“ALLY” ERDOGAN OF TURKEY: “WE EXPECT THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO RESCIND WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY ITS UNFORTUNATE DECISION” ON JERUSALEM
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
This is exactly the kind of intimidation that President Trump was standing up to
when he announced the decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. If he
bows to it now, he will undo all the good work he has done in finally showing the
world that intimidation and bullying are not always how to get its way with the
United States.
“Turkish President Erdogan says US must immediately scrap Jerusalem decision,” Agence France-Presse, December 22, 2017 (thanks to Joshua):
Ankara, Turkey: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on
Thursday asked US President Donald Trump to reverse his decision
recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital after a UN vote overwhelming
rejected the move.
Erdogan had earlier called on UN member states not to be swayed by
Trump’s threat to cut funding for countries that backed the motion at
the UN General Assembly.
“We welcome with great pleasure the UN General Assembly’s
overwhelming support… We expect the Trump administration to rescind
without further delay its unfortunate decision, whose illegality has
been clearly established,” Erdogan said on Twitter.
“I am calling on the whole world: never sell your democratic will in
return for petty dollars,” he had said in a televised speech in Ankara
before the vote.
The US decision on December 6 broke with international consensus and
unleashed protests across the Muslim world, prompting a flurry of
appeals to the United Nations.
At an emergency session Thursday, the UN General Assembly adopted the
motion rejecting Trump’s decision by 128 votes to nine, with 35
abstentions.
The measure was sent to the General Assembly after it was vetoed by
the United States at the Security Council on Monday, though all other 14
council members voted in favour.
Trump warned that Washington would closely watch how nations voted,
suggesting there could even be reprisals for countries that backed the
motion which was put forward by Yemen and Turkey on behalf of Arab and
Muslim countries.
Erdogan accused Trump of making “threats”….
______________________________________________________
responding to President Trump’s decision last week to recognize
Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to begin the process of moving the
U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Israel is becoming a cup of
Trembling.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Is Turkey still a reliable ally? After repeated endorsements
by the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of policies
inimical to U.S. interests, the answer seems to be not really.
Erdogan recently announced he will seek United Nations support to
annul President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
In addition, the Turkish Ministry of Justice has issued warrants for
the arrest of two American Turkey specialists, in effect placing a
bounty of $800,000 on their heads.
Additionally, there is the somewhat comical furor in Turkey over the
adoption by Turkish entrepreneurs of the American “Black Friday” sales
concept. Several Turkish businesses, which had attempted to increase
sales by borrowing the U.S. “Black Friday” market lure, were attacked by
devout Muslims who accused store owners of disrespecting Islam’s day of
prayer. The perceived insult to Islam’s Friday Prayer obligation is
just another example of a widening antipathy towards the U.S.
While the misunderstanding by Turks over “Black Friday,” will
likely fade quickly, the diplomatic damage brought on by the early
October arrest by Turkey’s police of a Turkish employee at the U.S.
Consulate in Istanbul allegedly for espionage is likely to be more
long-lasting.
The arrest of the U.S Consulate’s employee precipitated the U.S.
Ambassador’s suspension on October 8, of all non-immigrant U.S. visas
for Turkish citizens. The incident underscores how bilateral relations
have plummeted since Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan first came
to power.
Shortly after Erdogan was elected in 2002, Turkey appeared to
start turning away from its U.S. alliance when it refused to grant
permission for U.S. troops to cross Turkish territory into northern
Iraq. Turkey’s parliament, the Grand National Assembly, voted down the
request. Erdogan seems now to be focusing on regional affairs rather
than on Turkey’s traditional ties to the United States and Europe. Since
Erdogan came to power, Turkey has increased its economic and diplomatic
ties to Arab states.
Turkey’s Erdogan regime also is fashioning a more Islamic Turkey,
a trend especially noticeable in the field of education. As early as
2012, Erdogan hinted at plans to Islamize Turkey’s public schools when
he declared to an audience of young members of his Justice and
Development Party, “We want to raise pious generations.” Since then
Turkey’s schools now include a curriculum which reflects Sunni Islam
doctrine.
