A Four-Nation Security Proposal from Ankara

On 18–19 July, the Turkish Fatherland (Vatan) Party, led by the veteran nationalist politician Doğu Perinçek, gathered around 200 delegates from 17 countries in Ankara for a conference titled ‘The Union that Will Prevent the Great War’. The meeting concluded with a declaration calling for a strategic alliance of Russia, Turkey, China and Iran as the anchor of global security.

The final declaration portrays the proposed quartet as the main deterrent against what it describes as the primary drivers of conflict: the United States and Israel, and tensions around Iran, Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon. It asserts that NATO has lost its capacity to ensure world security and should be dissolved rather than reformed.

Perinçek’s party, which advocates a Eurasian pivot for Turkey and deeper cooperation with Moscow, Beijing and Tehran, has long criticised the Western alliance. The conference frames the alliance idea as a natural extension of existing trends – the Russia-China partnership, the deepening Russia-Iran strategic relationship, and Turkey’s own friction with Washington over issues such as the S‑400 air-defence system.

The Perinçek Vision vs. Ankara’s Real-World Constraints

Doğu Perinçek’s Aspiration, Not Ankara’s Policy

The alliance blueprint reflects the worldview of a political faction, not the Turkish government. While President Erdoğan has spoken of a world no longer dependent on a “handful of countries”, his administration continues to operate inside NATO and balance between the West and Russia. No official from the Turkish foreign ministry or from the governments of the other three countries endorsed the outcome, limiting its immediate policy weight.

Even if the underlying trend toward a more multipolar order is real, the proposed bloc faces fundamental contradictions. Turkey remains a NATO member; China has no appetite for a formal anti-US military alliance that would derail its economic ties; and Iran, under heavy sanctions, would add reputational and operational risk for any grouping. The ‘Astana format’ cooperation on Syria shows pragmatic coordination is possible, but that falls far short of the grand strategic union the Ankara declaration envisions.