“Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we will do [something] similar exactly to them,” Erdoğan said, referring to Turkey’s past military interventions.
His saber-rattling sparked a furious response from Israel and contributed to fears of a wider regional conflict.
Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, whose party is the largest in the Netherlands, called Erdoğan an “Islamofascist” and “totally nuts” in a social media post on Sunday, adding that Turkey “should be kicked out of NATO.” Wilders has long proposed expelling Turkey from the alliance. The Netherlands, unlike Israel, is also a NATO member.
Turkey joined NATO in 1952 and has the alliance’s second-largest army. NATO does not have a specific mechanism to suspend or expel a member, though members may voluntarily withdraw.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg dismissed the possibility of creating such a mechanism in 2021, saying it “would never happen.”
