The Superpower Behind the Turkish Protests

Johngaltfla ^ | June 4, 2013 | John Galt

[cunning_fish]

To understand the rage and news from Turkey and the alleged “Turkish Spring” being promoted by some websites and commentators, one has to have a deep understanding of the friends and enemies the nation of Turkey has acquired in eighty plus years of independence and Westernization thanks to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. In the West, the British still resent the Turks for their unwillingness to take up arms against the Nazis in World War II. Believe it or not, some Germans hold the same animosity because a Turkish alliance with Nazi Germany would have crushed the Allies in Europe and the Middle East and prevented the Russians from resisting the onslaught of Operation Barbarossa. The Persians and most of the Middle East have a long standing hatred of the Turks due to their centuries of ruthless rule during the Ottoman Empire days. And of course the Russians hate the nation of Turkey for the conflicts of the past and their role as a stalwart against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

With enemies like that, who would dare to be their friend?

Anyone with a militaristic or economic goal of dominating the gateway to the Middle East AND Europe, that is who. But what superpower left on this earth would want to dare challenge the balance of power so delicately set in the Balkans and Middle East at this moment in history?

To understand this complex situation requires an analysis of some recent interactions with Turkey by one of the few unrecognized superpowers (at least by most Americans). This report from December 4, 2012 by Al-Jazeera should provide a clue:

[cunning_fish]

When Vladimir Putin visited Turkey last year, it was hoped that there would be less influence by NATO powers and the Arab League against Syria and more opportunities for Turkey to slow down their Islamist reforms and instead, align themselves more closely with Russia, Iran, and China. The failure by Prime Minister Erdogan to reach an understanding that the Syrian conflict was far beyond a major confrontation between the Muslim Brotherhood supported rebels, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar versus Assad was a miscalculation which is now going to haunt the Ankara regime bitterly.

The animosity between the Turkish military and Prime Minister Erdogan erupted first in 2011 as documented in this story from the UAE newspaper The National with this AP story: Erdogan rubs in his supremacy over Turkish military’s top brass

The military had a long standing traditional role within the government to maintain a sense of secularism to prevent the passionate Islamist religious leaders from leading the nation into another disaster like World War I. However with his election, that shift from a defined secularism and instead into an integrated role for Islamic religious leaders into government decision making offended the military and lead to purges and trials causing a schism not only between the civilian government but with members of the NATO alliance as a more blunt foreign policy towards other NATO members, namely Cyprus and Greece, began to emerge. This dispute expanded as officers loyal to the West were conflicted by the Islamist purge and suddenly closer relationship to their former bitter enemies in Russia.

The headlines over the past two years indicate a divergence from the traditional NATO relationship and a new found detente with the Russians: NATO warns Turkey against buying Chinese, Russian air defense systems Turkey’s Foreign Policy Towards The Russian Federation Economic relations between Russia and Turkey at an all time best Russian contractor to hold tenders for Turkish nuclear plant Russia and Turkey focus on economic ties Russia Ready to Develop Long-Range Air Defense System with Turkey

The bottom line to all of these stories, despite the long standing animosity is the mix of warming relationships with Russia while a conversion to a quasi-Islamist Western Republic is being attempted by Prime Minister Erdoğan, is that Russia was slowly putting a wedge between Turkey and the EU/NATO alliance. This new relationship has born some fruit with Turkey finally coercing the NATO alliance to relinquish some of their top line equipment to the Turkish military while maintaining a dominant position which forces the Iranians and finally the Kurds in Northern Iraq into negotiations with the Ankara government.

However, this improvement in relations was met with due skepticism by the Turkish government due to stories like this one on June 1, 2013 from the UAE newspaper, The National: Russia playing out its Caucasus politics in Turkey, say activists

From the story:

Medet Onlu, a businessman in the Turkish capital, held the unofficial title of “Honorary Consul of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria”, the unrecognised rebel government in the Russian region of Chechnya.

He was the latest victim in a series of unsolved killings targeting members of anti-Russia groups in Turkey.

Activists campaigning against Russian policies in the Caucasus say Moscow is behind the crimes.

“It was an assassination in the heart of the country,” Ozgur Aktekin, a member of the Caucasus Forum, an association of Chechen and Circassian activists in Turkey, told The National.

Citing footage of surveillance cameras that he said was leaked to the media, he said Onlu’s suspected killer boarded a plane to Russia after the murder.

“Russia has committed many crimes, including in Turkey.”

