In April 2017, the ruling party in Turkey "Justice and Development" wanted to gain electoral points in its favor by promoting the popularity of his country in the Sunni Muslim world under the rule of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. To achieve this, the party funded a promotional advertisement filmed in Pakistani territory showing a Turkish couple sitting in a café surprised by the account note that the Pakistani waiter had delivered to them and had been paid, and before signs of surprise more than the disorganized couple told them the waiter said, "Mr. Erdogan paid the bill."
To a greater extent than the previous declaration promotes, decades-long strategic relations between the two countries are growing. In Pakistan, which was supported by Ankara shortly after its partition by India, it is not surprising that you find roads and streets in the name of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and likewise the situation was In Turkey, whose main road is named in the name of Pakistan, the founder of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and in recent years, Islamabad has continued to extend a helping hand to Turkey, then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was one of the first to contact Erdogan to support him after the failed coup attempt that occurred in Turkey in 2016.
It is the position that contributed to pushing Erdogan to intensify the bilateral relations between the two countries, those relations that were led by Erdogan himself, when he visited Pakistan four times, most recently in February, to participate in the sixth session of the Pakistani-Turkish Strategic Cooperation Council accompanied by a large delegation of ministers, investors and representatives of the sector Actions, and in order to prevent the international isolation of both countries, Ankara continued to support Islamabad in the most important issue of the abolition of the Indian government Article 370, which gave status to the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region, in return, Pakistan did not hesitate to join a small group of countries that sided with the Turkish position during The "Operation Spring of Peace" in northeastern Syria in October 2019, and recently confirmed its support for the Turkish military position in the current Syrian theater.
But the most important thing for Washington's two allies is the close military cooperation that has also existed for a long time. During the Cold War, the mutual realization of the Soviet threat paved the way to strengthening Turkish-Pakistani relations during the last century. Then, after the rise of Erdogan who wanted his country to become more independent from the “West,” Pakistan was - the only Muslim-majority country to have nuclear weapons since 1997 - an important choice as a partner that can bring Ankara a diversification in its defense ties, and as the European Union goes through a process of transformation, Pakistan has become the strategic partner that helps Turkey to maintain a balance between the East And the West, and increases its influence in Asia.
In the beginning of the fifties, the United States decided to establish an air base on the lands of the Turkish city of Adana in order to deter the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and specifically in the year 1955, this base known as "Incirlik" became ready filled with weapons, equipment and soldiers who number today two thousand American soldiers.
"Incirlik" military capabilities allowed al-Qaeda to reach every hot spot in the Middle East, where over the years the base was a logistical center and support facility that participated in a range of conflicts in the Middle East, from the Lebanon crisis of 1958 to the Gulf War, and not the end of participating in the air war against ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq, and with this role the most sensitive point for the presence of this base remains the containment of nuclear bombs, as the Trump administration recently acknowledged, in which there are approximately 50 B61K nuclear bombs developed as part of the sharing policy. Nuclear Alliance for NATO's Western Military, which is thermonuclear gravity bombs with an adjustable (FUFO) option that allows low to medium production ranging from 0.3 to 340 kilotons, and although weapons are under US control, concerns are raised from time to time. And the other about its fate due to regional instability and political differences in the region, especially since Ankara - according to American sources - considers the weapons on Turkish territory to be "truly Turkish", which was feeding its sense to some extent by the lack of Her own dart.
However, the presence of the American nuclear weapon on Turkish soil did not hold back Ankara from attempts to acquire nuclear weapons, as it left Ankara "its nuclear options open" as indicated in a 2012 report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace entitled "Turkey and the Bomb", and in 1979 Ankara began operating A small number of small research reactors. Since 1986, reactor fuel has been produced in a pilot plant in Istanbul that also deals with spent fuel and highly radioactive waste. Today, Moscow plays an increasingly important role in Turkey’s long-term nuclear planning, working to build four nuclear reactors in Turkey. Its work is proceeding from the specified date, as the first reactor, which was originally scheduled to start operation this year, is expected to start its work in late 2023.
