Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suffered his worst electoral setback, with his AKP Party losing control of the capital, Ankara, and apparently set to lose Istanbul in Sunday’s local elections. The losses have damaged Erdogan’s reputation of electoral invincibility, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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The United States and its allies are stepping up cooperation in response to Russian aggression, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday while playing down differences among members as the military alliance marks its 70th anniversary.

Foreign ministers from NATO countries are meeting in Washington this week for the occasion, determined to show a united front in the midst of a long military stalemate in Afghanistan and tensions with Russia returned to Cold War-era levels.

 

But as NATO deploys thousands of troops and equipment to deter Russia and seeks solutions to fast-evolving new threats such as cyberattacks and hybrid warfare, its biggest challenge arguably lies within. Damaging infighting over defense spending and authoritarian tendencies exhibited by some allies undermine NATO’s values, according to experts.

“The strength of NATO is that despite these differences, we have always been able to unite around our core tasks. That is, to protect and defend each other,” NATO chief Stoltenberg said in Brussels before the trip.

 

Stoltenberg has talks with U.S. President Donald Trump planned for Tuesday. He is scheduled to address Congress on Wednesday.

 

A big source of the internal strain is Trump’s recurrent demand that countries devote an amount equal to at least 2 percent of GDP to defense spending — though that metric takes no account of how well the money is spent — as well as the U.S. president’s reluctance to criticize strongmen like Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 

“NATO’s single greatest challenge is the absence of strong, principled American presidential leadership for the first time in its history,” two former U.S. envoys to NATO, Nicholas Burns and Douglas Lute, wrote in a report for the alliance anniversary.

 

Trump, they said, is seen by allies as NATO’s “most urgent, and often most difficult, problem.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testified last week before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington. He was asked if he was familiar with the report by Burns and Lute.

 

Pompeo said he hadn’t read the report but he had known Lute since he was a young military office and had “great respect for him.” But on the subject of Trump and NATO, Lute was “just simply wrong,” Pompeo said.

 

“If the conclusion he drew that President Trump is the biggest impediment to NATO, he’s just simply wrong,” he added. “We have worked diligently to make NATO stronger. I am convinced that we have done so.”

 

Trump made a memorable impression on leaders from Canada and European nations during his first NATO summit in May 2017. During a speech outside NATO’s new Brussels headquarters, he publicly humiliated them. Trump also cast doubt on whether they could count on Washington to fulfill NATO’s collective defense clause.

 

The speech was delivered by a memorial made from a twisted piece of the World Trade Center towers felled by al-Qaida’s airliner attacks on Sept. 11, 2011. Since the founding Washington Treaty was signed on April 4, 1949, NATO has only once activated the clause stating that an attack on one member is an attack on them all, after the 9/11 attacks.

 

Trump also delayed a summit last year with fresh demands on burden sharing. That time, at least, his dressing down about the U.S. spending more on defense than the other NATO members combined happened behind closed doors.

 

Trump’s routine tirades have fueled suspicion his aim mostly is to drum up business for the U.S. defense industry.

 

But the attitude of Trump — who walked away from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate change agreement his allies in Europe value while making tariff threats against them — also is similar to authoritarian or populist streaks showing up in NATO members Turkey, Hungary, Italy and Poland.

 

“The political and trans-Atlantic unity that underpins NATO has been weakened. Only bad guys benefit from trans-Atlantic division and a U.S. retreat from its global leadership role,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Stoltenberg’s predecessor as NATO’s top civilian official, said in an email exchange with The Associated Press.

 

“We see the consequences of U.S. retreat, with autocrats and dictators filling the vacuum,” he added,

 

Burns and Lute say this retreat from democracy, individual freedoms and the rule of law is “a potentially cancerous threat.”

Still, NATO has survived formidable challenges over the decades, including the Cuban missile crisis and the missile race in Europe. It’s also remained intact after internal divisions over the Suez Canal, the Iraq war, and France’s departure from the alliance’s command structure. Officials say they are confident NATO will endure now, too.

 

The White House said last month in a statement about Stoltenberg’s talks with Trump on Tuesday that the two would “discuss the unprecedented success of NATO, including the recent increased commitments on burden-sharing among European allies and ways to address the current, evolving challenges facing the alliance.”

 

Trump is not scheduled to appear at the upcoming talks of NATO foreign ministers, but he is expected to attend a leaders’ summit in London in mid-December.

 

“I hope we will not see a repeat of President Trump’s antics in Brussels last year. It’s time for the world’s democracies to show their unity,” Rasmussen said.
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After months of warnings, the United States has stopped delivery of F-35 fighter jet parts to Turkey in retaliation for Ankara’s decision to move ahead with the purchase of a Russian surface-to-air missile system, the Pentagon said Monday.

