erdogan sultan satirize

Why the ‘Sultan of Chaos’ is freaking out

Picture sleepless nights at ‘Sultan’ Erdogan’s palace in Ankara. Imagine him livid when he learns the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), backed by Russian air power, started a preemptive Battle of Aleppo – through the Bayirbucak region - cutting off Ankara’s top weaponizing corridor and Jihadi highway.

Who controls this corridor will control the final outcome of the war in Syria.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, the remote-controlled Syrian opposition, a.k.a. High Negotiations Committee, graphically demonstrated they never wanted to meet with the Damascus delegation in the first place – “proximity” talks or otherwise, even after Washington and Moscow roughly agreed on a two-year transition plan leading to a theoretically secular, nonsectarian Syria.

The Saudi front wanted no less than Ahrar al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam and all Jabhat al-Nusra, a.k.a. al-Qaeda in Syria, collaborators at the table in Geneva. So the Geneva charade, quicker than one can say “Road to Aleppo!” was exposed for what it is.

  • And forget about NATO

Notorious Saudi intel mastermind Prince Turki, a former mentor of one Osama bin Laden, has been to Paris on a PR offensive; all he could muster was an avalanche of non-denial denials - and blaming the whole Syria tragedy on Bashar al-Assad.

The bulk of the Syrian ‘opposition’ used to be armchair warriors co-opted by the CIA for years, as well as CIA Muslim Brotherhood patsies/vassals. Many of these characters preferred the joys of Paris to a hard slog on Syrian ground. Now the ‘opposition’ is basically warlords answering to the House of Saud even for bottles of water – regardless of the suit-and-tie former Ba’ath Party ministers handpicked to be the face of the opposition for the gullible Western corporate media.

Meanwhile, the ‘4+1’ – Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, plus Hezbollah – is now winning decisive facts on the ground. The break down; there won’t be regime change in Damascus. Yet no one broke the news to the Turks and Saudis.

‘Sultan’ Erdogan is wallowing in a sea of desperation. He continues to divert the gravely serious issues at stake to his own war against the PYD - the umbrella organization of the Syrian Kurds - and the YPG (People’s Protection Units, their military wing). Erdogan and Prime Minister Davutoglu wanted the PYD not only banned from Geneva but they want it smashed on the ground, as they see the PYD/YPG as “terrorists” allied to the PKK.

'Me or terrorists?' Furious Erdogan tells US to choose between Turkey and Syrian Kurds
Riled by a meeting between a US official and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which controls the Syrian town of Kobane, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told Washington to choose between Turkey and, as he put it, the “terrorists.”
A delegation featuring Brett McGurk, the United States' envoy to the coalition it leads against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), met the YPG over the last weekend in January. The YPG took full control of Kobane late last June, in what was a powerful symbol of Kurdish resistance.
The conflict between the Turkish government and Kurdish insurgent groups demanding greater autonomy for the large ethnic group has been continuing for decades. With several failed ceasefires between the sides, Ankara has been blamed by a number of human rights groups for putting civilian lives at risk in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.
"Turks have a phobia of Kurds because they are scared of their Turkish Kurds, some 20 million of them living in Turkey,” Abd Salam Ali, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party's representative to Russia, told RIA Novosti, adding that “Kurds have interfered with Erdogan's plans in Turkey.”
"Islamic State has military bases in Turkey, and is using it as a corridor. Turkey currently plays a role similar to the one Pakistan played in the 1980s. When the Soviet forces were stationed in Afghanistan, jihadists arrived there through Pakistan, along with the money and arms," Abd Salam Ali noted.

 

Yet what is ‘Sultan’ Erdogan going to do? Defy the recently arrived 4G++ Sukhoi Su-35S fighters – which are scaring the hell out of every NATO Dr. Strangelove? The Turkish Air Force putting its bases on “orange alert” may scare the odd vagrant dog at best. The same applies to NATO Secretary-General, figurehead Jens Stoltenberg, pleading to Russia “to act responsibly and fully respect NATO airspace.”

