Then sultan speaks.
Referring to the National Covenant – a 1920 declaration by the last Ottoman parliament, which was used by the newly formed Turkish Republic as the basis of its initial negotiating position at the conference of Lausanne, which eventually established Turkey’s present borders – he claimed that according to “certain historians” it had included within Turkey’s borders:“Cyprus, Aleppo (in Syria), Mosul, Arbil and Kirkuk (in Iraq), Batum (in Georgia), Kardzhali, Varna (in Bulgaria), and Thessaloniki and the Aegean islands (in Greece).”The Duran’s Alex Christoforou wrote earlier on the claims made by Erdogan about Turkey’s right to certain Greek islands. He also used historic, linguistic and religious ties to claim for Turkey a gigantic zone of influence for itself“Turkey is not only Turkey. Not only for 79 million citizens, but Turkey bears also responsibility towards our hundreds of millions of brothers in the geographical area to whom we are connected through our historical and cultural ties.
Hey, why stop there?It is a duty, but also a right of Turkey to be interested in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Crimea, Karabakh, Bosnia, and other sister areas (NB: this is a reference to Azerbaijan and former Soviet Central Asia – AM). The moment you give up this, it will be the time when we lose our independence and our future”.
‘Syria, Iraq are Turkey’s responsibility,’ exclaims Erdogan, demands Mosul, parts of Asia, Balkans and Middle East
Alexander Mercouris
7 comments:
Didnt this guy ever watch Lawrence of Arabia???
Matt, Erdogan's foreign policy seems to be not minding that it hurts!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvQViPBAvPk
Maybe he thinks he can protect the pipelines up into Europe if he controlled the territory...
"Protection" in the mafia sense, yes. It's a racket, and whoever controls the world's energy supplies controls the world. State and DoD have numerous papers explaining this, but nobody pays any attention except diplomatic historians and strategic analysts on the fringes. State and DoD call it a "lever on world control", if I remember correctly. Turkey can't do anything without Washington's approval, unless they're going to go over to the Russian and Chinese side, which would precipitate a military coup by the ultranationalist Kemalists. Whether or not Erdogan believes Washington approved the failed coup, he's willing to do business with the devil if it serves his interests while purging the military. Washington has another conundrum to deal with!
The other levers are military dominance and the dollar. It worked well for about fifty years post-1945. It's starting to unravel, and Washington is making bad decisions and getting more reckless almost by the day. What a mess the neoconservatives and liberal interventionists have left!
I just see this all as Vlad trying to save face because he reneged on the gas deal when gas went to $12 ....
I see dead people...
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