Open Letter Concerning Turkiye to The Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Government of Canada
- CAEF
- Aug 11, 2024
- 5 min read
UNITED AGAINST HATE CANADA
BY E-MAIL
August 7, 2024
The Honourable Melanie Joly
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Government of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A5
Re: A Need for Canada to Call Out the Destabilizing of the Middle East by the Republic of Türkiye
Dear Minister Joly,
We recognize that the Islamic Republic of Iran is the world's prime sponsor of terrorism and may in the coming days, directly, or through its proxies, attack the State of Israel which would fuel a major regional war.
Iran is the puppet master for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis and may soon be a nuclear state. The world of course is, as it should be, focussed on whether Iran will attack Israel as it is now threatening to do.
However, we should not forget that its next-door neighbour, the Republic of Turkiye (formerly spelled Turkey), has also become an authoritarian state and has repeatedly crossed its borders with Syria and Iraq to attack forces allied with the western democracies in the war against Islamist terror groups such as the extremist armed group Islamic State (ISIS).
Turkiye’s politics now skew to the anti-western axis that includes Iran, its proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis while it has fostered increasingly warm relations with Putin's Russia.
July 20 was the 50th anniversary of the brutal Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Some 40% of the island remains under illegal Turkish occupation and Turkiye continues to flout United Nations resolutions calling for the removal of its troops and the reunification of the island.
Tukiye's threat to peace in the region escalated last week with President Recep Erdogan proclaiming his undying support for Hamas and actually stating that Turkiye will invade Israel.
Turkiye leverages its membership in NATO to deflect criticism.
The time has come to recognize that Turkiye’s increasing bold actions weaken the security of the NATO members and destabilizes the Middle East.
Increasingly Turkiye supports Islamist forces through the entire Middle East and North Africa. We join with those who see Turkiye as a Trojan Horse within NATO.
Yet there has been little push back on Turkiye in the United States, Canada or in the European Union. NATO members need to take action immediately against Turkiye starting with targeted sanctions against its leaders and perhaps moving to ultimately expelling the country from the alliance.
We seek:
A more robust, vocal and visible Canadian response to Turkiye. We seek a statement from you as Foreign Minister
We urge Canada to vigorously denounce Turkiye’s embrace of Hamas.
We ask that Canada publicly denounce President Erdogan’s statement that Turkiye will attack Israel.
We call for Canada to demand a halt in Turkish attacks against Kurdish forces fighting Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq
We request that Canada raise Turkiye's behaviour at the NATO Council.
We urge you as Foreign Minister to publicly call for the reunification of Cyprus and the immediate withdrawal of Turkish occupying troops.
Turkiye must be made to understand that there is a cost to aligning with authoritarian countries such as Russia and Iran. It also must understand that NATO will not allow it to abuse its membership to threaten Israel thus destabilizing the peace and security of the entire Middle East.
Yours truly,
Comments