If
Erdogan and his advisors seriously believe that they can publicly
blackmail a superpower like the USA then their days are numbered. The Saker, Feb 20 Apparently, Turkish President Erdogan and his cronies failed to get the memo from
The Saker.
They continue to insist that the United States label as terrorists the
Kurdish fighters of northern Syria known as the YPG. The YPG and the
Syrian Arab Army are the only two ground forces fighting ISIS. The
Kurdish YPG fighters are mopping the floor with the barbarians and
control nearly the entire border region between Turkey and Syria. Even
so, the Turkish government insists that the U.S. is
either for Turkey by labeling the YPG as terrorists
or against Turkey by supporting YPG's efforts against ISIS. Image:
WikimediaCommons
Why
is the current Turkish government obsessed with the YPG? There are
several reasons, none of them related to terrorism and all of them about
the survival of the amazingly corrupt and repellant Erdogan, his
family, and cronies in the AKP party.
What do Erdogan and company have to fear?
Jail.
Erdogan and his cronies were caught engaged in the following on publicly released audiotapes:
These
criminal acts are well known in Turkey. Should any government other
than one controlled by Erdogan come to power, then Erdogan, his family
members, and his cronies will go to trial and likely be sentenced to
serious jail time.
What does Erdogan have to fear more than jail?
Barack Obama.
You
might ask why I didn't say Vladimir Putin. That's simple. Putin is
indeed Erdogan's enemy, one he should greatly fear. However, Erdogan
doesn't work for Putin, he works for Obama. Putin can make life very
difficult for Erdogan, but only Obama can fire him. Turkey is part of
NATO, which is up to its neck in supporting Islamic extremists fighting
to topple the government of Syria. More specifically, Erdogan has been a
willing servant of the White House through Turkey's key role in
training, supplying, and transferring foreign fighters into Syria and
supporting homegrown rebels.
Erdogan's wholehearted support of the
Syrian rebels didn't happen as a result of any long-held Shia-Sunni
antipathy or due to his steadfast opposition to Bashar Al-Assad, Syria's
elected president. As late as 2010, Erdogan was engaged in personal
diplomacy with Al-Assad for closer trade and security relations. But
when then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said '
Assad must go,'
Erdogan fell in line immediately. This path was sweetened by
inducements by Saudi Arabia but there was no question that the maestro
was (and is): President Barack Obama.
Over recent weeks, as it became obvious that the U.S. 'Assad must go'
policy was a failure,
it was time for ErdoÄŸan to back down and follow the leader. This was
necessary for two compelling reasons. First, Erdogan isn't the leader.
Obama is. Turkey is not the world's dominant superpower. The United
States is.
The second reason to follow Obama's lead is subtler.
Everything
Turkey has done to stoke the flames of Islamist extremism, including
support for the rise of ISIS, was done with the full knowledge and, in
many cases, involvement of the
White House and its subordinates in London, Paris, and
Berlin. Turkey was the frontline state. But Obama and his supporting cast of NATO leaders were providing instructions and pitching in.
If
Turkey cooperates and allows what will happen inevitably to happen
quietly, i.e. peace in Syria with a government chosen by Syrians, then
the White House and company can take a victory lap with the knowledge
than no one will be forced to take a serious look at what they all did
to destroy a society.
By failing to cooperate and making a
spectacle of defying Obama, Turkey raises the risk of a more detailed
examination of this entire sordid affair -- the real cause of the
loss of 250,000 lives
in Syria; the real cause of the refugee crisis (there was none prior to
the attack on Syria); the strong support, direct or indirect, by all
parties of jihadist extremists who gloried in the killing of Christians,
Druze, and other minorities in Syria.
Erdogan's defiance is not
just blatantly insubordinate and disrespectful; it poses a clear risk of
exposing the truth about the destruction of a people and a nation on
the basis of a whim -- 'Assad must go.'
Given all of that, it's time to say adios to Erdogan. His days as President of Turkey will soon be over.