Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who always likes to tell us what he really thinks, is at it again. Last year he accused the people of Germany — and of the Netherlands too — of being “Nazis” for not allowing political rallies targeted at Turkish residents in Germany. He also called Angela Merkel guilty of “Nazism” for suggesting that the EU reconsider its relationship with Turkey — i.e., possibly end the talks about Turkish accession to the group. “What happened is Nazism,” said Erdogan in response. “What happened is fascism.” And the Germans were called “Nazis” yet again because, according to Erdogan, they refused Turkish requests for help in suppressing Kurdish separatists that had been made, he preposterously claimed, 4,500 times. “Mrs Merkel, you are supporting terrorists,” he said. And now he threatens to deliver an “Ottoman slap” to the Americans if they continue to fund the Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Unit) in Syria. But that’s only the latest of many threats he’s made about the YPG.
In January, he accused the U.S of supporting “an army of terror” because it wants the Kurdish fighters of the YPG in northeastern Syria, who proved to be the most effective force against ISIS, to be a major component of the border forces guarding the frontier between Syria and Turkey. They would be there as well to help suppress any possible resurgence of ISIS. For Erdogan, any Kurdish group anywhere could help the Kurdish separatists inside Turkey, and has to be suppressed. For Erdogan, all Kurds are “terrorists” — it doesn’t matter that the Syrian Kurds were the best fighters against the most dangerous of real terrorists, those of ISIS. And in his view, if his attack on the Syrian Kurds goes directly against American policy — well, Erdogan doesn’t give a fig for the Americans. His forces have been let loose on the Kurds in Syria; this occurred after the Americans had made clear they wanted 30,000 Syrian Kurdish troops to guard the Syria-Turkey border. To mark the moment when the Turkish forces moved into Syria to attack the Kurds directly, worshippers in 90,000 mosques in Turkey prayed the Surah al-Fath, the 48th chapter of the Qur’an, in which those engaged in Jihad are promised material rewards taken from those they defeat; the Speaker of the Turkish Parliament called the Turkish attack on the Kurds in Afrin a “jihad.” In Erdogan’s orchestra, no one sounds a secular Kemalist note.
And then, taking things to a still higher level of hostility, Erdogan’s men promised that American troops in Syria may be hit. “Accusing the US fighters of wearing ‘terrorists’ clothes’ (i.e, YPG uniforms) that may be hard to distinguish, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag warned that anyone fighting alongside the Kurds ‘is our target.’”
He added that “there is no chance that we will make a distinction at this point” between the Kurds and the US fighters.
He might have said something else. He might have said that “we will do our best to avoid hitting American fighters. It is certainly going to be difficult. Nonetheless, we will try.” A different tone, a different emphasis. But instead, he — and his boss Erdogan — wanted to be as tough as possible on the Americans. This is not the behavior one expects from a NATO ally.
After that warning, the commander of American troops in Syria, Lieutenant General Paul Funk, speaking in Manbij, a city that the YPG holds and that the Turks now threaten to in invade, issued his own warning to Erdogan:
“You hit us, we will respond aggressively. We will defend ourselves,” the U.S. commander, Lieutenant General Paul Funk, said in a direct warning to Turkey in the interview published on Feb. 7.
Then, an enraged Erdogan came back on February 13 with his “Ottoman slap” remark.
“It’s obvious that those who say, ‘If you hit us, we’ll hit back hard,’ have never in their lives gotten an Ottoman slap,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech at parliament on Tuesday [February 13] responding to remarks by the top U.S. commander in Syria to the New York Times. “If those who come and go as they like through Turkey think they’re going to go stirring things up in places without paying for it, they’ll soon see that’s not the case.” (He is referring to American forces using the air base at Incirlik.)
The comments mark an escalation in rhetoric against the U.S., whose backing of the Syrian Kurdish YPG has enraged Turkey, which labels the group as a terrorist organization and has invaded Syria to combat it. That incursion has created an unprecedented military face-off between the two largest armies in NATO, with U.S. forces fighting alongside the YPG while Turkey attacks it, first in Afrin and soon, if we are to believe its threats, in Manbij.
How did we get here, with Turkey, the NATO member that now calls other NATO members “Nazis,” “terrorists,” and supporters of an “army of terror,” that further threatens to “target” any American troops fighting alongside Kurds in Syria, and by way of enraged reply to Lt. General Funk’s warning that if American forces are hit (by the Turks), they (the Americans) will respond in kind, warns that the Americans will get “an Ottoman slap”? Let’s consider the political trajectory of the outrageous Recip Tayyip Erdogan.
In 2003, Recep Tap Erdogan was elected Prime Minister of Turkey, a post he held until 2014. In that year, he was elected President of Turkey, a post he still holds. As Prime Minister, he required that the military — the ultimate guarantor of Turkish secularism — be reined in, made subject to greater civilian control. To this end, he exploited two supposed coup attempts by the military, to gain control over the army by arresting, and putting on trial, senior officers. These two coups — “Sledgehammer” and “Ergenekon” — were both fabrications, but Erdogan cleverly exploited the fear generated by these supposed plots in order to weaken the military. When hundreds of officers were arrested and put on trial, that discouraged others, even if, in the end, those officers were all exonerated in both “Sledgehammer” and “Ergenekon.”
