by Burak Bekdil • March 6, 2020 at 5:00 am
Turkey would apparently like to see more progress in the talks to grant it admission as a full member of the European Union.... Erdoğan would most certainly like the West overlook his massive democratic deficit, and to help Turkey secure even more dominance over the Greek islands off its coast, as well as its claims on the gas fields beneath the eastern Mediterranean.
Erdoğan needed to find a non-Russian adversary to attack, to distract Turkish anger away from him and toward a different chosen target. What better target than the EU, with which most Turks have a love-hate relationship? Opening Turkey's border gates and flooding Europe with migrants would be sure to please the average Turk....
Europe, unfortunately, to protect its liberty and sovereignty, needs to fight back. It must refuse to accept Erdoğan's hostages.... If the first groups in this mini-exodus from Turkey face a serious blockade rather than warm and welcoming locals, potential migrants would be discouraged from taking such a perilous trip. What Greece alone could achieve, without help from the EU, would be limited....
On February 27, the Turkish government finally pressed the button to execute President Erdoğan's threat: Millions of (mostly Syrian) migrants on Turkish soil were now free to travel to Europe; Turkish border gates were now open. Pictured: Migrants at the Turkey-Greece border try to pull down the Greek border fence and enter Greece, near Edirne, Turkey, on March 4, 2020. (Photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images)
Turkey's Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has threatened Europe several times with "sending millions of refugees your way." Turkey would apparently like to see more progress in the talks to grant it admission as a full member of the European Union. At the moment, these membership negotiations have stalled. He may also wish for Western support -- from the EU, the United States and all of NATO -- for his ideal architecture to install Turkey in northwest Syria.
by Con Coughlin • March 5, 2020 at 5:00 am
If the current crisis facing Turkey is entirely of Mr Erdogan's own making, that has not prevented the Turkish president from trying to deflect attention away from his own mishandling of the conflict by seeking to provoke a new migrant crisis in Europe.
When Turkey took the controversial decision last year to purchase Russia's state-of-the-art S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, Mr Erdogan calculated that it would herald new era of friendly cooperation with Ankara's long-standing rival in Moscow even if, by pressing ahead with the deal, the Turks risked jeopardising their relationship with NATO, which bitterly opposed the deal.
Russians now find themselves in a direct confrontation with Turkish forces in Idlib province, where the Turks are trying to protect a number of Islamist militias committed to overthrowing the Assad regime... [A]s the recent escalation in fighting has demonstrated, the Russians' main priority is to support the Assad regime.
Mr Erdogan is also about to discover that there has been a hardening of attitudes among European leaders about dealing with unwanted migrants since the Turkish leader last used his blackmail tactics five years ago.... These days, senior politicians in Mrs Merkel's centre-right Christian Democrats take a more hard-nosed approach to the migrant issue, with one senior party member warning the migrants this week, "There is no point coming to Germany. We cannot take you in."
If Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan believes he can bully European leaders by provoking a fresh migrant crisis in southern Europe, then he would be well-advised to think again. (Photo by Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images)
If Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan believes he can bully European leaders by provoking a fresh migrant crisis in southern Europe, then he would be well-advised to think again.
Ankara's announcement that it is once again opening the floodgates to allow millions of refugees from Syria's brutal civil war to travel to south-eastern Europe in search of refuge has been taken to persuade European leaders to back Turkey's increasingly desperate situation in Syria.
Having launched an ill-considered military offensive against the Assad regime in northern Syria, Mr Erdogan now finds himself facing the consequences of his action, with regime forces, backed by Russia and Iran, waging a highly effective campaign against the Turks, which has so far resulted in the deaths of scores of Turkish troops.
by Judith Bergman • March 5, 2020 at 4:30 am
"We're playing Russian roulette with people's lives, letting convicted, known, radicalised jihadi criminals walk about our streets". — Chris Phillips, former head of the UK National Counter Terrorism Security Office, The Guardian, December 1, 2019.
The hate literature was distributed to inmates by... chaplains, who themselves were appointed by the Ministry of Justice.
The prison staff lacked the training to confront and deter... extremist ideology, and "were often fearful they would be accused of racism if they did". — Ian Acheson, former prison governor, Daily Mail, July 13, 2016.
It remains to be seen, whether releasing a terrorist after serving two-thirds of his sentence, rather than half, will make any difference.
"If there are people who are absolutely determined not to accept any intervention that will change that toxic mind-set, yes they should be in prison and if necessary, indefinitely." — Ian Acheson, former prison governor BBC News, February 3, 2020.
On February 3, Sudesh Amman, who had just been released from prison in England after serving half his prison term, stabbed two people in Streatham, south London, before he was shot dead at the scene by police. Later, ISIS took responsibility for the attack. Pictured: Police officers search the site of Amman's attack on Streatham High Road in south London on February 3, 2020. (Photo by Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images)
On February 3, 2020, Sudesh Amman, who had just been released from prison in England after serving half his prison term, stabbed two people in Streatham, south London, before he was shot dead at the scene by police. Later, ISIS took responsibility for the attack.
The attack again raised the issue of how Europe should deal with jihadist terrorism.
After Amman's terrorist attack, the government announced that emergency legislation would be introduced to end the automatic early release from prison of terror offenders. Terror offenders would only be considered for release once they had served two-thirds of their sentence and with the approval of the parole board. Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said that the latest attack by Amman made the case "for immediate action".
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment