large numbers protesting for the 41st friday in a row demanding political change campaigning for next month's presidential election began last sunday but demonstrators in the so-called hereat movement are rejecting the vote all 5 candidates have links to the former president abilities but a freak a who was forced out by mass protests in april protesters are demanding a complete change in the political classes and the president of the south american country of syria now it's been sentenced to 20 years in prison a panel of 3 judges convicted desi but tennessee for the killing of 15 political opponents and 982 when he became the de facto leader following a coup the decision was announced on friday during his official trip to china. for those were the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after inside story station thanks so much about that.

the president of france says that nato is brain dead and that terrorism is now the enemy of the not russia and the neo mccall wants his criticism to be a wakeup call for the military alliance so what does it mean for nato is future an organization the us president also once described as obsolete this is inside story . hello welcome to the program i'm adrian finnegan after world war 2 and facing a rising threat from the soviet union a group of european and north american countries banded together and signed up to the north atlantic treaty they believed a collective defense was the best way to ensure future peace in the is that

followed the organizations membership and goals expanded there are now 29 countries committed to protecting the security if they chose members but on the alliances 70th anniversary some a questioning its effectiveness just weeks after calling nato brain dead france's president a manual mccraw that the organizations boss for talks in paris as erasmus national buffer reports from the french capital. it was a longer handshake than usual for the french president it seemed to be a sign that emanuel was in a conciliatory mood as he greeted nato secretary general at the least say only a few weeks after he described the military alliance as brain dead but if you install timberg had hoped for an apology or a retraction he didn't get one as mike ross stood by his claim that nato lacked direction because one of the questions i ask are open questions that we have not resolved peace in europe. treaty the relationship with russia the subject was

talking who is standing so injuries or decision let's not negotiate cost sharing a burden sharing maybe we needed a wake up call if you permit english expressions stoltenberg said nato members often had different opinions but that didn't mean the alliance has no future so the policy start while questions are 'd being asked about the strength of the transatlantic north america and europe i dream or together than we have done for decades it's clear that my comment that nato is brain dead didn't go down well with stoltenberg pretty certainly shaken up the alliance and focused minds on coming up with some new ideas germany's foreign minister has suggested that a group of experts from outside nato could be created to review the organization some analysts say such a move would be constructive it was war in ukraine there's a huge problem in middle east their war in syria iraq or iran is behaving

differently so this is something very useful and it's much better to discuss the problem together with experts inside the alliance than than criticizing the alliance and. your party the credibility of the alliance. next week nato leaders meet in london for a special summit to market creation 70 years ago during the cold winning it was a time when members agreed on their aims and who was the enemy today its leaders are politically poll. the security challenges have changed nato might not be at death's door yet but most members now expose concedes that for it to survive successfully it needs a fresh approach to such about law i'll just sirrah paris meanwhile france and fellow member turkey a locked in a war of words ahead of next week's nato summit emanuel macross says that ankara put nato mission at risk with its recent military operation in northern syria but turkey's president says that mccraw doesn't understand the situation just pick the

security didn't but. i respect the security interests of autocue fellow who has suffered many terrorist attacks on its soil but one cannot on one hand say that we are allies with respect to this demand else all the dirty and on the other hand put itself in the place of a military offensive done as a fait accompli which endangered the action of the coalition against islamic state which nato is a part of claiming commitment to collective security is not enough you must show it a real alliance is about actions and decisions not words so i wish to have a real discussion between allies and our concrete engagements in the fight against terrorism in the hell as in the levant region the military intervention carried out by turkey in northeast syria has brought up real questions which must be tackled. all right let's bring in our guests for today's discussion joining us now from paris john locke law and international law consultant and professor at the university institute of pius via skype from santander for reece. chief strategy

officer at rasmussen global and former director of policy planning at nato and from ankara we're joined by use of well about a security analyst and retired colonel gentlemen welcome to you or john let's start with you did nato need a wake up call as maclaurin right when he says that the organization is brain dead . yes he's absolutely right and did he return to the theme because the braindead remark was made 10 days or 2 weeks ago and he returned to the theme only only recently. and said that he had he was very pleased to have raised this issue and to put it on the table and he asked the question which really is the ultimate question and it's an ultimate question because a nato doesn't have the answer the question is who's the enemy michael said who's the enemy is it russia is it peace in europe is it turkey who is the enemy and because it nato is unable to answer that question it is like

