(NaturalNews) Turkey is a member of NATO but Turkey is not a NATO country, if that makes any sense.

Founded by the United States and others at the beginning of the Cold War, the North American Treaty Organization was originally formed as a counterweight to the Soviet Union’s Warsaw Pact, which consisted of the USSR and mostly Eastern European nations under communist control.

NATO consisted primarily of Christian-dominated Western nations; the addition of Islamic Turkey was necessary at the time because Turkey was strategically located between Europe, the always volatile Middle East, and the Warsaw Pact nations of Bulgaria and Romania, as well as the USSR’s Georgia and Azerbaijan.

The USSR and the Warsaw Pact no longer exist but NATO does and Turkey is still a member – for now. But its mounting aggression in the region is leading some notable military experts and analysts to wonder if now isn’t the right time to cut Turkey loose, because it appears as though Ankara’s actions may be intentionally running afoul of NATO’s mission and the strategic interests of the West.

Consider:

— As reported by NationalSecurity.news, Turkey is set to purchase its first aircraft carrier, with an aim to becoming the preeminent Islamic power in the region:

Still, others see it as Turkey – a NATO member – being determined to become the preeminent power in the Middle East and even beyond, but the push is coming with ramifications. Already the region is home to some of the most volatile geopolitical scenarios on the planet, including the Syrian civil war, new tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and continued chaos in Libya, Egypt, Iraq and Yemen.

— As noted by Zero Hedge, the Turkish government has been quite hypocritical regarding violations of airspace. You may recall that, last November, Turkish fighter planes shot down a Russian Su-24 fighter/bomber after it had “violated” Turkish airspace for all of about 17 seconds.

And yet, Turkish warplanes have routinely violated Greek airspace – as in, thousands of times – in 2014 alone. As Zero Hedge noted:

Although Turkey claimed the (17 second) violation of its airspace was unacceptable and just cause for military engagement, it was just three years prior that Erdogan had decried the downing of a Turkish F-4 phantom in Syria’s airspace. “A short-term border violation can never be a pretext for an attack,” he declared.

But that wasn’t the only hypocrisy apparent in Turkey’s brazen move. According to the University of Thessaly (whose statistics are based on the Greek military’s tally), there were 2,244 violations of Greece’s airspace by Turkish jets in 2014 alone, representing an increase of some 250% from 2013.

In June 2012, Erdogan, as the BBC reported, changed his country’s stance following the F-4 downing. He said Turkey would adopt a “common sense” attitude that should not be taken “as a weakness.”

— In recent days Turkish and Greek warplanes were in a dogfight over the Aegean Sea. In late December, the news site eKathimerini reported:

Greek and Turkish jets engaged in a brief dogfight over the Aegean Sea on Tuesday after Turkish aircraft violated Greek national air space several times.

A formation of six Turkish jets, flanked by two CN-235 aircraft that were not in formation, violated Greek air space nine times, according to Greek defense officials.

In all cases the Turkish jets were chased off by Greek aircraft. Two of the eight Turkish aircraft were armed.

— In September 2014, The Washington Post and others reported that the Turkish government actually refused U.S. and NATO requests to use Turkish airfields to base NATO coalition aircraft so they could provide air cover and relieve outgunned Kurdish forces battling ISIS forces in Kobane, thereby frustrating the Obama Administration.

“Of course they could do more,” a senior official said. “They want the U.S. to come in and take care of the problem.” The Obama Administration also wanted Turkey to do more to prevent foreign fighters from traversing its territory en route to join Syrian militants.

Turkey’s long-term objectives in the region appear plain: Pursue its own interests, even if they run counter to those of NATO and the West.

Sources:

ZeroHedge.com

NationalSecurity.news

BBC.com

WashingtonPost.com