The ghost of the 1936 Montreux Convention now haunts NATO. When Turkey signed that historic pact, Ankara committed to safeguard the Black Sea while checking Moscow’s maritime ambitions. Today, aspiring Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan uses that exact geographic leverage to dismantle the entire Western alliance from within. Turkey’s latest maneuver — expanding its nuclear energy partnership with Russia’s state-owned Rosatom — extends far beyond a mere utility project.

This dangerous deal forms the final brick in a calculated energy bridge that locks Ankara into Moscow’s orbit for the next half-century. Consequently, Washington must stop treating Turkey as an ally and start viewing Ankara as a hostile Trojan horse.