Material Breach
The Legal Case for Suspending Türkiye from NATO
Under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Türkiye has undergone significant democratic backsliding and erosion of fundamental freedoms over the past decade. Although the North Atlantic Treaty contains no explicit suspension mechanism, Material Breach: The Legal Case for Suspending Türkiye from NATO submits that Türkiye can and should be suspended from the alliance.
The report was authored by Human Rights Action Group's **Isabelle Terranova**, with input from Turkish human rights defenders, and released by **Secure Canada** on July 6, 2026, the day before the NATO summit opened in Ankara, placing the question of Türkiye's compliance with the alliance's founding values before decision-makers and media at the very moment Türkiye hosted the alliance. The Macdonald-Laurier Institute published a companion commentary the same day, and an accompanying op-ed followed.
Section I examines Türkiye's conduct under President Erdoğan, including systematic human rights abuses, sponsorship of terrorist groups including Hamas, the Islamic State, and Hezbollah, and growing alignment with authoritarian powers such as Russia and China, all of which contravene the object and purpose of the North Atlantic Treaty. Section II analyzes the legal feasibility of suspension: although the treaty contains no suspension clause, customary international law, as codified in Article 60 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, permits NATO members to suspend a state that has committed a material breach of the treaty's object and purpose. Section III concludes that suspension is advisable to preserve the integrity of the alliance and to deter other member states from undermining its collective mission, with reference to the comparative example of Hungary. Section IV highlights Canada's potential role, as a NATO founding member, and the alignment of this issue with Canadian policy priorities.