The podcast for Gregory Copley's discussion at 12:30 this morning on the John Batchelor Show about Erdogan isn't posted yet at Audioboom, but I strongly suggest that every reader here make the effort to listen to what Gregory has to say.
Erdogan has been treated as a blusterer here in Washington and as an annoyance in Brussels, but there's been a self-blinding aspect to these estimates because NATO hasn't wanted to even consider ejecting Turkey from the alliance. It turns out Erdogan has taken full advantage of that.
Odd; everyone's focused on Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Gregory's report makes it clear that Turkey slipped through the gaps in attention.
Check at Audioboom (link above) around noon today; hopefully by then the podcast will be posted.
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The love-hate relationship with Turkey long predates Erdogan, and goes back all the way to the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
ReplyDeleteBut recently, the US supported (institgated?) the failed coup d'etat against Erdogan, and protected its architect Fethullah Gulen, no living in the Poconos. We also refused to sell Turkey Patriot missile systems (at the behest of Israel) and intervened to prevent other NATO allies from selling Turkey modern air defense system. Hence, Turkey's purchase of the Russian S-400 system.
Our problems with Turkey, which are many, are the result of Israeli policies to keep all other countries in the region more or less defenseless and the actions of the Fake American neocons to implement those policies. There will be no reconciliation with Turkey until we can free ourselves of Israeli control.
Sykes -
ReplyDelete> the attempted coup may well have been a fiction cooked up by Erdogan to provide a rationale for purging the military and other key institutions of what was left of the Gulenists, and to terrorize any other powerful opponents in the country into backing down.
> Erdogan's intention to resurrect the Ottoman Empire -- the entire empire at its height -- is not the result of Turkey's longstanding problems with Israel. Erdogan is quite simply an Ottmanist; it's just that nobody in the West has been taking him seriously. Copley's discussion suggests that this was serious mistake.
> My understanding is that the S-400 purchase and/or delivery is not finalized. At any rate, there are moves in Washington to block sale (or delivery) of F-35s to Turkey if the Turks go ahead with the S-400 purchase (or take delivery).