After the failed July 15, 2016 coup against Erdogan, he exploited
anti-Western sentiment among the Turks by permitting Turkish media to
publish articles that accused U.S. General John Campbell, former
Commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, of complicity in the abortive
attempted coup. Suleyman Soylu, the AKP’s Deputy Chairman, also accused
the CIA of being involved. Erdogan further demanded that the U.S.
extradite from Pennsylvania Fethullah Gülen, leader of a Turkish
opposition movement, and the person Erdogan claimed had instigated the
attempted coup.
Post-Cold War regional changes have likely altered Turkey’s view
of its U.S. alliance. Perhaps it now no longer seems indispensable to
Turkish national security officers. Turkey’s Syria policy, for instance,
was initially aligned with other regional Sunni Islamic states against
President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. When Assad’s Iranian allies helped
to sustain the Assad government however, Turkey appeared to turn a blind
eye to Sunni terrorists crossing Turkish territory into Syria. Perhaps
the Turks hoped that these extremists would strengthen the anti-Assad
military forces.
Turkey’s efforts to overthrow the Assad regime in Syria only took
a radical turn when Turkish territory became a virtual pipeline for the
flow of foreign fighters. Thousands of them infiltrated Turkey’s
borders; there, they were met by smugglers and Sunni extremist
facilitators. The facilitators then moved the fighters to safe houses
and gave the jihadists logistical support until the combatants reached
their jihadi destination in the Raqqa region. The combatants included
members of the al-Qaeda affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra Front and the Sunni
Salafist Ahrar al-Sham.
This influx of foreign jihadists seemed to place old allies
Turkey and America in a state of confrontation, as some of these
terrorists remained inside Turkey. The counterproductive cost of
Turkey’s intentional or careless lax border policy struck home with an
attack which left 39 dead on Istanbul’s Reina Night Club.
In March 2017, Turkey began curbing the terrorist networks it had
allowed into its territory. Only then did Turkey decide to cooperate
with U.S. efforts to suppress ISIS. The Turks, however, recoiled at the
Kurdish ethnicity of the U.S.-assisted anti-ISIS Syrian Democratic Force
(SDF).
Turkey is wary of any armed force of Kurds; it evidently fears
that if Syria’s Kurds are able to carve out an autonomous zone for
themselves, it will inflame nationalism among Turkey’s millions of
Kurds. The Turks view ethnic-Kurd fighters in Syria as an extension of
the Kurdish Worker Party (PKK) which has been fighting the Turkish
government for decades. That fear could explain why Turkish troops stood
by while Syrian Kurds fought a harsh battle against Islamic State
troops in Kobane, a Kurdish town in Syria, in late 2014.
The number of instances where Turkey and U.S. interests now
clash, and the accumulated ill will that these disagreements are
begetting, suggests that Turkey is no longer a dependable ally of the
United States.
But what of NATO? Is Turkey a reliable NATO partner? Here the
picture is more mixed. Turkey of late, with the purchase of two
batteries of the Russian S-400 air defense system, appears to have taken
a big step away from the NATO alliance. The Erdogan regime’s nationwide
post-coup purge of civil and military personnel, and its threatening
acts against freedom of speech, such as the mass arrest of journalists,
are eviscerating the country’s independent civil society institutions.
In addition, Turkey’s crackdown on the activities of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) in Turkey is another sign that Turkey is turning
away from democratic values shared by NATO Alliance members.
Nevertheless, Turkey’s continued membership in NATO has its
advantages for both parties. Turkey has the second largest standing army
in NATO, after the United States. U.S. aircraft are permitted to use
bases in Turkey to mount bombing runs on Mideast-based terrorists.
Turkey’s military complex at Incirlik houses an estimated 90 B61 nuclear
gravity bombs. Should Turkey’s incipient romance with Russia turn sour,
as their historic hostility toward each other might suggest, then
Turkey’s large ground force, forward deployed nuclear devices, and
sophisticated signals intelligence facilities would prove invaluable to
NATO as well as to Turkey. Furthermore, should Iran continue its
regional march to hegemony, Turkey would prove a worthy rival.
Although Turkey under Erdogan may not be a fully committed member
of NATO, Turkey in NATO — at the moment anyhow — is probably still
better than a Turkey out of NATO.