a bad scene from earth the theater of the absurd it's 6 characters or 29 characters in search of an author they're people who've lost the plot they need a new plot they want to plot because they want to justify their existence but they don't have one military alliance only makes sense if you know who you are allied against a nato doesn't faeries enemy is the kurds poland's enemy is russia and the united states and europe have a have different views on who is the enemy. in the south and does nato have a future can europe forge ahead on its own in terms of security without the u.s. and turkey well let me 1st strongly disagree jonathan i guess we're going to debate saw for the sake of it i think nato guards have clarity about what there's one of the biggest threats the alliance has spacey and if you just look at the past few

years you know which power is invited a european country like ukraine which are asked latest new type of besides right at the heart of europe straight to europe in general terms which power has been looked at slides and military members that are against international norms and groups that . russia so in that sense of benito is basically on twitter threat come from and it doesn't actually never denied at least when there was a needle that the middle east made a terrorism and say states pulls a reality threat but the reality is actually france along some countries has always blocked nato plane more active both political but also over asian abroad in the middle east so i think that matter is right it's always have a future wait or call but i think we also have to look at our own little bit each and every year france has many considerations when it comes to its traditional

positioning it needs a john i know you want to come back on that i'll let you let you do so in just a moment but let's bring in yourself 1st of all from ankara turkey still committed to nato or is it drifting away from the alliance and the west i mean what sort of an alliance partner is it whatever it takes strategic decisions without consulting its allies and buys russian surface to air missiles ok to tell the truth we can define after the call for the threat is very easily in the name of security understanding the new threat is terrorism the new threat is the me gratian flow and the refugees the new threat is the russian aggression in italian disasters and all saw the failed states especially in the middle east and then you take a look at the turkey's position it is very clear that turkey is fighting it all kind of terrorism inside the middle east on the ground which fall against and not

for allies more than 3000 member sort of that and all saw all of this sharing information about the terrorist activities inside the middle east and you know very well that including french they do not even accept their citizens who fought in the name of their middle east that mr trump has on the line for many times that european countries including france should take the risk. possibility and should accept they are still suspect to their country and put them on trial saw for destry isn't against fighting against terrorism turkey is committing what he has promised so far be to clear numbers that he can observe the other issue is that me gratian and the refugee crisis is one of the most important issue that we should act together with the nato and let me remind you that turkey is hosting almost 4000000 syrians inside to discomfit and more than $1500000.00 refugees who migrate to turkey from and other parts of the world including africa including afghanistan and

pakistan and turkey off we shall assign the re admission agreement be to european union so no one can blame turkey in order to not cooperate against the refuges because the numbers that i am providing is very clear to everyone ok other issue is that the russian aggression russian aggression it is very important i should talk about this the russian aggression is also very important turkey clearly supports the ukrainian government against russia and also clearly stated that turkey is a against all kind of occupation inside cream off we shall a declared is to russia and to the ukraine for this isn't by knowing the last facts that we cannot put turkey to any other side while we are not even excepting one refugee and we are not putting our own steers or so forth in name of fashion and put them on trial for this isn't let's consider it the reality is you're

a want to give john a say which i will do just a moment as you talk about russian aggression why then to turkey by this russian surface to air missile system very very nice question very nice question turkey has already requested from the united states in order to buy pat's missile system because turkey has a soft spot of air defense systems but including united states. the european union countries not all of them provided to sell turkey a system at mr trump in did you just pass on at the meeting clear to state that that turkey requested to buy dead the patio system but they didn't provide so they want day event and bought the s $400.00 systems in order to. in order to close the gap in the air defense system and focus clearly says to the french and italy all saw ok are ready to cooperate to produce and right to buy their franch and american missile systems if they provide it to turkey or it to see

you shaking your head a lot that should nato be helping turkey in its fight against what it sees as terrorists in northern syria but the others within nato regard as allies i mean how does nato square that circle. well turkey has never asked for nato to help in syria but i think the answer you've just heard makes it absolutely clear that turkey does not regard russia as an enemy it's not conceivable to buy ed defense systems from someone whom you regard as an enemy turkey may condemn what it calls in my view wrongly russia russian aggression in ukraine but the facts of diplomacy are that turkey and russia work together on a number of issues including as it happens in syria so it's just not true to say that russia is an enemy of turkey it's not true families party to say that