A real coup d’etat was attempted on July 15, 2016, when military men in Ankara and Istanbul tried to seize power (over 300 people, including fellow soldiers, died), but was quickly put down. Those involved called themselves the Peace At Home Council, and they proclaimed their anxiety over the erosion of secularism, the elimination of democratic rule, and the disregard for human rights. But few joined the original plotters, and Erdogan quickly rounded them up. He accused them of doing the bidding of Fethulleh Gulen, supposedly organizing the coup from his exile in Pennsylvania. Erdogan had more than 140,000 people detained and more than 50,000 arrested. Tens of thousands lost their jobs. No link of this abortive coup to Gulen has been proven, which has not stopped Erdogan from constantly denouncing the dark sinister forces he wants us to believe are headquartered in rural Pennsylvania. That the Americans won’t hand Gulen over to him is one of his many grievances against his NATO “ally.”
Erdogan has been bolstered, and so has his party, the AKP, because the Turkish economy is doing well. He has not been shy about rewarding himself. He has had built as his presidential residence the Ak Saray, or White Palace, with more than 1100 rooms, that cost $630 million to build. Sixteen Turkish soldiers, each dressed in a costume representing a different period of Turkish history, line an interior staircase of this palace. It is clear that Erdogan dreams of rivaling the Ottoman despots. He is well on his way, having outsmarted the army and outmaneuvered his civilian opponents.
Erdogan has also been busy re-islamizing secularist Turkey. Here are some of the things he has managed to accomplish, taking care not to trigger a military coup, both while Mayor of Istanbul and as Prime Minister:
1. Between 2002 and 2013, the Turkish government built 17,000 new mosques. Many more have been built since, and more still are now being planned. In addition, thousands of Ottoman-era mosques have been repaired and refurbished. Erdogan is building a gigantic mosque on the Asian side of the Bosporus, which can accommodate 30,000 worshippers.
2. When Erdogan first came to power, women working in the public sector were still banned from wearing the hijab, including teachers, lawyers, parliamentarians and others working in state-run institutions. In recent years, the Justice and Development Party has lifted bans on wearing the hijab in schools and all state institutions. Now those teachers, lawyers, parliamentarians are not merely allowed, but encouraged, to wear the hijab by the AKP. Even female ministers and judges have taken to wearing hijabs. The wives of Erdogan, Gul (the former president of Turkey), and other ministers all appear in public ostentatiously hijabbed.
3. After traditional madrasas were banned by Ataturk, Imam-Hatip schools were set up to take their place. These are vocational education institutions designed to provide religious education and train imams, but now offering a regular academic curriculum as well, open to students who are not training to be imams. The clergy in Turkish mosques are government appointed and many imams are trained in Imam-Hatip schools.
In 2002, there were 65,000 students involved in Imam-Hatip schools. That number grew by ten times, to 658,000 in 2013, and it was recently announced that the number of Imam-Hatip students has now reached more than one million. The islamization of young minds proceeds apace.
4. Compulsory religious education in schools has been introduced. Courses on “the life of Prophet Muhammad” and “the Qur’an” have also been made mandatory.
5. The lower age-limit for taking courses on the Qur’an has been eliminated. Until now, children had to be at least 12 years old before they could attend Qur’an classes. This has been abolished by Erdogan’s government, allowing Qur’an courses even for preschoolers.
6. Bans on alcohol advertising are now in place, whereas secular Turkey always allowed them. The AKP passed a bill in 2013 that banned any advertising of alcohol within 100 meters of a mosque or school.
Blurring out depictions of alcohol on television and in films has also been made mandatory.
The selling of alcohol has now been banned from student dormitories, health institutions, sports clubs, educational institutions and gas stations. All sale of alcohol anywhere is now banned after 10pm.
7. Sharia-compliant Islamic banking has greatly expanded, and the state-owned Ziraat Islamic bank now has more than 200 branches.
At every turn, Erdogan has managed to best his perceived enemies, and to deal ruthlessly with them. There have been mass firings and arrests of military men, university professors, journalists, doctors, lawyers, even high school teachers, all ostensibly because of their roles in the attempted coup Erdogan insists was masterminded by Fethulleh Gulen. Almost 10,000 of those arrested have been military officers, including many of the highest rank. He’s used the coup to crush all potential opposition. And now Erdogan seems more secure than ever in his powerful post.
What this history of Turkey in recent years makes clear is that while Ataturk’s reforms once seemed to be forever, it was not Kemalism, but rather its nemesis, Islam, that appears to be prevailing, under the relentlessly re-islamizing despot Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Right now he has completely cowed his secularist opposition. He has dealt with his opposition as ruthlessly as Vladimir Putin has dealt with his.
Turkey has always been held up in the West as an example of a Muslim country that could successfully tame Islam, limit its role in society and politics, and make possible the modernization, through systematic secularisation, of the country in every important respect. That’s how Turkey appeared to be going for more than seventy years, in the direction Ataturk had set, until Erbakan and, much more thoroughly, Erdogan and his AKP party, arrived on the scene to re-escort Islam back onto the center of the Turkish stage. There is no moral in tow, no lesson to be derived here, other than recognizing that the secularists grew too confident and complacent, having come to believe that after 70 years, Kemalism would remain forever. They ceased to watch like a hawk the forces of a newly-invigorated Islam, and assumed that the army would always step in if the forces of secularism were threatened. They did not realize how wily and dangerous Erdogan, the despot who became the standard-bearer of Turkey’s re-islamization, would turn out to be. Erdogan used the Turkish application for membership in the E.U., and the stringent human-rights requirements the country now had to meet to be considered for such membership, to weaken the Turkish military, which for 70 years had been the final guarantor of Kemalism.
