Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a radical Islamist and NATO ally, addressed the ongoing summit of BRICS member states on Thursday, demanding an arms embargo on Israel and stating he was committed to bringing Turkey deeper into the fold of the anti-American coalition.
BRICS is an anti-Western union of states led by the core members that give it its name: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The original members formally inducted four more countries – Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates – into the fold in January.
The summit taking place this week in Kazan, Russia, is unprecedented in the short history of the BRICS coalition, as member states opened up the second and third days of the conference to friendly countries seeking to bolster the bloc. Russian strongman Vladimir Putin claimed this week that upwards of 30 nations were participating in the summit at a high level, nearly two dozen of them sending their heads of state.
The objective of the BRICS coalition is to create a counterweight to the United States-led world order and its many international institutions, including the G7, NATO, and other regional organizations. Prior to the summit beginning, Russia previewed that member states would be discussing the reduction of the use of the U.S. dollar in intra-BRICS trade and how to strengthen trade and cultural ties among members. The countries would also discuss the escalating interest from outside nations in joining and how to address it – whether to induct more official members or create a secondary class of “BRICS Plus” or “BRICS partners.”
For months, Turkey has publicly stated it is interested in joining BRICS, the first NATO country to seriously express such a desire. French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly requested an invitation to the 2023 summit from host South Africa but did not receive one. Instead, the government of Russia heckled France, accusing Macron of plotting a “Trojan horse” operation.
Given a chance to address the platform on Thursday, Erdogan declared that the “post-Second World War political and financial mechanisms fall short of the expectations under today’s conditions,” expressing more optimism for the young BRICS institution than the unnamed entities of the post-World War II order.
“We believe that BRICS makes unique contributions to the construction of a fairer global order by serving the enhancement of global trade, economic growth and sustainable development goals,” Erdogan declared. “We are determined to enhance our dialogue with the BRICS family, too, with which we have developed close relations on the basis of mutual respect and win-win approach.”
“Mutual respect and win-win” are terms typically used by the Chinese Communist Party, the most influential BRICS member, in discussing its colonialist policies under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and other diplomatic activities.
Erdogan reportedly spent much of his address attacking Israel for its self-defense activities taken in response to the atrocities committed by Iran-backed terrorist Hamas organization on October 7, 2023. Israel declared war against Hamas and launched a military initiative in Gaza, which Hamas controls, to prevent a repeat of the disastrous terrorist attack. Erdogan has enthusiastically supported Hamas following the attack, falsely claiming it is “not a terrorist organization” and repeatedly comparing the Israeli government to Nazi Germany.
“Neither justice nor peace or development can be discussed unless the bloodshed in the Middle East is stopped,” Erdogan told BRICS. “The aggressive attitude Israel has been maintaining at the cost of dragging the entire region into the fire has already crossed any kind of boundary, law and conscience in particular.”
Erdogan repeated his claims that Israel’s operations against Hamas are a “genocide” and called for an arms embargo on Israel, as well as “the establishment of an independent, sovereign and geographically integrated Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East [Jerusalem] as its capital.”
Turkey’s overtures to a coalition that includes some of the world’s most prolific human rights violators and terrorism sponsors have caused some alarm in the West, though Ankara has for months claimed it was in the “process” of applying for an invite to BRICS. Erdogan himself has replied to concerns by insisting that his government does not consider BRICS and NATO mutually exclusive: “We do not think that this alliance and cooperation are an alternative to one another.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte refused to criticize Turkey for seeking cooperation with BRICS this week, telling reporters on Tuesday that Turkey is a “popular” NATO member due to abiding by the defense spending requirements the alliance imposes on its members.
“Let’s not forget that Türkiye is a very important ally in the alliance. It has one of the best-equipped military forces in NATO. It plays a vital role in its part of the NATO geography,” Rutte said. “It provides a lot of capabilities to NATO as a whole.”
The NATO chief added that Turkey has “the sovereign right” to approach BRICS, which “might lead to debates now and then … but that doesn’t mean that Turkey is not … very popular in NATO.”