Although Turkey is still in the process of making plans, and it is not easy for it to obtain the fuel that is the most difficult part in the process of possession of bombs and building a secret nuclear arsenal, it has made important strides and has learned the enormous skills necessary to purify uranium and convert it into plutonium for use in nuclear warheads. The two main fuels for atomic bombs.
“It is unacceptable that nuclear armed states prevent Ankara from obtaining its nuclear weapons,” this text was part of what Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told members of the ruling Justice and Development Party on September 4, 2019.
It was not logical to consider Erdogan's previous position as a mere "fiery" statement aimed at intimidating his opponents. It is more likely that what he said came in the context of a concrete shift in his country's policy that acceded to the NPT in 1980, and has a civil nuclear program that cooperates in expanding it with Russian and Japanese companies, Turkey that lacks strategic air and missile defense against its regional opponents, it is they who clearly insisted on possessing an advanced surface-to-air missile system from Moscow (S-400) striking American warnings against the wall, as happened and Ankara threatened to develop nuclear weapons Its own in response to calls from the American administration calling for it to remove or disable nuclear bombs at the Incirlik base.
The most important factor in Erdogan's position is his fear of the Trump administration seeking to reduce Washington's commitments in the Middle East, as Turkey sees the importance of working to strengthen its position in the region, which may be obtaining nuclear weapons important to achieve, and as Israeli security analyst Arye Ejuzi says: “After the United States’s withdrawal from the Middle East, it appears that there is a new urgent need to adjust power in the region that started at least four years ago, with Iran and Russia trying to fill the void,” he says. “These forces are trying to fulfill their dreams of regional fame, as a player.” Our dominance must be included in regional dynamics, and in this scenario Turkey may feel that nuclear weapons will give it an important advantage.
And at a time when some observers believe that Turkey may be reluctant to take any actual step towards the nuclear industry in order to avoid imposing international sanctions that overburse the Turkish economy, Turkey's opponents are preoccupied with the burgeoning defense relationship between Pakistan and Turkey and its possible nuclear connection, given that Pakistan gives Ankara important strategic military relations, as Their military relations have grown since 1988 under the mechanism of the Pakistani-Turkish Military Consultative Group. Then, the exchange program for the armed forces between the armies of the two countries that opened in 2000 contributed to the training of approximately 1,500 Pakistani military officers in Turkey.
Bilateral defense and security cooperation was also strengthened through important defense deals in 2018, and today Turkey is the second largest supplier of Pakistani weapons after China, and more rapprochement has been added between the two countries with the arrival of the current Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to power in 2018, as it has become customary For the media to convey serial news about military activity between the two countries, such as the participation of the Pakistani naval ship "PNS Alamgir" and "P3C" long-range naval patrol aircraft in the multinational exercise "Dogu Akendiz 2019" in southwestern Turkey, or Ankara won a multi-billion dollar tender to supply Four corvettes to the Pakistani Navy, which is the largest export defense deal for Turkey's defense industry in history, also sells its T129 multi-mission combat and tactical reconnaissance (ATAK) combat helicopters to Islamabad.
As for nuclear cooperation between the two countries, this dates back to the period 1982-1984 when it became clear that Turkey was a hidden center of the black market for the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadir Khan - the mastermind of the largest episode of nuclear proliferation "illegal" in history -, and that Pakistan planned At the end of the nineties of the twentieth century to transfer the production of centrifuges to Turkey, Khan also presented the Turks with a list of technical expertise to build a bomb.
In conclusion, Turkey is concerned with achieving its strategic military objectives, of which Pakistan is an important link, but the two countries still face obstacles to further rapprochement between them due to some of the positions of the Arab allies allied to Pakistan, which Turkey considers a major threat to it. Abu Dhabi and Riyadh that are fighting Turkish influence in the world Al-Islami has not hesitated to press Islamabad to prevent it from further rapprochement with Turkey.
Under the weight of the need for financial support from Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, it was not surprising that Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan declined late last year when attending the mini-Islamic summit that was held in Kuala Lumpur, but despite what some observers suggest Pakistan is trying to balance its relations with each of Ankara And Riyadh, to maintain the status quo, the continuous talk about cooperation in the nuclear military framework is a reason for the emergence of major challenges facing the two countries.