Under new legislation, Erdogan could remain as President until 2029. But not everyone in Turkey is delighted with his despotic rule, nor reconciled to his incessant promotion of Islam. The secularists no longer can count on an army coup to protect them, as happened in decades past. Though they have been silenced for now, they still exist in large numbers. They can do little but bide their time. Should Erdogan overreach and stumble as self-made sultan, as could well happen, either from a military humiliation at the hands of the Syrian Kurds or, in an act of enormous folly, by taking on the Americans in Syria, delivering an “Ottoman slap” that would be returned tenfold, his popularity would suffer. His grandiose neo-Ottoman visions would now be seen as absurd, and he could become an object of amusement, no longer feared, and once such a figure receives his comeuppance, he cannot recover.
Should that happen, the secularists might manage to return to power, backed by a newly-chastened and much more wary military. The Turkish secularists, one hopes, will not repeat their previous mistakes. They took Kemalism too much for granted, and their complacency gave the wily Erdogan the opening, and time, he needed to begin to re-islamize much of Turkish society. The secularists should hold fast to the example of Ataturk, who patiently, and systematically, outmaneuvered those who opposed his reforms, in order to make sure that, should Erdogan finally lose his grip, his successor will be from the Kemalist camp. And the job of protecting Kemalism should not be a task left to the military alone, as happened in the past, but it must become the duty of every Turkish secularist, civilian and military, both to explain and to defend the legacy of Ataturk.
Right now, Turkish forces are attacking the very Kurds whom the American military has for several years supported with weapons and training, and who showed their mettle in the war against ISIS. Turkey’s military officials claimed within the first few days of their attack on the YPG in mid-January that their warplanes had struck 108 out of a total of 113 Syrian Kurdish militia targets in the Farina region, including a military airport. But after those initial strikes, the Turkish military have gotten bogged down. The town of Afrin itself (in the canton of Afrin) has been under artillery fire and attack from all sides, since January 19. Erdogan originally promised that Turkish forces in Syria will “vanquish” the Kurdish militia, and that he would “strangle” the American-backed Kurdish force “before it’s even born.” But almost a month into the conflict, those Kurdish forces have not been either vanquished or strangled, and they are still holding the city of Afrin, and the war goes on. The news reports describe Turkey as “America’s NATO ally.” This is misleading. Turkey is “a fellow member of NATO,” but over the last few years has been ever less of an American ally, and now the Erdogan regime has made Turkey into America’s foe.
It is the Kurds, not Erdogan’s Turks, who are the natural allies of the Americans. They showed it in Syria, fighting so effectively, while coordinating with the Americans, against ISIS. They showed it too in Iraq, where American soldiers were startled by the contrast between Kurds and Arabs. The openly pro-American Kurds remained deeply grateful for the air cover the Americans had provided them from 1991 on, preventing Saddam from continuing his genocidal campaign — “Operation Anfal” — against the Kurds. The Iraqi Arabs, on the other hand, both Sunni and Shi’a, remained hostile to the Americans, despite the latter having removed a monstrous dictator and his terrifying regime. American soldiers took their R-and-R in Iraqi Kurdistan, for their commanders knew they would be safe there; to this day, there has not been a single terrorist attack against the Americans in Iraqi Kurdistan. Were the Kurds to attain an independent Kurdistan, beginning with Rojava in northeastern Syria, that new polity could potentially lead to the adhesion of the six million Iraqi Kurds, 93% of whom voted for independence in the referendum held in September 2017. Then there are the six million Iranian Kurds, whose desire to join an independent Kurdistan would naturally increase if that Kurdistan were not a mere vision, but became a reality, with eight million Kurds (two million from Syria, six million from Iraq) and the land they live on.
The Iranian military would try to crush its own Kurds from seceding. But it will be harder now to suppress Iran’s Kurds than ever before. Iran’s military is now involved simultaneously in several theaters of war. In Yemen, Iran is fighting, through its Houthi proxies, the Saudis, whose bombing campaign continues without cease. In Lebanon, the Shi’a Hezbollah are another proxy of Tehran that receive money and weapons from Iran. In Syria, Iran is now fighting Israel, both through Hezbollah and Assad’s army, and increasingly, taking on Israel directly, as with the Iranian drone intrusion into Israel that triggered the recent deadly attack by the Israeli air force, not just on Syrian air defenses, but on Iranian bases in Syria. Iran, in other words, is already engaged on several fronts, and as a consequence would find it very difficult to permanently subjugate six million Iranian Kurds should they attempt to secede. An independent Kurdish state, carved out of Kurdish areas in both Syria and Iraq, has a better chance than ever to become reality, given the military and political weaknesses of the regimes in Damascus and Baghdad. Such a state could supply weapons and volunteers to Iranian Kurds — weapons that might be provided, too, by the United States or Israel, neither of which wishes Iran well and would welcome the chance to weaken it from within.
Erdogan, of course, does not want any Kurds, anywhere, to enjoy self-determination. In his worldview, that’s to be invoked only for “Palestinians.” What he sees as Turkey’s national interests flatly contradict those of the United States. Now it is time to look steadily and whole at Erdogan and not allow Turkey’s membership in NATO to give it a pass. With his mass roundup of 60,000 political opponents, and his imprisonment of journalists — Turkey has jailed more journalists than any other country in the world — Erdogan has given conclusive evidence that he is no democrat. Real democracy is about more than elections. It’s also about not jailing your opponents, it’s about allowing a free press. Erdogan fails on both counts. Real democracy is exactly what NATO was formed in 1949 to defend, against the Soviet Union. Turkey was a democracy when, in 1952, it was admitted to NATO. But it is no longer a democracy in the Western sense, even if it holds elections. Erdogan, ensconced in the 1100-room palace he has had built for himself, having jailed thousands of his political opponents and with many honest journalists still jailed, is no democrat, but a new Sultan. Continued Turkish membership in NATO — even without Erdogan’s unhinged verbal attacks on several NATO members and his threats to deliver an “Ottoman slap” to the Americans — becomes ever more grotesque, for his despotic rule violates both the letter and spirit of NATO membership.
