Turkey's President Erdogan is using this week's NATO summit in Ankara to push a sweeping new vision for the alliance, on...

Turkey's President Erdogan is using this week's NATO summit in Ankara to push a sweeping new vision for the alliance, one that repositions Turkey as NATO's most indispensable member and reframes Israel as a direct threat to the alliance's security. The summit is being held at Erdogan's White Palace, the massive presidential complex he built in Ankara and inaugurated in 2014. Hosting the meeting on his own turf is widely seen as a deliberate signal of Turkey's growing ambition within NATO. According to Haaretz, Erdogan's pitch to alliance members centers on Turkey's unique geographic position bridging Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia, and its military capacity as the second-largest conventional force in NATO. The argument, in short, is that Turkey is not just a member but the alliance's single most valuable asset. The most striking element of the vision is how it treats Israel. Erdogan has framed Israeli military operations in Gaza and the wider region as a destabilizing force that undermines NATO cohesion and regional security. In his framing, Israel functions as a threat to the alliance rather than an informal partner of Western powers. This directly challenges the conventional Western view, which has generally treated Israel as a de facto security partner of NATO members even without formal membership. Erdogan is asking the alliance to choose a side, with Turkey positioned as the obvious choice. The move comes as Erdogan has deepened ties with Arab and Muslim-majority states and consistently used Gaza as a rallying point to elevate Turkey's regional standing. Cyprus and Greece, both NATO members with longstanding disputes with Ankara, are watching the summit closely. #Turkey #NATO #Erdogan