Moscow is going after the Turkmen with a vengeance and at the same time providing air support to the PYD west of the Euphrates. That hits the ‘Sultan’ in his heart of hearts; after all Erdogan has threatened multiple times that a PYD/YPG advance west of the Euphrates is the ultimate red line.

An already scared NATO won’t support the folly of an Erdogan war against Russia – as much as US and UK neocons may crave it; as NATO decisions must be unanimous, the last thing EU powers Germany and France want is yet another Southwest Asia war. NATO may deploy the odd Patriot missiles in southern Anatolia and the odd AWACs to support the Turkish Air Force. But that’s it.

Pick your favorite regime change

ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, meanwhile, continues to profit from its own Jihadi highway across a 98 kilometer stretch of Turkish/Syrian border, especially in Jarablus and Al Rai across from Gaziantep and Kilis in Turkey.

Taking a cue from Israel, Ankara is building a wall – 3.6 meters high, 2.5 meters wide - covering the stretch between Elbeyli and Kilis, essentially for propaganda purposes. Because the Jihadi Highway, for all practical purposes, remains open – even as Turkish Armed Forces may apprehend the odd trespasser (always released). We’re talking about a monster smuggler/soldier scam; as much as $300 change hands for each night crossing and a noncommissioned Turkish officer may earn as much as $2,500 to look the other way for a few minutes.

The real question is why Gaziantep is not under a curfew imposed from Ankara, with thousands of Turkish Special Forces actually fighting a “war on terra” on the spot. That’s because Ankara and provincial authorities couldn’t give a damn; the real priority is Erdogan’s war on the Kurds.

This brings us to the only leverage the ‘Sultan’ may enjoy at the moment. From Brussels to Berlin, sound minds are terrified that the EU is now actually hostage to Erdogan’s Kurd “priority”, while Ankara is doing next to nothing to fight massive migrant smuggling.

When Davutoglu went to Berlin recently not only did he make no promises; he re-stressed Erdogan’s vow to “annihilate” the Syrian Kurds.

And that explains German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s own desperation. How could the alleged most powerful politician in Europe falls for such a crude extortion racket? The ‘Sultan’ wants a lot of cash, a lot of concessions, and even a further shot at entering the EU. Otherwise, he won’t turn off the tap on the grim refugee flood.

No wonder the regime change rumor mill is frantic. In Ankara? No; in Berlin.

Source: RT.Com/ Opinion by Pepe Escobar.

Pepe Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst. He writes for RT, Sputnik and TomDispatch, and is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for Asia Times Online. Born in Brazil, he’s been a foreign correspondent since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Even before 9/11 he specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is the author of “Globalistan” (2007), “Red Zone Blues” (2007), “Obama does Globalistan” (2009) and “Empire of Chaos” (2014), all published by Nimble Books. His latest book is “2030”, also by Nimble Books, out in December 2015.

  • Turkey’s Erdogan threatened to flood Europe with migrants

According to Reuters, “aspiring Sultan” Tayyip Erdogan threatened in November to flood Europe with migrants if European Union leaders did not offer him a better deal to help manage the Middle East refugee crisis, a Greek news website said on Monday.

Publishing what it said were minutes of a tense meeting last November, the euro2day.gr financial news website revealed deep mutual irritation and distrust in talks between Erdogan and the EU’s two top officials, Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk.

In internal EU memo obtained by Greek media reveals the blatant Turkish blackmail on the refugee crisis. The memo contains a summary of the dialogue between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with European Commissioner Jean Claude Juncker and President of the European Council Donald Tusk on 16th November 2015 during the G20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey. The three Presidents were discussing the Action Plan to tackle the Refugees and Migrants Crisis.

According to the memo, the bargain was hard and Turkey demanded 30 billion euro from the European Union in order to refrain from sending refugees and migrants to Europe through Greece.

