Trump, NATO, and the Turkey in the room

Expel Turkey from the NATO alliance and bring in Cyprus and Israel as members.

Moshe Phillips | Am Thinker | April 2, 2026

Map of the districts of Cyprus, named in English, with English annotations, and showing the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, United Kingdom Sovereign Base Areas, and United Nations buffer zone. Photo by Golbez - Own work (traced from public domain UN or CIA maps.), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=202911Map of the districts of Cyprus, named in English, with English annotations, and showing the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, United Kingdom Sovereign Base Areas, and United Nations buffer zone. Photo by Golbez – Own work (traced from public domain UN or CIA maps.), CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikipedia

“I’m so disappointed in NATO, because this was a test for NATO,” said President Trump on March 26 while speaking about the Iran war.

While President Trump has long criticized the UN and NATO, there is a major difference between the tremendous failings of the two organizations. A quick review of their structures shows that while the U.N. is probably impossible to course-correct, NATO is a very different story.

The U.N. is bloated, paralyzed, and utterly incapable of meeting the challenges of the world today. NATO, on the other hand, is much smaller and has a mission that is vastly more important to U.S. interests. So what can be done to make NATO better? One step that would send a clear signal to Europe that Washington is serious about reforming NATO would be to advocate expelling Turkey.

In July 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus, and thousands died. To this day, a Turkish puppet state occupies 36% to 37% of the island nation. NATO member Greece, along with Cyprus and Israel, has grown increasingly concerned about Turkey’s extremism and its close relationship with Iran.

Turkey has already signaled that it has moved on from NATO. As a dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, it has shifted directly into the orbit of SCO members that include such American adversaries as Iran, China, and Russia.

If Turkey were to leave NATO, a natural result could be Cyprus and Israel joining it.

If Cyprus and Israel were brought into NATO, it would strengthen the alliance. Israel’s presence would add the proven, real-world experience with missile defense systems that NATO lacks. As long as Turkey is part of NATO, it is against Israel’s best interests to share this technology.

NATO member Greece, along with Cyprus and Israel, has grown increasingly concerned about Turkey’s extremism, as well as its close relationship with Iran.

At a summit in Jerusalem on Dec. 22, Greece, Cyprus, and Israel adopted a strident tone and agreed to strengthen trilateral cooperation in the Mediterranean. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides signed a joint declaration to advance an energy deal and pledged to “reinforce our ongoing trilateral cooperation on security, defense, and military matters.”

Clearly addressing Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, during a joint press conference, Netanyahu stated: “To those who fantasize they can re-establish their empires and their dominion over our lands, I say: Forget it. It’s not going to happen. Don’t even think about it.”

Erdo?an responded by sharply criticizing Israel and Cyprus. “We will not permit the violation of the rights and interests of Turkish Cypriots,” he said. About Israel, he added: “Turkey … will not back down, we will not stay silent, we will not forget; we will never leave Gaza alone.”

It is also worthwhile to consider who might come after Erdo?an.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is often mentioned as a possible successor and has repeatedly condemned Israeli actions. On Nov. 30, while in Iran, he described Israel as “the biggest threat to stability in the Middle East,” even as he touted expanded Turkish cooperation with Iran on energy, trade, border security, and regional security matters.

In August, Fidan said that “Israel’s reckless attacks on Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, [and] Iran are the clearest sign of a terrorist-state mentality defying international order,” and accused Israel of “committing genocide in Gaza for the past two years, ignoring basic humanitarian values right before the world’s eyes.”

For years, Turkey has described Hamas as a “liberation movement” and has not formally designated it as a terrorist organization. Hamas has used Turkish territory as a base for coordination, recruitment, and financial operations linked to terrorism. U.S. and allied security services have repeatedly warned about networks tied to Hamas activities on Turkish soil.

Since at least 2023, senior Hamas leaders have had connections with Turkey. Ismail Haniyeh, the former head of Hamas’s political bureau, was killed in Tehran in July 2024, and Turkey publicly mourned his death.