How valuable has Erdogan’s Turkey been as a NATO ally? Turkey did not permit the American military to use the Incirlik air base in the way it wanted to during the second Iraq war. Erdogan has consistently denounced Israel, which, though not a member of NATO, is certainly a key American ally in every sense — both a Western democracy, and a powerful military ally. Erdogan has seemingly gone out of his way to ruin the former good relations Turkey had with Israel, beginning with his furious public attack on Shimon Peres at Davos, his hysterical reaction to the Mavi Marmara incident, his accusing Israel of having indiscriminately massacred innocent babies and children during its war with Hamas in Gaza, and declaring that “it isn’t anti-Semitism to criticize an administration that massacres, kills babies, children, innocent babies, children, in their homes, mosques, hospitals, schools, beaches, parks, without any discrimination.” He has been a constant defender of Hamas, which he has described as “not a terrorist organization,” has praised the Muslim Brotherhood, and has made himself the primary champion, even more than any Arab state, of the “Palestinians.” There is evidence that, back in 2006, Turkey may even have allowed Iran to move weapons through its territory to Hezbollah. He was the most vocal opponent of Trump’s Jerusalem Embassy move. Erdogan has, as one prominent Turkish exile put it, a “conspiratorial antisemitic worldview.” He’s accused Israel of “keeping Hitler’s spirit alive.” Pro-Erdogan journalists repeatedly describe Erdogan’s arch-enemy Fethulleh Gulen in antisemitic terms: “Fethullah Gülen is sharp witted. He quickly smells of money and power. Because he is a Jew. That’s the reason he loves Israel almost to the point of sickness,” Sabah columnist Erin Ramoğlu wrote in December 2016, “…where his cunning comes from, why the CIA has gotten hold of him and his love of Israel can be understood from the family of this clown [Fethulleh Gulen].” Erdogan has not distanced himself from any of this.
A despot and an antisemite, full of resentment against America, Israel, and Europe, Erdogan has no business being in NATO.
What should the Americans do now? The American government could make sure that Erdogan understands that any attack by Turkish forces in Syria that injures or kills even a single American soldier will be met by an overwhelming military response, akin to that which the Israelis just inflicted on the Syrian air defenses and Iranian bases in Syria. But that’s only one part of the response.
The Americans can end the farce of Turkey’s membership in NATO. They should call for an extraordinary meeting of NATO to discuss the behavior of this new, anti-kemalist, islamizing, despotic, anti-Western Turkey. The bill of particulars should include the fact that Turkey, alone among NATO members, has authoritarian rule rather than democracy; that Erdogan has refused to cooperate militarily with a NATO ally, when he denied the American military the use of the Incirlik air base just before the Iraq war; that he has accused Israel of “keeping Hitler’s spirit alive” while he has found nothing wrong in defending “Palestinian” terrorists; that he has jailed 60,000 political opponents, shut down 187 media outlets, forced 2,500 journalists to lose their jobs, imprisoned another 150 journalists whom he describes as “terrorists”; that he has called fellow members of NATO — Germany and the Netherlands — “Nazis” and, in his latest outrage, he is now attempting to destroy a military force, the Kurdish YPG, that for years has been the closest military ally in Syria of the Americans.
For Erdogan, that malignant but unturbanned Turk, all Kurds are terrorists, no matter whom they have been fighting or what they have accomplished. He doesn’t like the fact that the American government refuses to abandon its Kurdish allies in Syria, who were the best domestic fighters against ISIS and whom the Americans see as providing the most effective security even now on the Syrian-Turkish border. And to warnings from Washington to stop attacking the Syrian Kurds, he asks “What kind of NATO membership is this? What kind of NATO alliance is this?”
Those are exactly the right questions, but Recep Tayyip Erdogan is exactly the wrong person to be asking them.
NATO membership is not a right but a privilege. It’s a privilege that Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made sure he, and Turkey, do not deserve.
DhimmiNot says
Thank you for this history. This truth is seldom discussed.
For me, the key section is the para which begins: The Americans can end the farce of Turkey’s membership in NATO.”
Why has this never happened, by the US or by others?
mortimer says
Turkey is planning a GENOCIDE AGAINST THE KURDS. There should be an immediate United Nations recognition of an INDEPENDENT KURDISTAN. Turkey should be forced to accept it and US troops will have to protect Kurdistan.
All NATO forces should be removed from Turkey and place in the new REPUBLIC OF KURDISTAN.
Problem solved.
mortimer says
Recep Erdogan wants to be the next Caliph. That would give him a right to declare jihad anywhere. All Muslims would have to obey him. He is delusional.
He also wants to commit a GENOCIDE AGAINST THE KURDS.
The US and NATO allies should immediately decide to create an INDEPENDENT KURDISTAN. The next step would be to move ALL NATO forces out of Turkey and place them in the new Republic of Kurdistan.
PROBLEM SOLVED!
gravenimage says
DhimmiNot, it has not happened because all too many Americans still foolishly believe that Turkey is “moderate” and a real ally of ours.