Thus the distrust between the Russians and Turks continues but in reality, there is another force at work. To analyze who is responsible for this churning of internal Turkish politics, one needs look no further than the sponsors of the Syrian rebellion, the Gulf Cooperation Council; primarily consisting of action and support from Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

But why? A picture is worth a trillion dollars:

The competition between the Russia to Southern Europe pipeline and the long proposed Saudi/Egypt and Qatar/Jordan to Southern Europe pipelines all via Turkey has created a 20-30 year dynamic where whichever group of suppliers through Turkey will dominate Eurasian political relations for decades to come. The superpower which has the most to lose with a Turkish decision to align with the Russians is not those of the Middle East but in fact the United States of America.

Which is why the logical choice for the responsibility for the latest round of civil unrest inside of Turkey is not Russia, Syria, or even Saudi Arabia, but America. Why the United States?

Our military, along with our NATO insiders, have been deeply concerned by the friendly efforts of Erdoğan to achieve a new level of cooperation with Iran, Iraq, and Russia regarding regional affairs to stabilize that portion of the Middle East. Based on the recent intervention of our CIA and State Department into Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Uganda, Mali, Mauritania, Jordan, etc. it is no shock to consider that this temporary destabilization by initiating a period of riots and unrest using leftist extremists and Saudi funded Wahhabi revolutionaries to engage the Erdoğan government. The United States also would like to re-engage the Turkish military leadership after the years of purges under Erdoğan and put a friendlier government in power; one willing to profit from a trans-Syrian pipeline from the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf Cooperation Council nations to reduce Russian influence in Europe; especially into the economically and ethnically unstable Southern European region.

When all is said and done some twenty plus years from now, if not sooner as the scandals about the Middle East become more transparent during the investigations, odds are a massive complex plan to exploit the strong Islamist feelings of the Turkish people along with a profit motive to assist our allies in the old Pan-Arab alliance might well be the reason for our CIA or other forces to meddle in the internal affairs of Turkey. To believe otherwise is naive and foolish considering the results of our other activities in Iraq, Libya, and other nations in recent years. The message to Prime Minister Erdogan is crystal clear: Get back into line or the international financial cartel will remove you from power and replace you with a Saudi puppet regime lead by the military.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

friendly efforts of Erdoğan to achieve a new level of cooperation with Iran, Iraq, and Russia regarding regional affairs to stabilize that portion of the Middle East.

Iraq?

Turkey-Kurd Deal On Oil Riles Iraq

There's been several stories in recent years where Ankara and the Kurdish region of Iraq are ignoring Baghdad and doing their own thing.

I just noticed that I can no longer get to the WSJ article.. they let be do it from google once but no more. There are articles in recent years about Ankara and the Iraqi Kurds ignoring Baghdad.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

. . . the logical choice for the responsibility for the latest round of civil unrest inside of Turkey is not Russia, Syria, or even Saudi Arabia, but America.

I can see us doing whatever we can to assist the military -- and thus the secular Republic -- but these protests aimed at the AK Party and Islamism are nothing new.

Yes, I have oft-posted these images but they are

1. nice to look at
2. informative, and
3. there are some who have not seen them and know very little about the goings on

Lest some think that it is mostly about land development, American interference.. well no it is not entirely. Millions of Turks have long made it plain that they are not ready to give in to Islamism, Sharia law, and burkas..

". . . 32 percent to 38 percent of Turks (upward of 25 million people) would never support the [Islamist] AKP or want to live in a country shaped solely by its values." Tens of millions of Muslims in Turkey are "Islamophobes" like us?

Read and see more

The image on the banner is of Ataturk the founder of modern secular democratic constitutional Republic of Turkey. The photos are from demonstrations of a few years ago protesting the ruling AK Party's Islamist (political Islam & Sharia law) leanings and reminding the AKP that they promised the voters that they would respect Turkey's heritage of secularism.

[BobL]

We’ll see where Turkey goes. I too noticed that the women protesting were not wearing burkas and have no desire to EVER have to wear those spacesuits. But they may be outnumbered, given the clown that was elected to run the country.

[PieterCasparzen]

Hmmm...

[bronxville]

Ataturk was the leader of the young turks who led the genocide of almost 2 million Armenians. They used the Kurds to lead the charge promising them their own state then turned against them when the armenians were cleansed. The Kurds have been fighting them ever since...don’t think they’d be fooled again by the Turks.

[MarMema]

Greeks. Greeks hate the Turks.
And Georgians.

