WORLD NEWS
Turkey Invades As U.S. Troops Withdraw From Syria
Trump: “The Kurds Did Not Help Us With Normandy”
“We’ve Been Giving The Kurds A Lot of Money And Equipment”
No sooner had 50 U.S. troops been withdrawn from Syria’s northeast corner upon President Trump’s orders 4 days ago than Turkish troops started pouring into Syria. Turkey’s intentions had been on the table for more than two years, but it still came as a surprise since Turkey had not bothered with a diplomatic initiative to inform its allies of the move. It therefore met with condemnation by the EU, NATO and the UN, not to mention U.S. Congress.
President Trump and his administration explained that the U.S. did not want to be involved in an endless tribal war in the Middle East and had not made any commitment to protect the Kurds against Turkey. The President was misunderstood and even ridiculed with his remarks that the Kurds had not helped the U.S. with Normandy. What he meant was that he did not consider the Kurds an ally in the sense of U.S. alliances during World War II. The fact is, that the Kurds were one of the main targets of ISIS, who were destroyed from the air. They were the main beneficiary of U.S. firepower and presence in the area, and were no longer needed except to guard prisoners most of whom were women and children.
When Republican senators criticized his decision the President had to announce, however, that Turkey could face U.S. sanctions if it went too far, but it’s not clear what that exactly means. Turkey says it wants to create a 30-mile-wide buffer zone where some of the 3.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey can be resettled, but it will take a lot more land to achieve that objective. The unspoken fact is, Turkey does not want a Kurdish state at its southern border established with U.S. money and military equipment. Turkey has been fighting its own Kurdish separatist guerrillas for more than 3 decades at a great loss of life and financial resources.
The U.S.-Kurdish cooperation that started with President Obama’s ambivalent foreign policy has in fact thrown Turkey, NATO’s critical eastern flank, into Putin’s lap. Turkish purchase of military equipment from Russia is a big headache for President Trump. Turkish President Erdogan announced yesterday that “all decisions related to Syria are taken in cooperation with Mr. Putin.” He said that both countries’ intelligence teams are working hand in hand on Syria. That should give the U.S. government something to worry about. It’s clear that Turkish President Erdogan’s foreign policy maneuvering has brought the U.S. to make a final choice between Turkish interests and Kurds’ aspirations to have their own state.
Luckily for the Kurds, however, President Erdogan has a strong dislike for Syria’s Bashar Assad. He has resisted calls from Russia and his own opposition to make a deal with the Syrian regime, which could seriously complicate Turkey’s mission. He still has the romantic notion of pursuing a portion of Syria run by the so-called Free Syrian Army, democratiam a la turca, “Turkish style democracy.” If Assad and Putin decide to assert Syria’s authority over the Kurds with military force, it could make the Turkish military incursion look like a picnic. On the other hand, Syria could be the swamp that swallows Turkey’s future.
As the old Ottoman proverb goes, “beware of getting entangled in Arab’s hair.”
Read More About Turkey In World News
October 13, 2019
Turkish Foreign Policy Shifts As The Country Faces Worst Crises In 15 Years
Turkish Currency Loses Half Its Value Against The Dollar
Unemployment Reaches An All-Time High
High Tension With NATO, U.S., Israel and France
Door To Europe Closed Tighter
Over 3 Million Syrian Refugees
What More Could Go Wrong ?
Not Putin’s Russia, For Sure
Many Turks planning a visit to Europe or the U.S. woke up about a year ago to find themselves impoverished in terms of the Euro or the Dollar, as the Turkish Lira lost 65-percent of its value against foreign currencies. It was the end of a dream for thousands of students who wanted a western education. It was the worst nightmare for importers, unless they kept their money in a foreign currency. Many did not, since foreign currencies did not earn any notable interest at Turkish banks whereas interest payments for Turkish Lira deposits were generally very generous. President Erdogan made it an issue of Turkish patriotism as he fired the chief of the Central Bank. He said the value of the Turkish currency depended on how patriotic Turks decided to be when it came to deposits. He said the U.S. dollar should not determine the value of other currencies. He said it was every Turk’s patriotic duty to support the country’s own currency, the Lira. The banks immediately jacked up their interest rates for the Lira to levels at which many citizens would simply not be able to resist. As they say in movies, he made an offer that they just couldn’t refuse. As a result there has been some stabilization in the currency market, but not enough to take the country back to where it was 2 years ago. As of this date a Canadian dollar buys 4.30 Liras, which is still a far cry from the 1:2 rate that prevailed until about a year ago.
An expatriate friend of mine who moved back to the old country says the poverty on Turkish streets is quite visible and palpable especially when you add to this picture tens of thousands of Syrian refugees that live in camps or out on the street. Whereas such a drastic currency devaluation would be a Godsend to Canadian manufacturers and exporters, Turkey has become too much of an addict to imports despite its dramatic industrial growth within the past 3 decades. A foreign-made car and imported name brands in shoes and clothing are status symbols for the modern upscale Turk. With 3 kids and a wife that didn’t work my friend used to complain that he could hardly make ends meet in Vancouver despite his income from properties he owned. With his Canadian income that surpasses that of a Turkish cabinet minister when converted into Liras he now lives very luxuriously in the capital city of Ankara without having to work at all. Unfortunately, Turkey’s archaic bureaucracy and obsolete government regulations keep the country from becoming a retirement or business haven for the West. A Canadian businessman who wanted to establish his business in Turkey complained that the Internet connection was slow and not very reliable, and PayPal that businesses use for small payments had been booted out of Turkey for refusing to hand over its list of customers to the government.
