By Scott Ritter
The international conference entitled “The Alliance to Prevent a Great War,” organized by the World Civilizations Initiative Research Center, was held at the Meyra Palace Hotel in Ankara on 18–19 July 2026.
UWI will present the speeches held on the conference during the coming days.
The conference, which featured presentations by speakers from Azerbaijan, Belarus, France, Germany, Greece, Iran, Italy, Japan, Russia, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Türkiye, the United Kingdom, and the United States, was attended by approximately 200 distinguished invited guests.
Ministers, members of parliament, ambassadors, retired generals, scholars, politicians, diplomats, military officers, and experts examined the question of the “Alliance to Prevent a Great War” from a wide range of perspectives.
Below, we present the speech of Scott Ritter, former US Marine Corps Intelligence Officer. The title was set by UWI.
Last month I had the honor and privilege of attending a summit in Istanbul that focused on, at that time, the upcoming NATO summit scheduled to be held in Ankara in early July. There were many concerns expressed during this Istanbul conference, and I think the events have shown that these concerns were well warranted. Today, the NATO summit is in the rearview mirror. It has taken place; it is part of the historical record. So, maybe it is time now to reflect on just what happened.
What happened was, to be frank, an insult to Turkish sovereignty. We should never forget that the nations that assembled in Ankara are not the friends of Türkiye. None of them are. Not the United States, not France, not Germany, not England, not any NATO member, not Greece. And what they were doing was creating a massive political charade. It was theater on a grand scale designed to draw Türkiye into a NATO misadventure in Ukraine, and to use Türkiye’s position, which has been crafted carefully by President Erdoğan over the past decade or so, to the advantage of Europe and to the disadvantage of Türkiye.
I think people need to understand that everything NATO does—frankly speaking, everything the United States does—is to Türkiye’s disadvantage, because Türkiye is not a priority. Türkiye has never been a priority for the United States or for NATO. NATO has used Türkiye from the very inception of Türkiye’s involvement in this alliance. Türkiye was brought in to secure NATO’s southern flank, and that job ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
And so, as Türkiye expands its geopolitical vision, as Türkiye seeks to pivot away from a Europe that has long rejected Turkish membership in the European Union, treated Türkiye poorly, and highlighted the Christian-Muslim difference in Türkiye—making full incorporation all but impossible—Türkiye has, rightly so, pivoted to the East: to Central Asia, to fellow Muslim nations, to nations that are more politically aligned with Türkiye’s geopolitical vision, nations like Russia and China. This has been Türkiye’s strength.
And yet, now here comes NATO at a moment of its ultimate weakness, of its ultimate failure. Not just the past failure in Afghanistan, which again sucked Türkiye in as a member of NATO and used Türkiye’s historical relationship with the Afghans for the benefit not of Türkiye or Afghanistan, but of NATO and the United States. Türkiye was dragged into this failure. But now they are trying to drag Türkiye into an even greater failure in Ukraine, to get Türkiye to become an active participant in a conflict that has already dragged on too long, taken too many lives, and shows no chance of being resolved along the lines that NATO seeks—that is, with the strategic defeat of Russia.
So, why did Erdoğan agree to this? Well, I think the answer focuses on the economy and the fact that the Turkish economy is in a recovery position, seeking to become stronger while avoiding the pitfalls of high inflation and over-leveraged foreign debt. I think Erdoğan was hoping that he would be able to play host to Western nations and engender some sort of goodwill when it comes to benefiting the Turkish economy. I think Erdoğan will find that he will be disappointed in this regard.
The question now is: will NATO be disappointed in Türkiye’s response? And I believe the answer is yes, because everything that NATO is doing right now regarding Ukraine is a fraud. It is an information operation, a psychological warfare effort designed to create perceptions of NATO strength where such strength does not exist. And there is no way that Türkiye’s involvement, real or imagined, will improve the reality of NATO strength; there just is no NATO strength. The goal is to create the impression of Russian weakness.
But I think going forward, you will find that Türkiye will continue its alignment with Russia, with China, and increasingly with Iran, as they recognize that these forces who oppose continued American global hegemony and NATO’s subservient role to the American hegemon—that this is the direction for Türkiye to go moving forward.
The Ankara summit will ultimately be seen as a failure. NATO will not be able to fulfill any of the grand plans that were schemed during Ankara, and Türkiye will not, I believe, ultimately realign itself with NATO and the West. I think that the NATO summit over time will be seen as a disaster, and Türkiye will recognize that continuing to engage with NATO and the United States in such a duplicitous fashion is not in the best interest of Türkiye, and that pivoting to the East is indeed the direction that Türkiye needs to go moving forward.