Re: The Man Who fell To Earth
"....Turkey adds nothing to NATO....." Largely agree, but Turkey actually solves two NATO issues and helps with a third, as well as helping keep the Russian fleet contained (as mentioned in the article).
The first is the long-festering hatred between Greece and Turkey, which has threatened to explode into open warfare over the Aegean islands more than once. Greece has actually shot down Turkish jets whilst both were members of NATO! Being members of NATO has kept the matter from progressing too far, and a war between NATO Greece and a non-NATO Turkey would likely drag in Cyprus (involving the UK and EU) and reignite anti-Muslim sentiments in the former Yugoslavic countries, matters NATO would rather not explore.
The second is that Turkey's geographical location makes it very useful for basing forces for the Middle East. Turkish bases have hosted US jets and special forces during both the Gulf War and the Invasion of Iraq, and are currently being used for fighting Daesh in Syria and Iraq. It also acts as a staging post for flights out to Afghanistan. In a NATO shooting war with Russia it offers a nice starting point for destroying the Russian oil- and gas-fields in the Caspian and Black Seas and Tartarstan. Should NATO/UN action ever be launched against Iran it is also likely to be mounted in part from Turkish bases. NATO forces in Turkey threaten Russia with a three-front war.
The third is that predominantly-Muslim Turkish membership allows NATO to paint itself as not just white and Christian, which is very important to those politicians with their heads buried in the PC sand. In the Middle East, predominantly-Sunni Turkey does help in the balance of power with other Muslim countries like Russian-friendly Shia Iran, which is probably why the EU and US are not making too much noise over Erdogan's alleged human rights abuses and manipulation of the democratic system. At the same time, about 20% of Turks are Shias, which means there is plenty of scope for Iranian meddling. Russia also has history helping the terrorist PKK which Erdogan hates, and has cuddled up to the cash-strapped Greeks.
From a purely US-centric perspective, Turkey also has historically bought a lot of American military items, from tanks through jets to warships. Indeed, the sheer amount of American high-tech in the Turkish military would make it very difficult to integrate Russian systems into a future Turkish military. Which is reason why the idea that Erdogan will suddenly buy Russian is pretty unlikely.
So, IMHO, NATO and Turkey do need each other.