CRISIS IN TURKEY – DOES WASHINGTON CARE? – AT 10:56 A.M. ET:  Turkey is one of the more critical nations, a bridge between Europe and the Mideast, and the only Muslim country in NATO.  But Turkey is going through internal trauma that can affect both the Western alliance and stability in the Mideast.

In a story that has been overshadowed by the American debt dilemma, Turkey's military leadership has resigned.  It is the military that has maintained Turkey's secular, pro-Western traditions against the pro-Islamic regime that the country has had for a decade.  Turkey's pro-Western stance is weakening considerably, with a government more sympathetic to Iran than to those resisting Iran.  This is not good for us:

(Reuters) - Turkey's top military brass resigned on Friday, in the latest and possibly decisive round of a long battle between the traditional secularist establishment embodied by the army and the Islam-rooted government of Tayyip Erdogan that has dominated Turkey for nearly a decade.

The head of Turkey's military quit on Friday along with the army, navy and airforce chiefs in protest against what he called the unjust detention of 250 military officers held on charges of conspiracy against Prime Minister Erdogan's government.

The unprecedented move by the High Command in NATO's second largest armed forces sent shockwaves through Turkey.

It lays open the deep rift between a military badged with the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatruk, founder of the Turkish Republic, and a rival elite represented by Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AK), with Islamist roots and a vast following in the conservative heartland of Anatolia.

COMMENT:  The Islamists are winning in Turkey, with profound implications for NATO and for relations with the Muslim world.  Turkey has access to classified information within NATO, and NATO is currently engaged in two Muslim countries, Afghanistan and Liby.  I wonder what's happening to that secret data. 

If Turkey's military falls under Islamic control, the battle for Turkey is over, and NATO's second largest military force will, bottom line, be on the other side.  That is simply an incredible prospect, and can lead NATO into even more paralysis than it already suffers.

July 30, 2011