[Domangart]

You see there where the problem has always been. The city Turks are laid back and the country ones are hard core. They have been moving to the city's for years. They are the ones Erdogan is sucking up to.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

RE: The city Turks are laid back and the country ones are hard core. They have been moving to the city's for years. They are the ones Erdogan is sucking up to.

Yes that is a very important point. It's been years since I was in Turkey. I lived in Ankara for almost a year.

.. oh and don't forget American citizen Fethullah Gülen and his movement. Some say that is a big part of moving Turkey into an Islamic "republic."

[WilliamofCarmichael]

I don't think that the Kurds waited for instructions from the Young Turks or whatever you are suggesting. See New York Times article copy from those W.W.I days

If the Kurds of northern Iraq are fighting the Turks today they got a strange way of combat -- other than the Marxist PKK who have killed scores of people in Turkey since the 1980s.

Please see my reply #2.

RE: Armenians

This is no attempt to mitigate the horror. Even the modern constitutional democratic Republic of Turkey has admitted the horror. But calling it genocide? Here's something on that.

Recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey is a secondary issue – interview with Harut Sassounian. [An Armenian living in southern California.]

[Excerpt ]"The real purpose of the resolution is not recognition of the Armenian Genocide, but a political struggle – the issue of which side has a larger political capital in Washington. . . . [T]he admission of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey is an issue of secondary importance for us. . . . our lands were seized and our 3,000-year-old culture was destroyed. . . . Therefore, our true demand is compensation for this injustice. . . . Now specialists must study the lawyers’ advice and decide which issue should be submitted to which court, as there is the International Court of Justice, European Court of Human Rights, US Federal Courts, etc. This is a most important issue. It must be studied with all seriousness, because, if we lose in court, Turkey will claim that Armenians have no legal demands."

BTW, I don't like it that it's our Congress / government that Turkey and Armenia are fighting over to get/not get resolutions monthly (almost it seems to me).

Also Armenia and the Ottoman Empire were at war (W.W.I) and I've talked to Turks about this when I lived there. They wonder where is the concern for the tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of Turkish civilians killed by Armenia.

Also why give Germany a pass?

Ottoman Turkey ally Kaiser Wilhelm II had German military stationed in Ottoman Turkey.

"'German Responsibility in the Armenian Genocide: A Review of the Historical Evidence of German Complicity" by Vahakn N. Dadrian.

[Excerpt] "Dadrian does not accuse Germany of instigating the Armenian genocide; he argues instead that Germany contributed to the genocide through policies that condoned it and that the German government sanctioned German and Turkish officials who participated in the genocide's implementation."

[bronxville]

The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus
By Vahakn N. Dadrian
http://www.questia.com/library/78126524/the-history-of-the-armenian-genocide-ethnic-conflict

It took him about 20 yrs to write it. I’ve read it. He’s written many books and 100’s of articles in many different languages and that you selected just one in order to indict the Germans over the Turks just isn’t rational nor that you listened only to the Turkish peoples point of view as most of them get their information from government schools who aren’t going to admit they were guilty - many also get their info from the site - the Turkish talltales site - talltales have stolen pictures from the Armenian Genocide site and taken them as their own dead which is why the one can’t copy anything from their website anymore.

As for reading an account by the NYSlimes, that would be like telling me to read that there was no famine in the USSR especially in the Ukraine from the same rag.

Wiki has a halfway decent account:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide

This account from an eyewitness from our Ambassador at the Time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador_Morgenthau%27s_Story

I’ve spoken to a number of Kurds and they actually admit they were conned into leading the Ottoman soldiers in the ethnic cleansing of the Armenians. One of the reasons they remain bitter to this day. Do you believe there was an ethnic cleansing of the Greeks from Constantiple?

[WilliamofCarmichael]

RE: "you selected just one in order to indict the Germans over the Turks" is not rational.

The thought of blaming the Germans over the Turks has never occurred to me. I merely indicated that I believe that the German military and the Kaiser knew what was happening; some German military protested, some probably looked the other way, and others it appears to me participated.

I honestly believe this statement that I wrote: "Armenia and the Ottoman Empire were at war (W.W.I) . . . Turks . . . wonder where is the concern for the . . . Turkish civilians killed by Armenia."

