https://arab.news/yuzbe
This week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer paid an important visit to Turkiye to meet with his Turkish counterpart, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. For the UK, Turkiye has long been a vital partner — not only in Europe, but also on the global stage. At the height of the Cold War, this importance was made clear in a since-declassified 1979 memo prepared for Margaret Thatcher on her second day as prime minister.
The document laid out Turkiye’s central role in Europe’s defense: “If Turkiye abandoned her Western orientation, a number of strongly adverse military consequences would follow for the West, even if she did not align with the Soviet Union… The military position would be the more serious if the Soviet Union were herself able to exploit Turkish airspace or, worse, given use of Turkiye’s airfields. In that event, the Eastern Mediterranean might become untenable by NATO in time of tension or war.”
In this sense, little has changed regarding Turkiye’s important role in European security. Here, Starmer was building on the progress first made by one of his predecessors, David Cameron, who 15 years ago set out to deepen relations between the UK and Turkiye. But engagement has gone back centuries.