russia is considered an enemy by fronts president machen received president putin at the falls are doing a song. for the g. 7 summit and he said i'm sorry i didn't interrupt you could you let me finish and he said that he wanted to build together with russia. architecture of confidence in order to improve european security and to solve other world crises that's not the language that you use when you're addressing an enemy you don't build an architecture of confidence with your enemy so things have moved on since whatever nato communique you're referring to and by the way on the 9th of december there's going to be a normandy format meeting between france germany ukraine and russia in which they're going to try and sort out the ukraine again that's not the language that you use with an enemy so all this talk about russian aggression and russia being the enemy does not correspond to the political realities that have unfolded in recent weeks and if you try to pretend otherwise there nobody is going to believe

you. come back on that. well i think a lot of. quickness of action things that just start 1st and not use the word enemy because effete it characterize an actor and it puts kind of an absolute tag on it i'm talking about the behavior and that's why i talked about the threats and the threats of the past year is clearly part of our nuclear power but russia that is actually flexing its muscles and its neighbor who and putting pressure including on the nato alliance so i never say that there is considers russia as an enemy i just say that nato of which france is a member has clearly stated over the past 5 years plus that the biggest threats facing europe today and the alliance east prussia has behavior that is high disruptive and basically lend rabbit behavior which i guess we can all agree is not

acceptable that's a 1st vagueness or going thing is i think to talk about. the role of the format as a proof that russia is the friend of europe is of the fight for fetch that nobody for my meeting use an important one it's the 1st once in 3 years finally these are leaders dido up on how to sort of the conflict in numbers which eschewed 13000 ukrainians over the past 5 years but that doesn't mean it's going to be so many times so this is a very populated situation and russia is not showing any sign of week during its military personnel in eastern ukraine where we did during its heavy weapon so i think it's a be weak weak conclusion to say that now we don't good and russia is it is back in the form of those who have normal or acceptable or legal behavior ok at and on the question of whether nato should be in the business of fighting terrorism for braces as president maduro not as a peer to indicate he wants. yeah absolutely i think i was one of those to shave

for nato to play a more active role in the broader middle east and north africa for the simple reason that this is our neighborhood and this is now since the arab spring a very fragmented and a very unstable middle who and you cannot just ignore it better i can tell you that clearly many people agree with that but france among the few herse think that nato or at least was finucane until president michel made the statement that nato does not have or learning the wider middle east and north africa however here is a key question and this is really for the leaders to discuss next week and not about what did it called terrorism because what you hear from him and go on when he talks about terrorism is a slightly different type of terrorism and type of actors when the french president talks about so i think this is where leaders need to use me but at least you say

what do we think is we are just right behind that terrorism because if not it's a too broad category and everybody will give different definition and will never agree on what to do exactly. turkey's foreign minister this week called president back on a sponsor of terrorism after the french president held talks in paris with the f.t. s.d.f. spokesperson right now there's a void in europe he said meconis trying to be its leader but leadership comes naturally oh what's turkey's problem with france ok. in the visit to united states the turkish president already presented some cia documents that the if they have spokes person and that terrorist muslim bunny is cia records that he has committed many terror attacks inside turkey not from the perspective of turkey but from the perspective and it records off the cia for dismissal except think

those guys incite the sounds that. the palace cannot be acceptable turkey always extended it is condolences to prime minister level than the charlie hebdo attack has been acute and the prime minister though with all the buzz on the streets oceans and is set to extend the congo since of the turkey so we should be very clear that if terror is very bad thing for us we should understand that it is also bad for the friends from this perspective if you do not provide a comprehensive approach fighting against terrorism the evil now or being able to fight against terrorism my contra puppet little bit ago set that turkey is not collaborating with nato and the european union countries especially the fight against terrorism inside syria that is totally not correct because i am giving the numbers 34 against and lost more than 150 soldiers and not realize 3000 bash members and you still count me that turkey is not collaborating with

difference let me tell and i would like to remind the headquarters of the on to dash correlation is inside turkey and turkey is pro i think huge support to the arm today ok let me also remind that my friend my friend john in parys is getting every nice sleep because of the turkish radar system monitoring inside russia 24 hours a day so we should understand that turkey is together with the nato hitting all that is responsible it is saw the should understand the problem from this perspective to respond to that briefly if you will and then this for the u.s. and turkey exactly the easiest of nato members to deal with politically at least to what extent is is president a crime now making france another or could ally. what it what what is what exactly does he want. well that's that's how i started off the discussion he wants clarity