S-400 Is A Powerful Code
Known as one the staunchest allies of the United States, Turkey’s loyalty to its alliance with the West was never questioned even when President Johnson issued an open threat to forestall a possible Turkish invasion of Cyprus in the 60’s. This is a long story that doesn’t have a happy ending for Greeks and Turks that share the island on opposite sides. The straw that broke the camel’s back in U.S.-Turkish relations were the U.S. support of YPG, the Syrian Kurdish guerrilla organisation, and the U.S. refusal to hand over Fetullah Gulen, the cleric who the Turkish President suspected of masterminding the attempted coup against him in 2016. Add to this the West’s reluctance to sell Turkey an effective air defense system, and the Turks would turn to Russia for S-400. S-400 is supposed to be the most effective air missile defense system in the world which, according to some claims, make the F-35 Joint Fighter obsolete. According to a new theory circulating among observers what made S-400 especially attractive to the Turkish President is the fact that the system is programmed to hunt down U.S.-made aircraft. The coup attempt was spearheaded by units of the Turkish Air Force that bombed government installations in their U.S.-made F-16 fighters.
The Turkish purchase of the S-400 system drew a harsh reaction from NATO and President Trump. Trump said that there would be no delivery of the F-35 fighters that Turkey had substantially invested in, and dropped the country out of the F-35 program. President Erdogan retorted that in that case Turkey would buy Russian aircraft. Coincidentally, Russia manufactures S-35, its answer to the West’s F-35. According to Russia it’s about to come up with S-57 that will leave the F-35 a mere pedestrian in the fighter race.
Macron, The Charming Punk In Paris
As if dealing with Kurdish terrorists and a cleric foe protected by the U.S. was not enough to President Erdogan, an unexpected threat came from French President Macron. Macron announced in no uncertain terms that France would send its navy to protect Greek Cypriots if Turkey continued oil exploration in Eastern Mediterranean to the detriment of Greek Cypriotic Government. President Erdogan is known not to mince his words and not to take kindly or diplomatically to threats, domestic or foreign. He retorted immediately that if the French came over, they would get what they deserved from the Turkish navy. He said “What the hell of a business do the French have in Eastern Mediterranean anyways ?”
In the meantime, the love affair between Russia and Turkey continues as Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Putin have become best friends after Mr. Erdogan apologized for shooting down a Russian fighter jet at the Turkish Syrian border, an incident that decimated Turkish exports to Russia and the hotel industry catering to Russian tourists. However, the spat between the Turkish President and Israel has not abated in spite of the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu apologized for raiding Mavi Marmara, a Turkish civilian boat sent to Gaza to aid Palestinians. Mr. Erdogan has declared himself the lord protector of Palestinian Arabs, an Abdel Nasseresque cause that no Arab state has shown any interest in so far. Yesterday he condemned Israel at the UN for trampling on human rights in Palestine that he says belongs to Palestinian Arabs. It’s hard to tell what price Turkey will pay for this romantic humanitarian notion.
We predict that soon President Erdogan and Assad of Syria will shake hands and be friends again. Realpolitik demands it, and there’s no greater master of Realpolitik than President Erdogan. As the old Ottoman proverb goes, “Beware of the Persian lie, and getting entangled in Arabs’ hair.”
CM,
September 24, 2019
Northern Cyprus: Famagusta Ghost Town Opened To Redevelopment
Ottoman Empire captured Cyprus from Venice in 1571. It remained part of the Ottoman Empire until Britain grabbed it in 1878 under the pretext of defending the Ottomans against Russia, and annexed it at the start of World War I. After the Second Big War Greek Cypriots ran a terror campaign against the British rulers to unite the island with Greece. This was adamantly opposed by the Turkish minority. In 1960 Cyprus became an independent republic, with proportional representation of Greek and Turkish Cypriots in government. This did not work, as Greeks felt that the minority Turks were given too much power. They booted out the Turkish Vice-President and ministers from government, and took steps to unify Cyprus with Greece. Turkish Cypriots lived in enclaves with support from Turkey, and the threat of a Turkish invasion and partitioning of the island which never came until 1974. On July 20, 1974 Turkish troops landed in Cyprus after a Greek terrorist leader grabbed the presidency. Invoking its right as a guarantor state under the London and Zurich agreements that created the Republic of Cyprus, Turkey invaded the northern third of the island. The Turkish Army partitioned the island between Greeks and Turks, taking the Northern third of the country. The Turkish Northern Republic of Cyprus created by Turkey has never been recognized by the world community. In 2016 Turkish Cypriots voted yes in a referendum for reunification that would make the North also a part of the European Union with numerous economic benefits, but Greek Cypriots rejected the offer of reunification. Since 1974 Turkish Cypriots have been isolated from the world as a community, with the Turkish mainland as its only economic lifeline. It’s not possible to fly to Northern Cyprus except from Turkey.
Famagusta is an eastern port in the Turkish Northern Republic, captured by the Turkish Army after bitter combat with the Cypriot National Guard.
An entertainment center, the Varosh district of Famagusta, called Marash by the Turks, used to be the Las Vegas of Cyprus. After the 1974 invasion the Turkish Army closed off the district to habitation as a forbidden military zone under agreements through the United Nations. It was thus called the Ghost Town of Cyprus. Last summer the government of the Northern Republic opened the district quietly to habitation and redevelopment. Developers have already started selling condominiums to Mainland Turks.
October 2, 2019
Al Jazeera Investigates Britain’s Modern Slave Trade