Top U.S. government leaders have repeatedly threatened to shut down Turkey’s plan to buy the F-35 advanced fighter aircraft if Turkey didn’t abandon efforts to buy the S-400 Russian system. 

Halting the delivery of parts and manuals needed to prepare for the aircraft’s planned delivery this summer is the first step toward ending the actual aircraft sale.

“The United States has been clear that Turkey’s acquisition of the S-400 is unacceptable,” said acting Pentagon spokesman Charles Summers Jr. “Until they forgo delivery of the S-400, the United States has suspended deliveries and activities associated with the stand-up of Turkey’s F-35 operational capability. Should Turkey procure the S-400, their continued participation in the F-35 program is at risk.”

The U.S. move comes just days after Turkey’s foreign minister said his country was committed to the deal to buy the Russian system and was discussing delivery dates.

American defense and military leaders have said that unless Turkey, a NATO ally, reconsidered its purchase of the S-400, it would forfeit other future American military aircraft and systems. The U.S. and other NATO allies have repeatedly complained about the purchase, saying it is not compatible with other allied systems and would represent a threat to the F-35.

During a Capitol Hill hearing last month, U.S. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the top NATO general, said his best military advice would be that the U.S. not work with an ally that’s acquiring Russian systems that can threaten one of the American military’s most advanced capabilities. Officials have also expressed concerns that Turkey’s acquisition of both U.S. and Russian systems could give Moscow access to sophisticated American technology and allow it to find ways to counter the F-35.

“I’m pleased to see that the Pentagon is heeding our calls to stop the transfer of F-35 related equipment to Turkey,” said U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. “Turkey operating both the S-400 missile and the F-35 is a non-starter. It puts our national security at risk and undermines our NATO allies.”

The U.S. had agreed to sell 100 of its latest, fifth-generation F-35 fighters to Turkey, initially planning to deliver the two aircraft to Turkey in June.

Summers said that although Washington continues to talk with Turkey about the matter, the Pentagon has begun taking necessary steps to find other sources of supply for the Turkish-produced parts of the F-35. The department, he said, is taking prudent steps to protect the supply chain and the shared investments in the aircraft technology.

Pentagon leaders have warned that ending Turkey’s participation in production would likely force other allies to take on that role and could delay aircraft delivery.

U.S. leaders have pressed Turkey to buy an American-made air defense battery, and in December the State Department approved the sale of a $3.5 billion U.S. Patriot system to Ankara.

Turkey’s foreign minister said Friday his country was committed to buying the Russian missile defense system. Speaking at a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu ruled out the possibility of Turkey selling the S-400s to another country as suggested by some analysts as a compromise solution.

“As a principle, it is contrary to international laws for a third country to oppose an agreement between two countries,” Cavusoglu said. “We are committed to this agreement. There can be no such thing as selling to a third country. We are buying them for our own needs.”

Cavusoglu also insisted Turkey had met all of its obligations concerning the F-35 program.

 

 

 
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You could be forgiven for mistaking the first round in Ukraine’s presidential elections as an episode from a TV series — replete with established politicians being vanquished by a refreshing young upstart promising root-and-branch change.

On Sunday, one of Ukraine’s most popular actors — best known for his role in a TV series about a schoolteacher who vaults to his country’s presidency on the wave of anti-corruption disgust —appeared on course to win the first round of a presidential race that’s proving anything but ordinary.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s comfortable win — the count so far has him securing more than 30 percent of the vote — has thrown into the air Ukraine’s political cards, with few daring to predict in what shape they’ll land.

For the voters who backed the 41-year-old, art and life are in harmony.

“If we didn’t have Zelenskiy, we’d have to invent him. We need a new person, a champion of direct democracy. He’s genuine, he’s different and he’s exciting civil society. His network of advisers and volunteers aren’t connected by money or by the possibility of future benefits, but by the idea of real democratic reform,” Irina Venediktova, a law professor and Zelenskiy adviser, told VOA in a pre-election interview.

For his critics, including Petro Poroshenko, the incumbent president who’s on course to win 16 to 19 percent of the vote and to secure the slot to run off against Zelenskiy in the second round on April 21, the TV comic is blurring make-believe and reality dangerously.

As far as he’s concerned the time for jokes are over — Poroshenko says the maverick actor-turned-candidate would make a weak president, one who could easily be tricked and exploited by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian leader, Poroshenko said, “dreams of a soft, submissive, gentle, giggling, inexperienced, weak, ideologically amorphous and politically uncertain president.” “Will we gift him this?” added Poroshenko after half the votes had been counted.