Turkey’s ruling party, the AKP, and Hamas share ideological roots in the broader Muslim Brotherhood movement. Erdo?an has been a vocal critic of Israel’s response to the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and has used his international platform to offer political support to Hamas. He has also consistently rejected characterizing Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The sooner NATO is reformed—and without Turkey—the safer Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East will be.

Moshe Phillips is national chairman of Americans For A Safe Israel, AFSI, (www.AFSI.org), a leading pro-Israel advocacy and education organization.

April 4, 2026 | 5 Comments »

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5 Comments / 5 Comments

  1. Query:

    is there a legal mechanism for expelling a country from NATO?

    AI Overview:

    +5 No, there is no formal legal mechanism in the North Atlantic Treaty to expel a member country from NATO. The treaty was designed for voluntary membership, and there are no provisions for suspension or involuntary removal. A nation can only withdraw voluntarily by notifying the United States.Key Aspects of NATO Membership and Removal:Voluntary Withdrawal (Article 13): A country can leave voluntarily by providing a “notice of denunciation” to the US (the depositary state). This process takes one year.No Expulsion Clause: The founding documents lack a mechanism to force a country out, even if that country breaks treaty principles.Diplomatic Solutions: Disputes are resolved through political pressure and diplomacy rather than legal expulsion proceedings.Alternatives to Expulsion: In extreme scenarios, other members could technically withdraw and form a new alliance to exclude a member, or perhaps invoke principles from the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties regarding “material breach”.While some observers mention applying the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties for “material breach”, this would be a complex legal argument rather than a direct NATO provision. Therefore, the only straightforward way for a country to stop being in NATO is to choose to leave.

    • was it legal to kick Taiwan out of the UN? +4 The removal of the Republic of China (ROC/Taiwan) from the UN, replaced by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) through UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 in 1971, was a legal act of representation transfer, not a formal expulsion of a member state. The UN deemed the PRC the only legitimate representative, classifying Taiwan as a province of China.Legality via Representation: The 1971 vote did not “expel” a country, but rather decided which government held the seat for “China,” a founding member of the UN. The UN recognizes the PRC as the sole legitimate government.No Formal Expulsion: No state has ever been formally expelled from the UN. Instead, Resolution 2758 resulted in the “representatives of Chiang Kai-shek” (the ROC/Taiwan) losing their seat.The “One China” Principle: The UN acts based on the PRC’s “One China” policy, which states Taiwan is a part of its territory.Current Status: Consequently, Taiwan is excluded from the UN and its agencies because it is not recognized as a sovereign state by the UN, but rather as part of the PRC.While some legal scholars might argue whether the resolution accurately determined the status of Taiwan, the action was a legitimate decision made by the UN General Assembly.

      • cyprus in NATO +3 No, Cyprus is not a member of NATO. While it is a member of the European Union, it is one of four EU nations outside the Alliance and does not participate in NATO’s Partnership for Peace program, largely due to a veto from Turkey, which is a NATO member.Key Aspects of Cyprus-NATO Relations:Political Obstacles: The division of the island and Turkey’s non-recognition of the Republic of Cyprus prevent accession.Current Strategy: Despite past neutrality, the current administration has expressed a desire to join, aiming to align defense with NATO standards and potentially using EU council presidency, notes.Security Context: Cyprus is the only EU member not in NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP), creating bottlenecks in EU-NATO cooperation.Military Ties: Despite not being a member, Cyprus maintains strong security ties with several NATO members, particularly Greece and France.

        • Eureka! Just call the Greek half of Cyprus Turkey and transfer it in in the place of the Ottoman empire formerly known as Turkey. That’s what Erdogen said he wanted. Fine. Or, let Taiwan and Cyprus rotate Turkishness. Even better, add Somaliland. The more the merrier. It’s already such a crazy system, why not embellish it seeing as there’s no escape.

          Call it a kind of sanity clause.

          Marx Brothers – Sanity Clause from Night at the Opera (1935)

          https://youtu.be/dbUDSxJFsDA?si=gdz6GzyWnRubN_nS

  2. Get the US out of NATO. NATO would like to bomb Israel to impose a Palestinian state on it like it bombed Serbia to impose an Albanian state on Serbia in the fake state of Kosovo.