he wants political clarity about what what nato is trying to do that's why i used the word enemy. the reason why i used it is that president marcos said who is the enemy that the whole problem with nato and we've just heard from use of this huge list of things that nato is supposed to do it's supposed to help with the refugee crisis is supposed to help with terrorism it's supposed to help with ukraine it's supposed to help with syria russia goodness knows what else failed states that's not how military alliances work that's not what nato was created to do nato had one function when it was created and that was to protect western europe from soviet threat now if we're saying it's got 5 or 6 or 10 different functions including fighting things that we don't even agree on the definition of like terrorism then that means it does not know what it is doing and it clearly does not know what it is doing because i'm sorry the kurds with the allies of france and other western

european countries and they are the enemies of turkey and in that situation you cannot have a military alliance where one person's friend is another person's enemy that just the iron rule of politics for greece turkey signaled that at the summit next week it's going to block formal approval of this military plan to defend poland lithuania estonia and latvia in the event of a russian attack given all that we've just heard what are the prospects for this 70th anniversary meeting in london and is going to knuckle down and turn their attention to what they do is actually for or is it going to descend into acrimony. well i hope they're going to obey a frank and hopefully deep discussion about what exactly they want the alliance to do better feel somewhat different and say i hear what you look for get your answers just as some of his members and i think the clarity that mccoy seeking

is not of clarity coming from nato is the clarity coming from france from turkey from the united states and even for germany in terms of defense spending and investment so i think the conversation is not about nato the institution is actually very pretty how to be and it's been doing quite depressive things over the last 5 years in terms of transformation the rio problem is at the political level we've to keep members which we just talked about so i think you know what they're going to hope for is for once leaders are going to be speaking bumps aside they're going to google nice consensus language of communicate and they're going to really try to figure out what exactly do we are willing to commit to and i don't think it's not a black and white shows it's not about either russia or terrorists i think it can be both and it has to be both because it was not about just one threat nato was about ensuring the collective security of 40 years of have about

a minute left on the program here how do you see next week's meeting go do you see turkey remaining part of this nato alliance in the long term. yes of course i am telling you that the new security challenges and the new security challenges because europe is facing can be fought on the view to help and get their assistance off to turkey and all far lost. to john turkey is not the enemy off the cards our thoughts are not the enemy of the turkish people let me remind you that turkey is hawse think more than only harder than 50000 people from the soria and you have no idea of what's going on inside the feel for this is a you cannot label turkey as the enemy of the kurdish people who didn't like the night the one in the above has a look at amateur levels also 30. uset karts saw it is not interrupt me i didn't interrupt you saw labeling turkey is the enemy off the charts is not correct because in turkey there are more than 10000000 people living and let me say

that today the cutest are regional government former minister off if they are spies in turkey and he clearly states that the white b.g. . is the common enemy of the course and talks in this land a gentleman out of time i'm afraid many thanks indeed for being with us today john laughlin for a spot to. yourself about a. thank you as always for watching don't forget you can see this program any time just by going to the website al-jazeera dot com for further discussion both joined us at our facebook page at facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story and you can join the conversation on twitter handle at inside story from be adrian for the good of the whole team here in doha thanks for watching i'll see you again i for that.

just the mind play tricks a damn car is always is parked right there they really out there half of the family i'd like to call up but most aren't dragons here at like they're not in the car a filmmaker takes the f.b.i. to court to find out that proximately 33120 pages of records and in the process mobilizes her community as long as people are just cause then there is no check against the stand the feeling of being watched on al-jazeera investigative journalism below the burden. cause global experts in discussion 3 toshiba deal and you disagree with the deal because of the terrible twos it was

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hello i'm daryn jordan and with a reminder the top stories here on al jazeera pressure from weeks of deadly anti-government protests could finally force a major political change in iraq the prime minister abdul mahdi has announced he intends to resign the who took charge last year says he will submit his resignation to palm and mohammed john june was on the scene as the news emerged and as this report from baghdad. the celebrations were instantaneous as soon as it up the prime minister added i've been maybe an ounce of his intention to resign anti-government demonstrators but that's to leave a square practically threw a party. the stunning development came

a day after more than 50 people were killed by security forces.