Why not chuck Turkey out of Nato? It sounds like a great idea — particularly after a few post-summit drinks.There is no doubt that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is an infuriating ally. After dropping his objections last week to Finland and Sweden joining Nato, the Turkish president immediately created fresh doubts — suggesting that Turkey’s parliament will not ratify the agreement, unless Sweden extradites 73 people Turkey accuses of terrorism.
Surrendering anyone to the mercies of Erdoğan’s justice system is a tough ask for any democracy. Selahattin Demirtas, a Kurd and leading opposition politician, has been in prison since 2016 — despite a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights that he should be released and that his imprisonment had “merely been cover for an ulterior political purpose”.
His case is not an isolated example. Osman Kavala, a businessman and philanthropist, was jailed for life without parole in April for allegedly plotting a coup. The weakness of the evidence against him led to protests by western governments, human rights groups and the European Court of Human Rights. Seven co-defendants of Kavala, including Hakan Altinay, a prominent academic, were jailed for 18 years on extremely questionable evidence.