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NATO: TRAGEDY WITHOUT CLEANSING?

By Panagiotis Karafotias*

Briefly, NATO was established in 1949 under the UN Charter, specifically Article 52, which states that "no provision of the Charter shall preclude the existence of local arrangements or organizations which shall deal with questions relating to the maintenance of international peace and security which can be solved by local action, provided that such agreements or organizations and their actions shall be in accordance with the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations."

NATO did not come from outer space or by the stroke of a magic wand. It was the result of a specific and well-planned strategy of Western states that decided to establish an Alliance in order to confront the then neo-imperialist policy of the USSR. Of course, as a reaction, in May 1955 the Warsaw Pact was established, which, after the collapse of the USSR, was dissolved in July 1991. However, NATO, although it had no, ethically, essential reason for existence, continued undaunted to develop into the most powerful global military organization, replacing the UN in some well-known cases, while, According to critics, it could join the UN Peacekeeping Forces so that it does not create - as it does today - suspicions of global dominance and cause fear in other powerful Powers, who feel threatened and react with unpredictable consequences!

In this paper, we will focus our attention on the question of whether NATO has respected and is respecting the spirit of Article 52 of the UN Charter with regard to Turkey's behavior.

Article 2 states that “All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice are not endangered.” It also states that “All Members in their international relations they will abstain from threat or use of violence, against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other action inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations."  

With what has happened and is happening for decades on Turkey's part, the obvious and reasonable answer is that Turkey continues to blatantly and cynically violate the Charter, as well as that of NATO, under - unfortunately - the indifferent and in some cases complicit and cynical gaze of powerful players in the international political arena.

Let us briefly mention these violations: 1) Is it not a violation of the Charter when Turkey illegally occupies part of the Republic of Cyprus for 47 years, ignoring dozens of UN resolutions? 2) Is Turkey's illegal policy regarding the missing persons from their invasion of the Republic of Cyprus in 1974, as well as their policy on Varosha, etc., a violation of the Charter? 3) Is the almost daily violation of Greek airspace by Turkish warplanes, with its reasonable negative consequences for the Greek state, a violation of the Charter? 4) Is the constant issuing of threats against Greece by Turkish leaders a violation of the Charter? 5) Is not the violation of International Law and International Treaties by Turkey, which raises completely illegal and unfounded claims to Greek territories, ignoring these Conventions, a violation of the Charter? 6) Is not the illegal and highly provocative conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque and pseudo-museum, insulting every concept of culture, demonstrating the hostility of the Turkish, neo-imperialist, regime towards Christianity, which, unfortunately, tolerates its trivialization and undermining, a violation of the Charter, International Law and the UNESCO Charter? Should we add the earlier genocides of millions of Greeks, Kurds, Armenians, etc. as well as the destruction of civilizations? Also, its covert support for terrorist organizations, and its illegal invasion of foreign independent countries?

And to complete the puzzle, let's see, briefly, what the Charter of the world protagonist and "champion" NATO itself says. In Article 1 it states: "The Parties undertake, as stated in the Charter of the UN, to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice are not endangered, and to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”

And the European, in general, citizen, who knows the UN and NATO Charters at a basic level, asks: All the above that we mentioned, the many violations by Turkey, why, with what logic, does NATO tolerate them, especially its controversial gg? Is it in the context of the ancient Greek saying that "power corrupts", and the axiom in International Relations that the prevailing system of competition cannot survive without opponents, enemies, so it provokes them, creates them, NATO, instead of having embraced the principles and purposes of the UN Charter, as its own Charter also provides, is on the contrary striving to replace the UN? For example. What was his policy in the dissolution of Yugoslavia, which he acted completely arbitrarily and not under the auspices of the UN, for purely political, geopolitical and geostrategic reasons of its powerful Members? What is his policy today regarding Ukraine, where, again, he is substituting for the UN but not respecting and implementing its Charter as eminent Americans and other intellectuals, and, in general, the "residents of Jerusalem" claim? And why such extreme interest in Ukraine, while for the Republic of Cyprus and Greece he maintains a Pilate's stance or the silence of a fish? Also regarding the admission of new states to NATO, which for decades maintained a neutral stance, and which again eminent Americans and other intellectuals criticize?

Is it possible that within the framework of science fiction or holistic deviation, corrupt and inhumane speculative circuits are reviving Napoleonic or Hitlerian complexes of global domination within the framework of the infamous DIVIDE ET IMPERA, so that, if genuine democrats, peace-loving people, respecting the UN Charter do not react, what is certain is the undermining and dissolution of the Organization and the tragic beginning of World War III - perhaps - the most horrible - with nuclear weapons, and then the modern GOP, those who survive, will hypocritically invent the establishment of a new UN-type World Organization? What horror! RESIST!

*P.I. Karafotias, Managing Director of Greece at the UN, member of ELISME.

PS. Should NATO, in English, be called "North Atlantic Transpolitical Organization"?