Two NATO countries are arguing. Then comes the foreign minister of a third NATO country, who is close friends with the other two. And this foreign minister says: One state should not question the territorial integrity of the other. This statement seems so self-evident that one can hardly recognize a scandal in it.
But the Turkish government sees Annalena Baerbock's statement on Greece's territorial sovereignty as an attack. And the CDU opposition complains that Baerbock's positioning is "not helpful". In fact, the foreign minister's remark was anything but self-evident. But not in the way Turkish and Christian Democratic foreign politicians think.
Flashback: About two years ago, the maritime border dispute between Athens and Ankara escalated. And the most powerful EU states demonstrated two completely opposite crisis strategies. France under Emmanuel Macron sent warships conducting naval maneuvers alongside Greek formations as an unmistakable military warning to the Turks.
Germany, in the person of Angela Merkel, picked up the phone. Nobody knows exactly what Merkel discussed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The crisis eventually abated. But one thing is certain: the crisis never went away. She's back now. Neither strategy was lastingly successful.
Now Baerbock is apparently trying to do something third, a kind of value-driven front straightening of the West. She doesn't want to lose Turkey as a NATO partner either, but in times of the Ukraine war and the violent border shifts in Europe, she wants to clarify in a new way what is a prerequisite for alliances - including the recognition of national borders. Where it is missing, war traditionally threatens, there can be no alliance.
The logic is on Baerbock's side. Your German critics believe that such fundamental issues should only be discussed confidentially with the Turks if you want to secure influence in Ankara. But this "influence" could neither prevent the Turkish invasion of Syria nor the dismantling of Turkish democracy nor the permanent crisis with Greece.
The authoritarians of this world have thoroughly exploited the leniency of democracies, not only Erdogan but also Orbán, Putin and others. Reason enough to ask who really wants to belong to the club called the West. The statutes apply - because without statutes there is no association.
