How does one go about kicking a country out of NATO? Is there even a mechanism for that?
There is none.
That's what I suspected.
So then, "NATO should kick out Turkey (and/or Hungary/whomever)" is a nonsensical statement, and everyone should stop making such nonsensical statements.
That's not really true. A country can be found to be in material breach of the treaty, which would allow the other member states to terminate the treaty in their relations with the defaulting state.
There is legal argument that violating the principles underlying the treaty constitute a material breach if they are so extensive in scope, so severe and so persistent as to effectively disavow or repudiate the treaty, and that compliance with the values set out in the preamble and Article 2 are considered essential for the accomplishment of the object and purpose of the treaty.
https://www.justsecurity.org/66574/can-turkey-be-expelled-from-nato/
I've written about it before and can elaborate if need be, but
Thanks. Still seems exceedingly unlikely, and that’s understating the case.
Turkey and Greece fought a war against one another over Cyprus, did they not? Were the US, UK, Poland, and Spain (initially) in breach of the treaty’s principles over the invasion of Iraq? How about the UK and France re: Suez in 1956? Or France re: the Algerian War of Independence? Or France and then, for much longer, the US re: Indochina? Or the US, UK, and other member-states re: violating so many principles underlining the treaty globally (and potentially domestically, and not just in Turkey or Hungary or even other European member-states—see: the contemporary Republican Party in the US) in ways that are extensive in scope, severe, and persistent.
And Turkey has one of the largest militaries in NATO, and are important regarding Syrian refugees and the Middle East in general, however incredibly problematically. I suspect a lot of policymakers and military, diplomatic, and intelligence officials in many NATO countries recognize this.
Good luck getting a unanimous vote from the other members to expel Turkey. And as for Hungary? Now
that is pure fantasy.
