EU crisis: Showdown with Turkey sparks military fears as Erdogan mocks Macron's threats

https://www.express.co.uk/ ^ | Sat, Jul 25, 2020 | | By OLI SMITH

[Zhang Fei]

[He wants it all. His greed and ambition are unchecked. He had the largest palace on Earth built for himself. He is literally willing to kill people by the thousands - or much more - to gain control over those assets. He robs massive amounts of the revenue for his personal wealth, and to expand his power, by paying off his partners in crime within his political Party.]

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I doubt it’s a money thing. IMO, he’s going after this wealth for the same reason Caesar did - to build himself a war machine with which to acquire personal glory through empire-building, so that for centuries hence, he will, at the very least, be mentioned in the same breath as Suleiman the Magnificent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suleiman_the_Magnificent

At 66, he’s a bit long in the tooth to be getting started. But that’s mainly because he had to consolidate his hold over the Turkish military (over which secularist, pro-Europe generals had a stranglehold) before embarking on this project. In other words, he’s late to the game through circumstances out of his control, so he’s making up for lost time.

[SunkenCiv]

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[BeauBo]

Erdogan does have a big head, and his political appeal to his base includes a whopping dose of “leading the nation back” to an Imperial level of power Internationally.

But how much of that is shrewd political manipulation of public sentiment, and how much is driven by his own psychological drives, is ultimately a guess. In many instances he has shown himself to be a masterful political tactician, able to shift with the winds of public sentiment.

What is abundantly clear from his actions however, and the level of time and effort dedicated, is that he is as personally greedy as a Clinton.

[ought-six]

“Erdogan is Europe’s latest tyrant. He has ended the secular period of Turkey back to total Islamic control.”

Well, as long as he is on the European side of the Bosporus. If he is on the Asian side, he is just another tin-pot dictator.

[ought-six]

“Why are Turkey’s plans to send oil-and-gas research vessels to the Eastern Mediterranean considered some kind of threat?”

Because of Cyprus.

[ought-six]

“Time to remove the 50 U.S. gravity nuclear weapons stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Hope they have at least removed the plutonium cores.”

I think they were removed some time ago.