In this mailing: - Burak Bekdil: Turkey: Beware of Islamists Bearing Gifts
- Amir Taheri: Points that Putin Apologists Miss
by Burak Bekdil • April 10, 2022 at 5:00 am Then there was what turned out to be a myth about the success of Turkish drones used by the Ukrainian army inflicting "huge" damage on the invading Russian columns. Drones, regardless of their capabilities, cannot be game-changers in a conflict with such vastly asymmetrical military might. The West must send jets, tanks, anti-aircraft, anti-armor and anti-ship missiles, and other weapons to Ukraine to repel Russia's Chinese-backed aggression -- fast -- or the US and Europe will soon find themselves enmeshed in wars even messier to fight. What else does Erdoğan -- who is and always has been ideologically anti-Western -- think he can win from the West by his hoax charm offensive? Erdoğan seems to think that just because the madman of Russia did something mad, he, the president of Turkey, can once again fool the West by posing as a pro-Western ally. Let's do a reality check.... Believing that the TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles could be game-changers in Ukraine is similar to thinking that the Turkish drones could be used to stop a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, former CIA official Paul Kolbe suggested that "Turkey should send Ukraine the Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems." Turkey said, however, that it dismissed the idea of transferring those systems to Ukraine to help Kyiv resist Russian troops. The West's primary weapon against the Russian aggression is sanctions. Who is in it? And who is not? As Western governments targeted Roman Abramovich and several other Russian oligarchs with sanctions to isolate Putin and his allies -- but not most Russian oligarchs or businesses -- a second super-yacht linked to the Russian billionaire docked in a Turkish resort. In addition, no one seems to be touching the $700 million yacht docked in Italy and reportedly owned by Putin. A source in Ankara told Reuters that given the sanctions imposed elsewhere, Abramovich and other wealthy Russians were looking to invest in Turkey.... Another source in Ankara said Turkey was not currently considering joining the sanctions action against Russia and was expecting wealthy Russians to purchase assets and make investments. Turkey apparently hopes to get all it can from this "Christian-to-Christian" conflict: Let the infidels destroy each other as Turkey cashes in with geostrategic gains and spill-over Russian business from the West.
 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is and always has been ideologically anti-Western, seems to think that just because the madman of Russia did something mad, he, the president of Turkey, can once again fool the West by posing as a pro-Western ally. Pictured: Erdoğan meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, on March 10, 2017. (Image source: kremlin.ru) Few people could imagine that on a cold March day in Turkey's capital, Ankara, the presidential corps, after more than a decade of hostility to its neighbor Israel, would welcome Israeli President Isaac Herzog by playing Israel's national anthem, Hatikva, with two presidential guards holding Turkish and Israeli flags on horseback. Pundits were quick to talk about a "reset in relations," or a "historic visit." Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he now intends to host Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Ankara. Shortly after Herzog's visit to Ankara, Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Dönmez met with his Israeli counterpart, Karin Elharrar on the sidelines of the International Energy Agency conference in Paris. Dönmez said he hopes to travel to Israel in April to discuss possible Israeli-Turkish cooperation on a gas pipeline. Continue Reading Article by Amir Taheri • April 10, 2022 at 4:00 am The second charge related to NATO's alleged rush to included Ukraine, or what [Professor John] Mearsheimer calls "reckless expansion", provoked Putin is equally absurd. For almost two decades, Russia made no objection to NATO enlargement that included former members of the Warsaw Pact. Under Putin, Russia even concluded a deal for cooperation with NATO on issues of mutual security with the Helsinki Accords as historic reference. In 2002, Putin met NATO Secretary-General George (Lord) Robinson and quipped that "maybe it is time NATO invited Russia to become a member." In NATO's 2008 Bucharest summit, both Georgia and Ukraine expressed the desire to apply for membership but were quietly told not to submit formal applications. The undeclared reason was the persistence of irredentist problems both had with Russia. Putin interpreted that as a rebuff to Kiev and Tbilisi by NATO and invaded Georgia, snatching South Ossetia and Abkhazia. What would Putin do if China invaded Russia to regain control of territory that was once Chinese? If we accept that what once belonged to one state can never belong to another, Crimea must be handed over to Turkey as successor to the Ottoman caliphate....
 What would Russian President Vladimir Putin do if China invaded Russia to regain control of territory that was once Chinese? If we accept that what once belonged to one state can never belong to another, Crimea must be handed over to Turkey as successor to the Ottoman caliphate, or, even better, the Tatar khans who ruled it before the Ottomans. Pictured: Putin (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet in Beijing on February 4, 2022. (Photo by Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images) Who do you think is to blame for the war in Ukraine? For the Blame-America-International the answer is simple: the culprit is the United States. At one end of the Blame-America International (BAI), we find usual suspects such as the Khomeinist mullahs, the Sudanese and Burmese jackboots, the Maoists of Eritrea, the Assad clan in Damascus and the bad boys of Belarus. These one could dismiss if only because their mercenary status is clear. It is at the other end of the spectrum that one finds a potentially more dangerous narrative at a time that what is euphemistically referred to as the world order is facing its biggest challenge since World War II. For here we find individuals and groups that try to use, or rather abuse, such labels as "public intellectuals" and/ or "elder statesmen" to legitimize Vladimir Putin's invasion. Continue Reading Article |
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