türkiye's rising capacity in the Middle East and its emergence as the only actor capable of balancing Israel in the region,” Batu tells TRT World. 

Türkiye’s developing defence industry with a proven record – from highly-developed drones to increasing naval capabilities which have been adapted by other states like Italy – makes the hardliner Netanyahu government nervous, according to Batu. 

Türkiye will host a critical NATO summit this summer, when the Western alliance will have a chance to scrutinise rising geopolitical tensions amid conflicts ranging from Eastern Europe to the Middle East. 

Türkiye, the second-largest army in NATO, and the UK recently signed a defence deal, which was another piece of evidence of Ankara’s security appeal to its Western allies. 

Why NATO matters 

Israel is not happy about Türkiye’s NATO membership, which deters Tel Aviv from actively opposing Ankara’s increasing presence across different areas, from Libya to Somalia and Syria, says Ali Burak Daricili, an academic in the international relations department at Bursa Technical University. 

Despite Israel’s current irrational “radical theocratic” leadership’s aggressive acts, Türkiye will continue to stay as a rational political actor, responding to the Netanyahu government’s provocations in different regions in “a rational manner”, Daricili tells TRT World.  

While Türkiye tries to keep Somalia’s territorial integrity intact by mediating between Somalia and Ethiopia to help address differences between the two East African states, Israel aims to destabilise the region by recognising the breakaway region of Somaliland as an independent state. 

Like East Africa, Türkiye has also worked hard to both prevent and de-escalate the war in Iran. 

Also in Syria, while Israel continued to bomb different areas supporting various ethnic and religious groups like the Druzes against the new leadership in Damascus, Türkiye helped the country’s transformation into a stable nation-state with a strong central government. 

“It’s clear that Türkiye’s NATO membership represents a big obstacle to Netanyahu’s radical leadership,” says Batu. Despite Israel’s propaganda efforts against Türkiye, the Zionist state can not have any say on Ankara’s membership in the Western alliance, he adds. “It is a futile effort.” 

While Türkiye has contributed to various missions – from Somalia to Kosovo, where it leads the alliance’s peace mission – the pro-Israeli lobby in the US and their supporters have been publishing controversial reports in an effort to create an anti-Turkish perception inside the Western alliance. 

“Although Israel is not an official NATO member, the framing of criticisms through the lens of ‘NATO norms’ is perceived as an attempt by an external actor to shape internal debates within the organisation,” says Ozgur Korpe, an academic at the National Defence University.  

“It appears that certain (pro-Israeli) think tanks are trying to redefine NATO's collective threat hierarchy at the regional level, and that Türkiye's objections, framed within its own national security priorities, are deliberately presented as ‘intra-Alliance discord’,” Korpe tells TRT World. 

The questioning of Türkiye's role seems more linked to the multipolar nature of the global system than to its military capacity, he notes, but he also adds that Ankara is no longer a static actor protecting the alliance's southeastern border, as it was during the Cold War. 

“It is important to remember that those questioning it are not NATO members and are merely a small group of chronic dissenters,” he says, referring to pro-Israeli voices. 

Despite the Israeli propaganda machine, not only Turkish but also Western audiences in different NATO states are increasing their voices against Israel’s genocidal conduct in Gaza and recent settler violence across occupied West Bank villages and towns. 

Spain and, most lately, Italy, two NATO states with EU memberships, have fiercely criticised Israeli atrocities from Gaza to Iran war, says Daricili, pointing out a growing uneasiness in the Western world against Tel Aviv’s violent conduct across the Middle East. 

Analysts point out that the transatlantic military alliance has weathered many troubles in the past and will weather such destabilising acts by Israel as well as differences with the US over defence allocations. 

Despite growing strain between Washington and European capitals, NATO as a whole is expected to respond to Israel’s aggressive posture and Iran war “rationally”, according to Daricili, a former Turkish intelligence officer. 

“Without Turkish participation in NATO, Europe can not have a real security architecture. Israel can not decide the future of NATO.” 

Israel’s expansive policies across the region might have reached its own limits as the country of nine million appears to be exhausted by the wars on multiple fronts, the Turkish academic adds, referring to Iran’s damaging attacks across different Israeli cities. 

Strategic autonomy 

Experts also draw attention to the fact that the Turkish leadership, which is well aware of anti-Turkish Israeli propaganda in the US and other areas, has already adopted a policy of strategic autonomy to ensure its political interests across different regions. 

Besides NATO membership, which provides “a critical leverage” to Ankara, Türkiye’s biggest asset is its own national power base and political and military potential, which demonstrates its impact, from the defence industry to its growing reach across regions ranging from North Africa to Azerbaijan and Pakistan, says Batu.  

While pro-Israeli voices in the US and leading politicians like former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Zionist state are doing their best to undermine Türkiye’s increasing political appeal across the Eurasian geography from Eastern Europe to the Middle East, Caucasia and Central Asia, Ankara has no hesitation to move forward on its path, he adds. 

“Türkiye is likely to respond to Israel’s potential encirclement and isolation strategy by further deepening its strategic autonomy,” says Korpe. 

Ankara is responding with a proactive foreign policy against Israel’s adversary approach and other negative regional equations that might exclude Türkiye, Korpe adds. 

“Türkiye will continue to use its institutional position within NATO and its geopolitical weight as diplomatic leverage to counter such initiatives.”