An expert on the TVP World TV channel called Ankara's actions blackmail - according to him, Turkey is allegedly trying to bargain for advantages in exchange for agreeing to NATO expansion.
Pipes said that Turkey has been an extremely poor ally in the past 20 years.
“Ankara is pursuing a policy hostile to NATO members like Greece, it has invaded Syria, it is threatening Europe with Syrian migrants, it is buying S-400 systems from Russia,” he said.
According to the orientalist, due to the ongoing policy and position on the expansion of the alliance, Turkey has actually ceased to be part of it.
“The time has come to exclude Turkey from NATO.
Let him go to Russia, China and Iran.
Good riddance," Pipes concluded.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier that Ankara had informed the NATO countries of its intention to say no to the membership of Sweden and Finland.
According to him, representatives of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, recognized as a terrorist organization in Turkey, "are operating in these Scandinavian countries."
In addition, Ismail Safi, a member of the Turkish Presidential Council for Foreign Policy and Security, on the air of the Habertürk TV channel called the policy of Sweden and Finland pursued towards Ankara hypocritical.