Richard says
It is a very tough situation because the Kurds are divvied up between three separate nations, two of whom (Syria and Iraq) were carved out by he Western powers after World War I. None of them want to lose “their” Kurdish territories, and the emancipation of Kurds in and of those territories would encourage a revolt for independence by other enslaved peoples around he world. That is indeed destabilizing. On the other hand, since World War II, the U.S.A. has always believed in the independence of peoples. And by doing so, we have often caused untold misery. Getting rid of Saddam Hussain “freed the Iraqi Muslims to massacre the Iraqi Christians. Similarly, all that protects the Syrian Christians is Assad. This web site has magnificently shown what giving Muslims freedom of action can (and usually does) mean. Getting into this Kurdish war will mean another long-term war with us against the governments of those three states with Kurdish populations, and others who fear emancipation of their own hostage peoples. The independence of the African colonies, for example, divvied up tribes between a number of artificially-created nations when those states were given their independence from Britain, France and Belgium – but, alas, not from one another. Does anyone recall Rwanda? If we get involved, we are entering a military conflict. If we do not get involved, we are looking forward to future military conflicts facing far stronger and more dangerous nations, as Turkey and Iran militarize. There are really no good options here, thought the most righteous would certainly be to help the Kurds, who had been our former allies. Yet we must remember that it was in what they perceived their best interests to be so. It was for good reason that Bismarck said “State policies and sausages should not be made in public.”
StellaSaidSo says
Excellent post, Richard, very informative.
DFD says
Richard, my dear fellow, it’ll get a lot worse. You said: “…would certainly be to help the Kurds, who had been our former allies…” Permit me to point out that at the very best, all you can expect from ANY Muslim is a short-term alliance. And they will also lie to you in any agreement – they are Muslims and you are not. Remember?
A reality check about their long term alliance and allegiance: Did you ever hear about a Kurdish General by name of Saleh-Adin? He had a toss-up with our Richard. ‘Bit more modern times: When the Turks murdered 1.5 million Armenian Christians, complete with crucifixions, the poor, freedom loving oppressed Kurds didn’t stand idly by. Oh no! They helped their oppressors, that is their fellow Muslims, to the ‘best’ if their ability.
A bit more than a year ago the Turks were making trouble with the Germans in reference to a German airbase in Turkey. When I pointed out that Americans, who were then rather contemptuous of those weakling Germans, will be in for the same treatment, I was told that I am an ‘America hater’ and should get a life…
A question: Do you really believe that you will do anything against Turkey? Turkey is fully supported and heavily financed by Saudi Arabia. Does Donald Trump and a $350 million arms deal, plus others, ring a bell? Turkey buys American arms and other items – paid in cash with Saudi, and other gulf, money. I once wrote about such matters in chapter 0 (chapter title: “Money, Money, Money”) of my essay/book on the upcoming civil wars in Europe and the US. I am sure you missed it, far toooooo lengthy to pay attention to or to be interested in, brief hint: Since the 1975 ‘oil crisis’ the gulf countries could have spent the following amount of money on promoting jihad in the west, assuming they would use ONLY one third of the petro dollar revenue raised, and that is… A bit more than $6,000.00 PER SECOND! Since 1975… BTW, there are 3,600 seconds in an hour; or 21.6 million OPEC-dollars per hour, go times 24, times 365…
Oh yeah, I forgot, your new Sheriff in town. Richard, what do you think he will do? Screw all that money? And his advisers, friends, partners and supporters? I.e., Soros ($60-80 million in cash, a “forgiven” ***mezzanine*** loan to Donald – ah good old Georg Schwarz, I mean George Soros…) And charming (666) Jared Kushner – about $250 million or $350 million {who cares?!} in debt to – drum roll! George Soros, who else. And all those ex-Goldman Sachs and Rothschilds, many of which are now in his cabinet.
I know, this classifies me by now as America hating, but I really urge you to WAKE UP! Please try.
PS: Look up what ‘mezzanine’ loan implies.
Ray Jarman says
Richard you wrote, “There are really no good options here, thought the most righteous would certainly be to help the Kurds, who had been our former allies. Yet we must remember that it was in what they perceived their best interests to be so.”
I must take exception with this statement as the Kurds have been our ally in both Syria and Iraq. More than just being an ally, in Iraq they invited the Christians and Yizidis into Kurdistan where they have faired exceedingly well. If one travels to Erbil, he will find modern hotels, new hospitals that employee many of the Christian doctors who have taken refugee there, a very modern airport, streets that are kept clean and almost everything that composes a modern city and nation.
Yes I recall Rwanda and I have visited there where instead of a s***hole, one finds an exceedingly clean city where people are free to exercise the freedoms found in most western nations. President Kagame did not pursue a course of revenge on the Hutu after being elected; he instead chose to bring the nation together. If you were trying to point out that the English did not realize the differences in the tribal differences between the Tutsi (whom the English chose as their civil administrators) and the Hutu, you are probably correct. Nigeria is a perfect example of a nation that should never have been created but rather it should have been three nations like Hausa, Enugu and a Christian state comprised of the south western areas.
Part of the problems in the Middle East are a result of the English/French not taking into account or not giving a hoot the differences in Islam. When I was working at the US Embassy in Baghdad in 2007, I was chastised for saying that Iraq should be separated into nations by religious make up of Shias, Sunnis and Kurds. I still believe that I was correct and I think that it is the best solution to remedy the Syrian conflict. I am also aware that no one is listening to me but I defy anyone to provide a better solution.
I believe whole heartedly that the Kurds should be provided their own body of land in Iraq and Syria. If this means standing up to Erdogan with a military force, then so be it. Maybe in the not too distant future Diyarbakır could become the capital of a state within a nation named Kurdistan.
elee says
Readers, if you’re American, consider asking your Senators to join an initiative headed by Senator Lankford of Oklahoma. He recently proposed that this country impose sanctions on Turkey’s top men under the Magnitsky Act, which authorizes sanctions for human rights violations. The Turkish government is raising the frequency and audacity of it violations of the human rights of Turks and others, in Turkey and abroad,as readers at this site are doubtless aware. Time for some response on behalf of the victims.
gravenimage says
Thanks, elee.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
The Magnitsky Act is a joke. If your smart you’ll stay away from it! It’s based on the lies of a former oil oligarch, convicted criminal, Bill Browder.
