Adding to the growing tension between the European Union and Turkey, NATO has announced today that they will send a group of warships to the Aegean Sea to intercept refugees trying to reach Europe and force them instead to land in Turkey.
The EU has repeatedly demanded that Turkey both allow refugees into their country from Syria, and ensure that none of the refugees are able to get further north into European Union member nations like Greece. Turkey has threatened to open the floodgates of refugees if the EU doesn’t offer them more help managing them.
It’s surprising that NATO was able to so quickly get behind this plan, particularly since Turkey is a member nation, and has been objecting to European efforts to make the entire refugee crisis their problem.
This deployment will center on refugees from Syria, but is likely to lead to pushes for more deployments across the Mediterranean to keep African refugees from trying to make the trip by sea to Italy and other southern European nations.
Is NATO accountable to the people and leaders of the nations it is comprised of?