NATO to convene Article 4 emergency meeting in Brussels on Tuesday

Various media outlets are reporting that at the request of Turkey, NATO will chair an emergency meeting in Brussels this Tuesday to discuss military action against Islamic State and PKK Kurdish separatists. I have no doubt that Turkey will invoke Article 5 either during the meeting or in the days after it. They have a substantial amount of military assets ready to go on the border with Iraq and Syria. Ground troops and special forces are the only way to eradicate Islamic State.

What's everyone's thoughts on this latest development?

a reply to: AnonymousTM

I think Turkey will be on its own theres no great war prize for NATO on offer.

a reply to: AnonymousTM


BRB...gonna run to find something to explain Article 5...

But wait !!!!!

Who is doing all the "bombing" if ISIS ?

a reply to: Ultralight

www.nato.int...

second line

If the Turks were going to invoke article 5 they would not have bothered with 4. Pretty much the Turks are going feel out expanding the air campaign against ISIS and the PKK.

originally posted by: MrSpad
If the Turks were going to invoke article 5 they would not have bothered with 4. Pretty much the Turks are going feel out expanding the air campaign against ISIS and the PKK.

Which they have also just bombed PKK and ISIS and apparently letting US drones fly out of their airbase now.

Turkey lets U.S. strike Islamic State from Incirlik base: U.S.
July 23, 2015

Turkey have cancelled leave and recalled soldiers in the South East of the country as well as those in Counter Terrorism Units. Once the military in Turkey puts its mind to something they usually go in all guns blazing. There is a huge build-up of military units all along the border with Iraq and Syria. I think Turkey want to legitimise the action it's taking at present during the Article 4 meeting on Tuesday and then invoke Article 5 soon after.

a reply to: AnonymousTM

This is your source?
I don't see it anywhere else.

Army soldiers’ leave cancelled in Turkey

Today team personnel of the second and third field army of Turkish Armed Forces (in the south-east of the country) has been urgently recalled by the General Staff from holidays due to the worsening of the situation on the border with Syria.

The holidays of personnel of the counterterrorism departments from other parts of Turkey was cancelled, Trend reports.

originally posted by: Reverbs
a reply to: AnonymousTM

This is your source?
I don't see it anywhere else.

Army soldiers’ leave cancelled in Turkey

Today team personnel of the second and third field army of Turkish Armed Forces (in the south-east of the country) has been urgently recalled by the General Staff from holidays due to the worsening of the situation on the border with Syria.

The holidays of personnel of the counterterrorism departments from other parts of Turkey was cancelled, Trend reports.

Turkish media were reporting this including CNN TURK. I have a vested interest in what's going on as most of my family live near the Syrian border and I have family in the armed forces in Turkey. The local people expect something big to happen anytime now.

a reply to: AnonymousTM

Are they for or against it?

The Turks have no intention of going after ISIS is any meaningful way. The target is the Kurds. They want to prevent any Syrian territory being de facto annexed by any Kurdish organization.

This is confusion personified: this is a multi-leveled war that is so intertwined with mixed agendas that its difficult top sort out reality.


So Turkey has an agenda against the Kurds, Syria, and now ISIS.

Three separate agendas in which originally they wanted ISIS to help destabilize or destroy Syria and also possibly ISIS were used to destroy the PKK Kurds who are enemies of the Turks…enemies of ISIS and who knows what regarding Syria.

Turkey here was trying to do too many things to too many people and now has realized the folly of such a confused policy that has gotten them nowhere but thousands of refugees and all kinds of enemies.


....A fine mess

a reply to: AnonymousTM

This is not the first time Turkey has invoked article IV. They did a year or so back when the mess in Syria started and they were having issues with Syrian jets / forces crossing into / firing into Turkish territory, culminating in the shooting down of a Turkish military jet followed with Turkey shooting down a Syrian military jet.

I think there needs to be more than just a border issue for Turkey to invoke Article V. What I see is Turkey sending their forces into Syria to create a buffer for the refugees, which they have pretty much stated they were going to do. most likely they are speaking with NATO to see what their thoughts are on the off chance something major occurs, like ISIS actually doing to Turkey that they have done in Iraq, Syria etc.

a reply to: AnonymousTM

That would be the next step, ground and pound invasion of Syria. what do we think all the softening up with airstrikes are a prelude to?

originally posted by: Midnight4444
The Turks have no intention of going after ISIS is any meaningful way. The target is the Kurds. They want to prevent any Syrian territory being de facto annexed by any Kurdish organization.

The Turks have good relations with the Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish groups it is the PKK they have problems with. Just remember the Kurds are not a unified group and have never gotten along. Only during the ISIS threat have they for the moment put those problems aside.

a reply to: MrSpad

I'm having trouble with them even mentioning the PKK in a NATO meeting, Aren't they Turkish insurgence? Technically, a domestic issue?

Something smells. I don't have your knowledge, but I trust my nose....most of the time...

originally posted by: nwtrucker
a reply to: MrSpad

I'm having trouble with them even mentioning the PKK in a NATO meeting, Aren't they Turkish insurgence? Technically, a domestic issue?

Something smells. I don't have your knowledge, but I trust my nose....most of the time...

The PKK would be insurgents and Turkey is likely to only brief NATO on what it's plan for them are not request any aid. With ISIS however it is likely Turkey will request some sort of symbolic aid such as additional airstrikes on ISIS and possibly be looking for political support to create a buffer zone in along the Iraqi and Syrian sides of the border.

Here is some more information -

Turkey launches new strikes on PKK as NATO meeting called

NATO 'stands in solidarity'

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu ordered the campaign after a week of violence in Turkey that began on July 20 with a suicide bombing blamed on ISIL in a town close to the Syrian border that killed 32.

This incensed Turkey’s Kurds, who have long accused the government of actively colluding with ISIL, allegations Ankara categorically denies.

Two Turkish policemen were shot dead Wednesday while sleeping in their homes in the southeast, in murders claimed by the PKK.

Meanwhile Turkey, NATO’s only majority Muslim member, called a meeting of ambassadors of NATO states on Tuesday for talks on the violence and its military operations, NATO and the Turkish foreign ministry announced.

"NATO Allies follow developments very closely and stand in solidarity with Turkey," NATO said.

Ankara invoked a clause from NATO’s founding treaty that allows any member to request a meeting of all 28 NATO ambassadors "whenever, in the opinion of any of them, their territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened."

The Article 4 of the Washington Treaty invoked by Turkey has been employed only rarely and usually by Ankara -- it was invoked by Turkey also in 2003 over the Iraq war, in 2012 for the Syria war and by Poland in 2014 over the Ukraine crisis.

With Washington gladdened by Turkey’s readiness to step up its role in the coalition against ISIL, the White House backed Turkey’s right to bomb the PKK which the United States categorises as a terror group.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel however urged Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu "not to give up the peace process with the Kurds but to continue it despite all the difficulties," her spokesman Georg Streiter said in a statement

Click link for entire article...

The NATO meeting does revolve around ISIS and the PKK.


Additional sources -
* - RT - Turkey summons NATO session amid airstrike campaign against ISIS & Kurdish PKK