An Old NATO Nightmare Returns: Possible War between Greece and Turkey

Ted Galen CarpenterU.S. and other Western leaders have longworried about what to do if an armed conflict ever erupted between two NATO members.Rapidlyrising tensions between Greece and Turkey, primarily involving a maritime dispute over oil, natural gas, and other resources under the eastern Mediterranean, have brought that nightmare to the surface once again.Germany ’s Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas,warned both governments in late August against further military escalation. “Fire is being played with and any small spark could lead to catastrophe,” he stressed.The heart of the North Atlantic Treaty is Article 5, which proclaims that an attack on any member of the Alliance will be considered an attack on all.The underlying assumption is that there would then be a collective response to repel and punish the aggressor.Obviously, that approach would not work if two NATO signatories went to war against each other.Even determining which country was the aggressor and which the victim could be quite challenging.Throughout NATO ’s history, the greatest risk of an intra‐​alliance conflict has always been one involving Greece and Turkey.Although both countries joined NATO in 1952, mutual membership in that security partnership did not erase the centuries of animosity between the two populations.Athens and Ankara have nearly come to blows on several occasions, most notably when Turkey invaded majority ‐​Greek Cyprus in 1974, proceeded to occupy nearly 40 percent o...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 10, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Ted Galen Carpenter Source Type: blogs