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Green foreign politician Trittin
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
NATO member Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) - a security organization led by Russia and primarily China.
The traffic light coalition is therefore calling for harsh consequences for the country.
"NATO and the European Union must ask themselves how long they will let Erdoğan dance around on their noses," said the foreign policy spokesman for the Greens parliamentary group, Jürgen Trittin, to the newspaper "Welt".
»Turkey is preventing NATO from monitoring the UN arms embargo on Libya.
It is drilling in Greece's economic zone.
NATO member Turkey is doing more to circumvent European sanctions on Russia than China.
Erdoğan puts the brakes on Finland and Sweden joining NATO.
And now he wants to join the SCO together with Iran.” It was time for a “more robust Turkey policy,” said Trittin.
Since no one can be expelled from NATO, coercive economic measures against Turkey must be considered.
SPD sees SCO membership as a diversionary maneuver
Nils Schmid, foreign policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, sees Erdoğan's plan as a serious mistake and as a renewed attempt to distract from domestic political difficulties.
"In terms of foreign policy, this would be another symbolic step away from the West and its values - a serious political mistake for Turkey's future."
NATO member Turkey is already a so-called “dialogue partner” of the SCO.
In addition to China and Russia, the security organization also includes India, Pakistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
col/Reuters