The neocons are using Russia to distract and dupe the uninformed American public.
Bob Carrillo says
Any surprise here? Per “their book”, and riddled with edicts about “deception” of the “infidel”, what else do you expect? …Name calling – pointing fingers in the wrong direction – and THEN, claim that they are the victims. ….THEIR PLAYBOOK TO A TEE..
…by the way, do you have any more “fee stuff” to give us?…or else!
Sadly, and this has not bit to do with race, this is a culture of beggars, thieves, barbarism, and masterful con men & women.
By its ACTIONS all over the world, Islam would appear to be in the “Bizarro World” of anything known as a religion.. In fact, it is a radical political ideology masquerading as the ‘religion of peace” in my view..
They cannot even get along with each other, let alone, mere sub-humans like the Germans, the people of the Netherlands, OR ANYBODY ON THE PLANET WHO ARE NOT THEM AFTER ALL, or …. including US!
Rob says
Wat NATO?
It’s the NATO that allows one member to invade and occupy another. Turkey/Cyprus
Wellington says
Excellent article by Hugh Fitzgerald. I hope many read it. And yes, Turkey remaining in NATO is indeed grotesque. The only way Turkey should remain in NATO is if Erdogan is overthrown and a Kemalist regime is once again installed with a very secular Turkish military backing it up.
Erdogan is the anti-Ataturk. He is bad news all around. The sooner he’s gone the better though he does appear to be very clever. Well, some bad guys are. There comes to mind here another clever bad guy, to wit, that immoral 7th-century Bedouin who founded the worst religion ever created by man and which religion has poisoned the lives in sundry ways of countless millions over the centuries.
Ray Jarman says
Wellington, Not only has Erdogan renounced Mustafa Kemal, he is making life for the few Christians left there much more difficult and I read somewhere that the Santa Sophia is being reconverted to a mosque.
“…two supposed coup attempts by the military, to gain control over the army by arresting, and putting on trial, senior officers. These two coups — “Sledgehammer” and “Ergenekon” — were both fabrications, but Erdogan cleverly exploited the fear generated by these supposed plots in order to weaken the military.” Does this not remind one of the Stalin trials against people of the original Bolsheviks like Lev Kamenev, Molotov and others who suffered Stalin’s phony show trials? The one difference is that those officers were all exonerated in both “Sledgehammer” and “Ergenekon” but the fear lingered.
Gulen like Trotsky is on a hit list and I hope he does not suffer the same results. This is like Hagel’s three stages of politics where Kemal was the “Thesis” and now Turkey is at the “Antithesis” stage. I hope that the “Synthesis” will occur soon but I will not be holding my breath.
The Turkey that I knew and the soldiers that I called friends of the 1980s are no more and I am deeply saddened. Like you I have passed this article on to many of my friends.
Wellington says
Thanks for your reply, Ray Jarman. Well, once again is demonstrated that the more devout the Muslim is (like Erdogan), the worse off are Christians and those of other faiths. There is a direct proportionality here, i.e., the more you have Islamic dictates fulfilled the more you have repression (even, often times, of other Muslims who are not deemed Muslim enough).
There is also the factor of rank and brutal Turkish nationalism, which Ataturk and the Turkish military cannot be absolved of (though Turkish nationalism without Islam is obviously preferable to said nationalism with Islam, the latter summing up Erdogan rather well I believe).
I have to wonder though, are there no collective guts left in the Turkish military and the secularly-inclined Turkish population at large? Not only no guts, no glory, but no guts, no freedom.
Ray Jarman says
Thanks, Wellington, The answer about guts I am sure was rhetorical but the guts of the brave men have been sliced open and I have read that islamic fundamentalists have taken over the military.
don vito says
Nato, alliance? A kufr kind of alliance.
RichardL says
I have posted it many times: he is the most dangerous jihadi in the world and he has the only Muslim military that is good. And it is a million strong. If Turkey gets thrown out, not even Putin will touch Erdoğan with a barge pole.
Infidel says
HEAR HEAR a trillion times…. Just imagine if this madman gets hold of Nukes thru his cronies in Pak or Iran.. He will hold the entire world to ransom. This animal suffers from extreme megalomania..
ElderlyZionist says
Good article Hugh.
If the United States seriously intends to back the Kurds and foster an independent Kurdistan, we will be violently opposed by the Turks, the Syrians, the Iranians and their Iraqi stooges, who all stand to lose territory and population to a Kurdish state. The Turks, Arabs and Persians may be backed militarily by the Russians.
We had better prepare for full-scale war with all of these parties.
We should start by evacuating the Incirlik air base and all other military and diplomatic personnel on Turkish territory, before war breaks out and they are massacred. We had also better have forces positioned and ready to annihilate the Iranian air force and navy and any Russian forces who support them, to force a passage for supply ships through the Persian Gulf to the port of Basra, and to conquer and hold a supply route from Basra, hundreds of miles through hostile Arab territory to Iraqi Kurdistan.
If we embark on a Kurdish adventure without making these serious preparations, we are courting defeat.
CogitoErgoSum says
If Erdogan views himself as a new Caliph he will need to follow Islamic law and tradition. Seen through his Islamic eyes NATO is a treaty between his Dar al-Islam and the outside Dar al-Harb. Such treaties usually are not to extend beyond 10 years. Question is: When did (or does) his rule as Caliph begin? The 10 years starts from that point.
