Misunderstandings Leading to U.S.-Turkish Spats
"I got that person [Turk arrested in Israel] out for him. I expect him to let this very innocent and wonderful man and great father and great Christian out of Turkey."
"I'm not concerned at all [over the potential of economic fallout in Europe]. I'm not concerned. This is the proper thing to do."
"I think it's very sad what Turkey is doing [refusing to release Pastor Andrew Brunson]."
"I think they're making a terrible mistake. There will be no concessions."
U.S. President Donald Trump
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| The pastor is only one of a number of issues dividing Mr Trump and Mr Erdogan AFP |
"The United Nations prohibits the use of 'environmental modification techniques'— including the deliberate setting of forest fires— for military purposes under the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques of 1976."Meghan Bodette, The Region
"Turkey is a signatory to this agreement, but has not ratified it. It continues to use attacks on the environment and natural resources as tools of war across Kurdistan— such as the Ilisu Dam project in Hasankeyf, which would submerge 50 villages and several historic sites. Guner Yanlic, a member of the Hevsel Protection Platform, told ANF that dams in Kurdistan are an 'extension of the security policy, as well as a project to create cheap workers in big cities by cutting off social communication and forcing people to migrate.' This is similar to the purpose of the forest fires set by the state, which are also used to force displacement."
"The Turkish military has used forest fires as a weapon of war against both armed Kurdish groups and Kurdish civilians’ lives and livelihoods for decades. In the 1990s, during campaigns of forced displacement, eyewitnesses report seeing Turkish troops setting these fires in forests close to populated areas. A 1995 Human Rights Watch report, Weapons Transfers and Violations of the Laws of War in Turkey, details several instances of this phenomenon."
NATO's second largest army after that of the United States, places Turkey as an anchor on the eastern flank where Turkey is viewed as a bridge between the West and the Muslim world. And so it was and has been until lately. Secular Turkey, bequeathed by Kamal Ataturk is no longer, and so it no longer serves its traditional East-West role because Turkey is now firmly Islamist and Recep Tayyip Erdogan which brought it to this position through careful political manipulation and religious demagoguery, has conditioned Turks to consider the West an oppressor and enemy of the Turks.
The ties that have anchored Turkey to NATO and the West have noticeably frayed, and likely quite beyond repair. At least for the length of the Erdogan Justice and Development Party. And Erdogan has engineered a situation where he will not be easily removed, ensconcing himself as president for life, a modern-day Sultan whose reign is supreme. He has become a thorn in NATO's side, and his animosity for the West and the United States in particular, though that Europe is not exactly favoured by him now, has become legendary in fits of belligerent threats and accusations.
The attempted coup that almost removed him from power two years ago was a heaven-sent opportunity for Erdogan to portray himself under siege by the United States directing the powerful Fethullah Gul, his political Islamist nemesis, to remove Erdogan and his party from its irritating power base. Assuming that Erdogan hadn't himself engineered the failed putsch, its fallout enabled him to 'identify' his enemies in the tens of thousands of military, police, lawyers, justices, teachers, journalists, to arrest and imprison them.
His major argument now with the United States is Washington's disinterest in handing over the self-exiled Gul, living in the United States, to stand trial so that justice in Turkey can be advanced, as a traitor to the government's interests. Pastor Brunton who has been held under house arrest for the past two years on charges of aiding that coup has led to the diplomatic stand-off which has resulted in painful sanctions imposed on Turkey leading to the near collapse of its economy and the subsequent drop in the lira, with foreign investors making themselves scarce.
Erdogan's rage against the U.S. also stems from its support for Syrian and Iraqi Kurds who proved successful in militarily opposing the seemingly unstoppable Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's leverage of both countries' territories, wreaking havoc and enjoying their reputation for barbaric atrocities. Erdogan's insistence that the Kurds are all terrorists linked to the Turkish PKK, and his fury that Kurds are considered by NATO and the U.S. as allies has led to his further distancing himself from both.
Making ingratiating accommodation with Vladimir Putin in Syria to benefit both their interests, Erdogan's decision to install a Russian S-400 missile defense system incompatible with NATO defence systems has made Turkey odd-nation-out in the alliance, leading the U.S. Congress to reconsider delivery of F-35 jet fighters until such time as a final assessment of Turkey's trajectory can be established; which may be a long time coming.
In the meantime, Turkey always has the Kurds to bash and the Turkish military is busy emulating Hamas's program in Gaza, demonstrating to the world at large peaceful demonstrations which demonic Israel is reacting to as they they were mechanized artillery attacks laying waste to Israel's fields, forests and nature preserves by shooting at defenceless Arab teens who are amusing themselves by doing what children anywhere do, fly kites; special ones with special appendages.
Labels: Aggression, Crisis Management, Europe, NATO, Political Realities, Turkey, United States
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, August 21, 2018
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