RE: "As for reading an account by the NYSlimes, that would be like telling me to read that there was no famine in the USSR especially in the Ukraine from the same rag." Duranty wasn't working there at the time.. or at least he was still an office boy. :)

I fully understand the Turks refusal to use the word genocide to label the horrific events. It seems to me that Recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey is a secondary issue - interview with Harut Sassounian. [An Armenian living in southern California.] explains it. It is a public relations ploy to generate more anti-Turkey resolutions worldwide to support legal actions. Let it be settled on the merits of what is known. They live next door to each other, for heavens sake!

Which leads to this: "I don't like it that it's our Congress / government that Turkey and Armenia are fighting over to [not get/get] resolutions monthly (almost it seems to me)."

The wiki articles may be good or not. I rarely consult wiki graffiti. No thanks.

Regardless of it all.. I will still believe the news accounts of the economic ties between Ankara and the Kurdish Region of Northern Iraq. I just hope that the public protests in Turkey lead to the ouster of the AK Party and a return to secular Turkey.

I absolutely insist that the Marxist terrorists PKK and the Kurds of Northern Iraq are not the same.

Thanks for your informative thoughtful response.

[bronxville]

I actually prefer wiki “graffiti”(at least one can check their references) to the NYSLimes graffiti and I mentioned Duranty as an example of why they’re slime. These days they meet with their Soros funded Human Rights Watch minions who tell them what to write - some of the reporters/repeaters are met by them at the airport and live in their homes. They’re a joke. It’s like CNN reporting from the their bedroom in the Holiday Inn in Serbia, Lebanon, Iraq...

Please remember the Armenian Christians were a minority as were the Greeks and Assyrians. I hail from a country where strife was rampant and as a minority can vouch that we were repressed in all areas of life with no chance whatsoever of killing thousands of our enemies even if we’d wanted to which we didn’t... The Turks you were talking to were lying. Neither the Armenians, Assyrians or the Greeks had a hope in hell no more than the Christians in the ME today.

Armenian Patriarchate sues Turkey for land
March 20, 2012

Most people think the Armenian Genocide was purely about Turks killing Armenians. However, a prime motivator for the killing of 1.5 million Armenians living in Turkey was greed and the redistribution of wealth. The Ottoman Turkish rulers wanted to take possession of the property belonging to its wealthy Armenian minority. They succeeded.

Throughout the deportation, eyewitness testimonies repeat stories of Turkish officials seeking bribes in the form of gold coins, rugs, jewelry, and so on.

Talaat Pasha (one of the architects of the Armenian Genocide) had the audacity to ask the American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau for the life insurance policies of his victims, because he reasoned the Turkish Government had become the beneficiary of the policies since his victims left no heirs.

Contrary to common belief, not all killings were perpetrated by chetes (criminal gangs) and Turkish soldiers. Townsfolk throughout Anatolia were promised the homes and belongings of their Armenian neighbors. After they were taught to hate the Armenians for being giavurs or gavoors, which means ’infidels’ or ‘non-believers’, it was frighteningly easy to whip the people into frenzied kitchen-knife welding mobs capable of murdering their neighbors.

The Turkish government enabled and encouraged the mass looting that took place everywhere the Armenians had once lived. In many instances, Turkey’s governing leaders relocated Kurds and Muslim peoples from the Balkans and other areas to depopulated Armenian communities (immediately following their mass killing and deportation). The Ottoman Turks’ destruction of its Armenian Christian minority created an ‘instant’ Muslim middle class.

Ottoman government archives containing records of land deeds are not accessible to descendants of the Armenian Turkish citizens who were either killed or expelled from their land. One of the obstacles to Turkey’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide is its fear of reparations.

Many of the Armenian churches not destroyed by the Turks were converted to Mosques. Some Armenian churches (including the sacred Aktamar site) are profitable enterprises employed by Turkey as part of its thriving tourism industry.

Even Mount Ararat, the ancestral homeland and pride of the Armenian people, now lies within Turkey’s borders. A few weeks ago, I saw a Turkish tourism advertisement prominently featuring Mount Ararat with a depiction of Noah’s Ark. Of course, there was no mention of the Armenians, believed to be the descendants of Noah’s son, Japheth.
http://armeniangenocideblog.wordpress.com/tag/american-ambassador-henry-morgenthau/

Ambassador Henry Morgenthau’ written correspondence has been invaluable to the Armenians since the Turks have tried to taint their pictures and continue to revise the history. And I’ve happy to see that the Armenians are taking some action in getting reparations which will never happen but it keeps the Genocide alive.

NB: Obama as a candidate promised that as president he’d acknowledge the genocide - he called the genocide a widely documented fact...yet another of his “talltales”.

Take care