Speaking to supporters as the votes came in, Zelenskiy — he named his party after his popular show’s title, Servant of the People — said “thank you” to “all the Ukrainians who did not vote just for fun.” Zelenskiy added to cheering supporters, “It is only the beginning, we will not relax This is just a first step towards a great victory.”

A wide-ranging support

But a victory for what? Analysts say his support, which unusually for a Ukrainian presidential candidate is spread evenly across most of the country, although it falls off in western regions bordering Poland, is a protest vote against a corruption-heavy, oligarch-dominated political order. To forecast how he would govern is impossible as Zelenskiy has offered little in the way of a program, they say.

His campaign has been based on policy-light, gag-filled videos posted on social media sites that mock established politicians, mainly Poroshenko.

The 53-year-old billionaire and media mogul, dubbed “the chocolate king” because of his confectionary business, came to power during the chaos and turmoil of 2014, when the Kremlin annexed Crimea and backed a separatist war in eastern Ukraine that has killed so far more than 10,000.

Aside from taking aim at Poroshenko for his wealth, Zelenskiy has held no official rallies and offered no political speeches. And even in the few press interviews he’s done, he has shied away from going into policy details. In place of the the usual manifesto, he asked Ukrainians to volunteer campaign ideas for him.

He is broadly pro-European Union and wants to solve the conflict with Russia raging in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, but doesn’t say how. His mantra has been,“No promises, no disappointment.” His opponents say he has turned ignorance into a virtue.

Sticking to generalities

On Sunday night Zelenskiy kept to his script of offering just generalities. “Fascinating. Zelensky makes an appearance at his campaign center. He mainly plays table tennis and MAKES NO STATEMENTS NOR ANSWERS ANY QUESTIONS From REPORTERS, apart from a couple sentences,” tweeted Adrian Karatnycky, an analyst at the Atlantic Council, a U.S.-based think tank, and a critic of Zelenskiy.

Zelinskiy’s upstart candidacy has left many blinking also in the Western diplomatic community. While voicing frustration with Poroshenko, and criticism of his efforts to curtail large-scale corruption, they say at least he’s a known quantity. Zelinskiy’s lack of government experience worries them.

 

But Venediktova says his outside status is one of his strengths. “It will help him find practical and innovative solutions,” she says. She rejects the claim that Zelenskiy can be compared to Italian comic Beppo Grillo, who founded the quirky, anti-establishment Five Star Movement, that’s now a partner in Italy’s populist coalition government. “He is not like Grillo,” she says. “I would compare him to the French leader Emmanuel Macron, a centrist figure who represents broad opinion,” she says.

A ‘harsh lesson’ for Poroshenko

As the results came in Sunday, Poroshenko, who has pushed during his presidency to integrate Ukraine with the European Union and NATO, strengthened the military and aided the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to become independent of Russian control, said the first round had taught him a “harsh lesson.” He said he understood voters want change “to be quicker, deeper and of higher quality. I have understood the motives behind your protest.”

How he rejigs his campaign to cope with Zelinskiy’s unconventional challenge remains unclear. Both the second-round finalists and their aides have started to reach out to seek the backing of the 37 candidates they beat and they are competing especially for the support of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who, when all the votes are finally counted, is likely to end up with about 13 percent of the overall vote.

Poroshenko is likely also to focus more in the run-up to the second round on Zelenskiy’s ties to oligarch, Ihor Kolomoisky, the owner of Ukraine’s TV channel 1+1, which broadcasts The Servant of the People.

Four days before the vote, the latest series of “Servant of the People” premiered, and on the eve of Sunday’s voting the channel dedicated much of its evening’s fare to repeats of old episodes. Zelenskiy insists he’s not a puppet of one of Ukraine’s most controversial oligarchs, but Poroshenko’s camp is likely to boost claims that Kolomoisky’s is engineering a PR coup.
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With half of the ballots counted Monday, comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy and incumbent Petro Poroshenko were leading in Ukraine’s presidential election.

The Central Election Commission said Zelenskiy, a comedian who plays the role of the president in a television comedy series, was in first place with 30 percent of the vote.

Poroshenko, who has been in power since 2014, was in second place with about 17 percent.

Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was in third place with 13 percent.

If the results hold and no candidate earns a majority, a runoff vote will be held on April 21 between the top two finishers.

“This is only the first step toward a great victory,” Zelenskiy told reporters after initial results were released.

Zelenskiy is seeking to prove life can indeed imitate art. He in the protagonist of a long-running popular series called the “Servant of the People,” in which he plays a teacher who unexpectedly finds himself president after a student posts on YouTube one of his rants denouncing the elite. 

Poroshenko has been accused by opponents of running schemes to buy votes, and saw his approval ratings fall as Ukraine experienced economic woes. His campaign included promises to take back control of Crimea after Russia annexed it in 2014.
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