EU’s offer was 3 billion euro in two years, but Erdogan demanded 3 billion euro per year.

The EU officials were trying to enlist Ankara’s help in stemming an influx of Syrian refugees and migrants into Europe. Over a million arrived last year, most crossing the narrow sea gap between Turkey and islands belonging to EU member Greece.

Tusk’s European Council and Juncker’s European Commission declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the document, and Erdogan’s office in Ankara had no immediate comment.
He also claimed that “Greece received 400 billion euro from Europe” during the economic crisis and that in fact Turkey should get a huge amount of money too. The two EU Officials told him, not to compare the Greek economic crisis with the refugee crisis. He claimed that the 3 billion euro will go for the refugees and not for Turkey.

The three-party meeting ended without an agreement.

What is worth noting is that neither Juncker, nor Tusk informed the other EU-member states about Turkey’s approach. Also the media covering the G20 summit were apparently told that “the ball was rolling”. but in fact there was a total media blackout on the EU-Turkey negotiations.

The account of the meeting, in English, was produced in facsimile on the website. It does not state when or where the meeting took place, but it appears to have been on Nov. 16 in Antalya, Turkey, where the three met after a G20 summit there.

“We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria anytime and we can put the refugees on buses … So how will you deal with refugees if you don’t get a deal? Kill the refugees?” Erdogan was quoted in the text as telling the EU officials.

It also quoted him as demanding 6 billion euros over two years. When Juncker made clear only half that amount was on offer, he said Turkey didn’t need the EU’s money anyway.

The EU eventually agreed a 3 billion euro fund to improve conditions for refugees in Turkey, revive Ankara’s long-stalled accession talks and accelerate visa-free travel for Turks in exchange for Ankara curbing the numbers of migrants pouring into neighboring Greece.

In heated exchanges, Erdogan often interrupted Juncker and Tusk, the purported minutes show, accusing the EU of deceiving Turkey and Juncker personally of being disrespectful to him.

The Turkish leader was also quoted as telling Juncker, a former prime minister of tiny Luxembourg, to show more respect to the 80-million-strong Turkey. “Luxembourg is just like a little town in Turkey,” he was quoted as saying.

The tense dialogue highlighted the depth of mutual suspicion at a time when the EU is banking on Turkish help to alleviate its worst migration crisis since World War Two.

The EU says the flow of people from Turkey, which hosts more than 2.5 million Syrian refugees, has not decreased in any significant way since the bloc’s joint summit with Ankara in November, when they had agreed the fund for refugees there.

The report prompted a member of the European Parliament from the Greek centrist party To Potami to ask the European Commission to confirm the purported talks.

“If the relevant dialogues between the EU officials and the Turkish President are true, it seems that there are aspects of the deal between Ankara and the EU which were concealed on purpose,” Miltos Kyrkos said in the question he submitted to the Commission.

“We want immediately an answer on whether these revelations are true and where the Commission’s legitimacy to negotiate, using Turkey’s accession course as a trump card, is coming from,” Kyrkos said.

 

3 thoughts on “Why the ‘Sultan of Chaos’ is freaking out”

  1. Merkel came to Turkey 7 times during 4 months. What a big interest! They play in big leagues with tricks, all politicians don’t care the publics at the region. And behind it all there is a zionist plan. And this is about water supply and sources which Israel desires to achieve at the region. Behind ISIS, behind all Kurdish groups and behind all politicians who involved to this chaos. Any of them is not innocent. I’ve written as a comment before my another Earthling friend Sojourner’s blog this, I want to add same information in here:
    “…one important Kurdish leader said four years before,
    “An autonomous Kurdistan in Northern Iraq was established. It’s capital is Arbil.
    An autonomous Kurdistan in northern Syria is being established. It’s capital is Qamishli.
    An autonomous Kurdistan will be established in Iran. Capital will be Mahabad.
    An autonomous Kurdistan will also established in Turkey. Diyarbakir’s name will be changed as “Amed”. Amed will be the capital city.
    This 4 capital city as well as in the European Union, they will take near side Armenia and Jordan, also by removing the boundaries they will pass “common currency”; and “Greater Kurdistan Union” to become real.”

