MHP Official Says NATO Has Collapsed, Calls Nuclear Program ‘Essential’ for Türkiye

Summary:

A senior official from Türkiye’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) said the global security order has broken down and argued that Türkiye should launch its own nuclear program, citing what he described as the collapse of NATO’s deterrence and rising risks of a full-scale global war.

Semih Yalçın, deputy chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and an Istanbul lawmaker, made the remarks in a written statement assessing recent global developments and the international security environment.

Yalçın said the risk of an all-out war is now closer than at any point in recent decades and claimed that existing international institutions have lost their deterrent power. In this context, he argued that Türkiye launching its own nuclear program is “essential.”

Sharp criticism of the United States and Trump

In unusually harsh language, Yalçın criticized the United States and former President Donald Trump, accusing Washington of behaving like a “pirate state.” Referring to U.S. actions toward Venezuela and the detention of its leader Nicolás Maduro, Yalçın compared Trump to the 17th-century privateer Henry Morgan, calling him “the modern-day Black Pirate.”

He said U.S. conduct has transformed what he described as individual piracy into “state-to-state piracy,” adding that the United States has now become “the world’s largest pirate state.”

‘UN silent, NATO security architecture has collapsed’

Yalçın argued that the United Nations has remained ineffective in the face of what he called U.S. lawlessness, and claimed that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has lost its strategic relevance.

He pointed to tensions involving Greenland, which is part of Denmark, a NATO member, saying threats directed at allied countries have undermined the alliance’s credibility. According to Yalçın, NATO’s deterrence, solidarity, and operational effectiveness now exist only “in military fairy tales.”

Warning of a global war risk

Yalçın said current developments evoke memories of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world came close to nuclear war. He noted that during that crisis, de-escalation by John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev prevented catastrophe, with missiles withdrawn from Cuba as well as from Italy and Türkiye.

He argued that nuclear weapons today serve both as deterrents and as existential threats, claiming that possession of nuclear arms has effectively become a guarantee of national survival and security.

Call for Türkiye to launch a nuclear program

Drawing a historical parallel, Yalçın recalled that France initiated its own nuclear program following the Cuban Missile Crisis. He said Türkiye should take a similar step under current global conditions.

According to Yalçın, international rules and norms followed by Türkiye to date were largely designed by Western powers. He described both the United Nations and NATO as institutions shaped under U.S. leadership, with European countries playing a central role in their formation.

Claim of a collapsing Western-led order

Yalçın concluded by arguing that the Western-centric international order established after World War II is unraveling. He said values promoted by the West are being abandoned and replaced by what he described as a new global order inspired by force rather than law.

The statement reflects growing nationalist and security-focused rhetoric within parts of Türkiye’s political spectrum, amid heightened global tensions and debates over NATO’s future role.

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