Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan warned Europe that US President Donald Trump’s actions should serve as a “wake-up call” for Europe to create a security framework independent of the United States and NATO, in an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday.
Fidan, speaking after meetings in London with European counterparts to discuss Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukraine into a ceasefire with Russia and his threats to pull back from European security, told FT that Ankara is ready to join any new European security architecture if NATO collapses.
“The genie is out of the bottle and there is no way to put it back,” the FT quoted Fidan as saying. “Even if President Trump decides not to withdraw from Europe at this time, it is possible that in the future someone with similar views and political ideas might consider reducing America’s contributions to European security.”
Fidan, who previously served as Turkey’s intelligence chief, emphasized that Europe must unite and “design our own center of gravity.”
Turkey maintains NATO’s second-largest military force after the US, making Ankara a key player in any future security arrangements in Europe.
Fidan also discussed Turkey’s influential role in Syria following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in late 2024, describing Ankara as the dominant foreign power in Syria today.
However, Fidan expressed deep concerns over the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed group Turkey considers closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey. He called the SDF “the sworn enemy of Turkey.”
In response to a potential US withdrawal from Syria, Fidan proposed creating a regional coalition capable of combating the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) independent of Washington. “So if we, as neighbours of Syria, can come up with our own regional platform, we can still fight against [ISIL] even if the US decides to pull out,” the FT quoted him as saying.