    And we all know what happened last four years that this Kurdish leader mentioned.

    When they idea will come true the state which will called greater Kurdistan will establish, it will not serve to the Kurdish people, it will serve capitalist elites. You know my Earthling friend, as same as right now Iraq Kurdistan doesn’t serve the Kurdish people. All petroleum profits go to the elites pocket. Kurdish people are poor at Iraq Kurdistan.

    The other side, I very admire the propagandas of the elites and how they can control the brains! They show as only HDP (Turkey Kurdish party at parliment) and the other Kurdish groups struggle with Erdogan’s aim. This is totally wrong!
    like this one, quote from post:
    “Turks have a phobia of Kurds because they are scared of their Turkish Kurds, some 20 million of them living in Turkey,” Abd Salam Ali, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party’s representative to Russia, told RIA Novosti, adding that “Kurds have interfered with Erdogan’s plans in Turkey.”

    Erdogan is wanting presidantal system in Turkey, but not similar with the other presidantal systems, he wants to new shape presidantal system, and it will be more oppressive regime more than this. And Kurdish party will support his aim, because from now, they started to bargain about new constition. This happened before and this will happen future. Same story is always experinecing! Only Communist Party Turkey and CHP (Republican People’s Party) in Turkey are acting against Erdogan’s aim. Any Kurdish or Turkish party is not acting against his aim except these two! All others are just story that used by capitalist-imperialist elites!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you for enriching my post with your knowledge “inside” the borders! Erdogan’s recent moves are full of paranoïa as he sees that the chaos he helped to be created in Syria is out of control. His only fear is an imminent probable Kurdish state after this war…. while ISIS is bombing Turkey and he blames the Kurds every time. “Isis bombed and killed but is Kurds fault as well, let’s bomb them instead of ISIS”. Meanwhile he says that he wants to protect minorities especially turkish one’s outside Turkey while he doesn’t respect any of them into the turkish territory. Even during the Ottoman Empire people used to have more rights than now in Turkey ,maybe… And Erdogan will never become A real Sultan as except Azerbaijan and Georgia no one else cooperates or wants to with “this” Turkey right now.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. His only fear is not an imminent probable Kurdish state after this war, my Earthling friend. His only fear is possibility of losing his power into his hands. We will all see that after this october he will cooperate with Kurdish groups over established Kurdish autonomy states behalf of continuity of his Sultanic regime. And we will all see how much Kurdish groups are inclined to cooperating with Erdogan. Because the result will be compatible with both sides interests.

        And he always blames everyone. Only necessary thing for his blaming is the someone is against him. Right now, more Turkish opposition people who against Erdogan policy are in jail than Kurdish people. And noone knows this at the world! But as I mentioned up, this is very admiring propaganda made by capitalist-imperialist elites! So I mean that it is not important to be Turks or Kurds, just necessary is to be against him for being behind the bars.

        You said that “Even during the Ottoman Empire people used to have more rights than now in Turkey ,maybe..”

        First of all f**k the Ottomans! Ottomans grind out all the publics and prevented their development. Turks in Anatolia for centuries could not write in their mother language, in the same way the Greeks couldn’t, only Armenians could write own language. Yes Armenians were special for Sultans, it wasn’t like the told in this century! And they exploit the people with tax. For example, if Turks do not send their sons to Ottoman army, higher taxes were wanted by Sultan. The Greeks were paying high taxes when trading. Now some stupid Turks are dreaming Ottoman. My Earthling friend, there is no limit to the stupidity of mankind!

        Liked by 1 person

Thank you for your contribution

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s