NATO is about trust. But what happened in the Mediterranean between Turkish and French warships sounds more like the Cold War. Paris is now taking consequences.
A sensational confrontation between NATO members Turkey and France is causing concern. According to the French description, a Turkish warship is said to have repeatedly directed its fire control radar at a French frigate in the incident. Paris called the procedure “extremely aggressive” and has now withdrawn from a NATO operation.
Chancellor Angela Merkel described the incident in the Bundestag on Wednesday as “very serious”. It is now a matter of making every effort to ensure that such incidents do not happen again among NATO member states. The German Press Agency had previously reported that NATO military experts have completed a first report on the confrontation. It should now be discussed promptly.
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had already announced that the incident would be investigated by the NATO military authorities – also because the French frigate was underway as part of the Sea Guardian NATO maritime surveillance operation at the time of the incident. Paris withdrew from this very mission on Wednesday.
Allegations “completely unrealistic”
So far, France has vehemently rejected France’s allegations. The state news agency Anadolu cited a senior military officer who dismissed the allegations as “completely unrealistic.” The French frigate “Courbet” was said to have traveled dangerously fast in the immediate vicinity of the Turkish ship and had made no radio contact. For security reasons, the Turkish ship used the integrated camera of the radar to monitor this maneuver, but no target acquisition was carried out.
The military also pointed out that a few days before the incident, the Turkish Navy even supplied the French ship with fuel on the high seas.
Was it about controlling illegal weapons?
From NATO circles it was said that the Turkish behavior could probably be regarded as a provocation and probably had the aim of preventing the French frigate from checking a suspect cargo ship. At the same time, it was emphasized that thanks to its reconnaissance technology, the French frigate’s crew should have known exactly that it was being pursued by an ally and not by a potential opponent. At least the risk of a military confrontation triggered by a misunderstanding was therefore minimal.
The background to the incident is that the French frigate wanted to control a cargo ship suspected of being used for Turkish arms deliveries to Libya. The ship “Cirkin”, sailing under the flag of Tanzania, is said to have been used for such transports in May.
Dispute between France and Turkey over Libya
France has long accused Turkey of violating the current EU arms embargo by delivering arms to the Libyan government. Turkey, on the other hand, believes that countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia are also violating the arms embargo by supplying arms to government opponent General Chalifa Haftar. France is also said to sympathize with Haftar.
It is still unclear whether the French frigate’s crew knew at the time of the incident that a Greek frigate from EU operation Irini had previously unsuccessfully tried to control the “Cirkin” traveling to Libya. The Turks made it clear to the Greek forces by radio at the time that the ship was under their protection and could not be controlled. As a result, the commander withdrew his command.
Dispute settlement will take a few weeks
Whether the dispute over the incident can be resolved will become clear in the coming weeks, according to alliance circles. The alliance experts’ report, classified as secret, did not contain any conclusions or evaluations, but only gathered data and information from the two sides, it said. It should now be discussed in the military committee and then, if possible, become the basis for settling the dispute.
So far, there is no evidence of relaxation. It is therefore not out of the question that France will urge the NATO Secretary General to even deal with the issue in the North Atlantic Council – NATO’s most important political decision-making body.
Macron: NATO is “brain dead”
The incident is extremely inconvenient for the Alliance headquarters. In the end, she had actually intended to show that French President Emmanuel Macron is wrong when he describes the alliance as brain dead due to internal conflicts and inadequate agreements.
Macron now came back again last week to his remarks from the past year, which attracted worldwide attention. What happened last is unacceptable and one of the most beautiful demonstrations for the “brain death of NATO”, he said at a press conference.
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