Peter says
The sultan-wannabee is an enemy of the West. End Turkey’s NATO and Council of Europe memberships.
Roderick MacUalraig says
Isn’t all that land we call Turkey being illegally occupied?
Isn’t it all Greek and Armenian land?
ElderlyZionist says
The Cypriots have made a modest military build-up. The Turkish navy is now this minute disputing Cypriot claims to some off-shore oilfields in the Med, blocking a drilling rig that Cyprus has licensed from moving into waters that Turkey claims, on behalf of their norther Cyprus protectorate. I suspect that the Cypriots might move to recover their occupied northern territories if the Turkish armed forces were distracted by a big war. The Greeks always have an eye on Istanbul-not-Constantinople and the Dardanelles. A number of old enemies might jump the Turks if they saw a chance for a cheap victory. It could become a very big war.
eduardo odraude says
The whole of the Christian Middle East and Christian North Africa was conquered by the Muslim sword and thus might be considered occupied Christian territory, if one wants, like the Palestinians, to extend claims ever further back in time. Istanbul could become Constantinople again; we could let the Hagia Sophia be the Hagia Sophia…
StellaSaidSo says
I like the way you think, eduardo…
Westman says
Erdogan : “What kind of NATO membership is this? What kind of NATO alliance is this?”
A more relevant question is, “What kind of Turkey is this?
underbed cat says
Turkey, is now the Islamic Republic of Turkey …..soon Thanksgiving will be protested and the Islam enclaves will try to ban in the U.S.( with leftist backing,) eating turkeys as an insult to Turkey. Why should he decide that western countries should take “refugee’s”, the trained type that invade and terrorize as a moral obligation to bring the world to Islam and it’s knees. No thanks to the caliphate victim clippers of sharia…the Ottoman slap *rap What kind of ally is this?
Another excellent article ..very precisely long though …
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Muslim Turkey should leave NATO and build its own military capabilities to counter any threat from treacherous evil united states and fascist evil zionist state of Israel. They are deadly cancers. Afterall, NATO has no more use.
gravenimage says
Turkey *should* stop pretending to be an ally of the civilized world.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Satan (holy spirit) worshiper Gravenimage, how civilised mithraist christians are worshiping the Satan, reviving Stone âge way of life and producing horrible bad smells ? you are primitive wild animals, simple.
Jack Dawkins says
Go bite your idol muhamnad’s penis.
CogitoErgoSum says
NATO will have its use against Turkey …….. or the new Ottoman Caliphate.
Westman says
Yes, Turkey should leave NATO.
Turkey has a military, Ibrahim – what rock are you living under? You haven’t noticed that Turkey is busy killing Kurds?
NATO will be replaced by an EU military, once Europe relearns how to create the machines of war – maybe in 10 years. France can instruct them and they can learn the true cost of their defense.
The UK, US, Israel, and others will be in some new alliance.
Charlie in NY says
The chances of NATO’s European members agreeing to kick out Turkey are precisely zero. They are afraid that Turkey would resume flooding Europe with Muslim migrants and that Erdogan might incite Europe’s Muslim populations.
They might consider “hastening” his replacement, but I doubt they have the spine for that either, whether it means supporting the opposition, Kurdish self-determination or simply raising issues in international fora, let alone doing something violent.
CogitoErgoSum says
I think eventually something (most likely very bad) will happen and the European members WILL defend the borders of Europe …….. after either the withdrawal (or expulsion) of Turkey from NATO. I have no doubt that it’s coming.
gravenimage says
Erdogan: “What kind of NATO membership is this? What kind of NATO alliance is this?”
……………………..
Fine analysis by Hugh Fitzgerald.
JoeDokes says
Even better – how about we cleanse the Turk from the former Byzantine empire? They will not be missed.
Andy says
Exposing The Global News LIE About Rohingya & Myanmar – MORE FAKE NEWS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SsAVbtUZig
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Andy, you consider any news on genocide and ethnic cleansing of muslims Idol worshipers to be fake because all of you worship the same Satan you Call holy spirit Who inspires you to be wicked.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
by Idol worshiper Bhudhists
gravenimage says
Ibrahim itace muhammed has said before that no one has the right to resist Muslims raping and murdering them.
al uzza bint-allaha says
ibrahim, did the goat throw a hissy fit at you again?
don vito says
itace -39.722
Westman says
Tell us more about Jinns, Ibrahim.
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
westman, Jinns are also spirits like the Satan you Call holy spirit. some Jinns are good and some are evil spirits like the Satan. Angels are also spirits, but are all good and obedients to God. Thé Satan revolted and he was cursed. All created by God.
Chand says
FACTS:
There has been an episode of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, targeting Muslim civilians there in retaliation for Jihadi attacks on soldiers.
Muslim jihadis have in turn massacred some Hindus and attacked Buddhists.
Buddhists are no more idol worshipers than Muslims who turn to the black stone of the Kabaa in Mecca.
Buddha did not teach idol worship. Neither did Muhammad.
The only Jinns I’m aware of are the good spirits that go with the tonics (and spelt gin).
Good essay, Hugh.
“The Americans can end the farce of Turkey’s membership in NATO. They should call for an extraordinary meeting of NATO to discuss the behavior of this new, anti-kemalist, islamizing, despotic, anti-Western Turkey.”
Is this going to happen soon?
underbed cat says
Kevin K Johnson…telling like it is….media deception never able to unravel the word deception and it’s use.It is done continuously by many in the press omitting truth to deceive for a left political cause.never offend the organized jihadist soldiers of Islam with cell phones with a cause.Good example.
underbed cat says
Buddiist suffered by the hands of jihadist and it gets reported as Kevin reports, that is the deceit of the religion of peace and they usually get away with it.n
Kevin thanks for exposing the deception of the massacre where the blame gets distorted to blame the truly more peaceful Buddists, Hindu’s instead of the muslim terror army,muslim media protected…
underbed cat says
The muslim brotherhood is still more subversive and disruptive of politics in the U.S, their attempt to gain political power and legitimacy, by bringing in Islamic mosques, money from Saudi arabia, Iran for schools, professionals in all areas of power.. The “collusion” was accomplished by planning deceit and grow the emigration of muslim populations of a global islamic movement. Their expertise is information warfare, much more intense than Russia would desire in fact a threat to Russia and the world. If Russians were involved it most likely was an islamic russian moverment spreading it’s tenacles and used the homeland of Russia as a cover.. The usual suspect that we have not seen the changes in our old enemy. This would work to take down Russia and the U.S,. The Putin letter to Obama published with a bloody hand print was asking for cooperation to fight islamic terror, the warning of the Boston Bombers were brushed aside as the enemy realized they could blame problems on Russian and the left would support all the meme all the way in my opinion. Rethink, St. Petersburg has been invaded by Islam and they take over the streets…..and plot to cause Russia grief and terror it continues,we should not destroy a possible relationship. I believe the hypocrisy of election influence showed itself in the Ukraine as Brennan made a preliminary visit and disruption followed after a election that started the crisis. He warns of removing leaders of countries we should listen in my opinion. Once the global islamic movement is recognized, we should drop their money and fight for our homeland.
Infidel says
This is JUST A FANTASTIC VIDEO.. Thanks for posting it.. I have long been saying that this entire Rohyingya thing is a BIG HOAX to cover regular Islamic crimes on infidels……Actually, Bangladeshis are infiltrating into India too…across their porous Western border and now claiming parts of India, esp the state of Assam as their own…
Infidel says
The 40,000 Rohyingya terrorists that have not claimed false amnesty in India, of the 40,000 already 15000 are pregnant. There is a man with as many as 7 or 8 wives and 56 children. They really breed like vermin and now as expected want to remain permanently back in India…And they are deliberately spreading in Hindu areas… My blood really boils..
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
I think the Myanmar military have the situation under control. They seemed to have outmaneuvered the world press and Mohammadan shills. It must have taken some degree of planning. They’ve signed an agreement to let the Mohammadan Bengalis back in but it seems none of them are willing to go back; too scared to set foot in a region they tried to take for their own.
Now Myanmar is deporting Uyghurs. Seems like a successful model on how to save a country.
Eric jones says
I say again. Expel Turkey from NATO, deny it membership in the EU. All USA military and intelligence assets should have been moved out of Turkey a year ago. USA should prepare for combat against Turkey. Turkish people must see that Erdogan has brought them ruin.
Trump must put the interest of America first, not the interest of Trump Tower in Istanbul.
Eric
Xaver Basora says
Find Kemalisst in and out of Turkey. Finance them and unleash them to harass the regime.
al uzza bint-allaha says
you can find them usually in the turkish prisons.
al uzza bint-allaha says
turkey’s short man trying to cast a long shadow.
MFritz says
The only reason Turkey remains a member of NATO is the fear of Russia. But I seriously DOUBT that Putin is interested in dealing with Erdogan.
Joining the EU is already off the table for Turkey. We may still accept the rabble from Northern Africa in droves (thanks to the likes of Merkel), but the doors will remain closed for Erdogan. For decades. And even long after his demise.
Manos says
The Trump administration should support far right in Greece and get them into power, then get out of Greeces way and give it the Green light to attack turkey and Albania. The Serbs and Bulgarias will also support Greece in attacking Turks and Albanians. Turks and Alabamans are Muslim scum. There are plenty of Kurds in Greece, in which Greece can arm them to attack Turks throughout turkey and Europe.
MFritz says
The better strategy is to remove Turkey off the NATO and withdraw all nukes and troops. Isolation works best.
And if Russia wants to have Erdogan as an ally, good luck! I seriously doubt that ANYTHING good will come from this country as long as he plays dictator down there.
Once the economic issues and population overgrowth become volatile, Erdogan will be toppled by the islamists and then the whole country goes civil war. And with the military in his pocket at this time, any political fracture by his death/fall will also mean that there is no united military.
Steve says
Is anyone besides myself seeingthe solution is a Predator Drone with Hell Fire Missiles to “remove” Erdogan since he thinks he is now the Caliphate of Islam?
roberta says
Erdogan seems to be well on his way to accomplishing his goals.
He will soon toss the suit only be seen wearing the traditional man dress and diaper hat. The outfit seems to go a long way (mentally) with the schiffhole peoples.
THE KURDS ARE NOT OUR ALLIES. They are just the parasites we have to sleep with for the moment. Given half the chance they will turn on us no different than the rest.
dumbledoresasrmy says
If he doesn’t like NATO he can leave.
He won’t be missed. He’s the turd in the punchbowl.
Insult him some more, and then .. when he stamps off in a huff… cancel *every* goodie that Turkey gets from its NATO membership, tell him Turkey’s membership is annulled… and THEN.. invite Israel to come fill the newly-emptied seat.
Richard Courtemanche says
You can’t play on both sides of the fence, Erdogan. Relax! It’s not good for your heart.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
Hey Americans, did you vote for this: Neocon Tillerson cozying up with Erdogan? (If you do then you are all for a second Ottoman caliphate.)
https://www.rt.com/news/418978-us-turkey-tillerson-visit/