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The information dropped like a Hellfire in the middle of a productive discussion with a group of top analysts in Istanbul: Across the Turkish establishment – from politicians to the military – over 90 percent are pro-NATO.
Eurasian ‘hopefuls’ in West Asia need to factor in this hard truth about Turkey’s oft-confusing foreign policies. The ‘Erdoganian neo-Ottomanism’ that runs through Turkey’s current ruling system is deeply colonized by a NATO psyche – which implies that any notion of real Turkish sovereignty may be severely overvalued.
And that sheds new light on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s perennial geopolitical waffling between NATO and Eurasia.
Let’s start with the mediation offered by Erdogan on the Russia-Ukraine drama, which for all practical purposes would mean a mediation between Russia and NATO.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu may not be the one dictating Ankara’s policy – my interlocutors stress that the man who really has Erdogan’s ears is his spokesman Ibrahim Kalin. Still, Cavusoglu’s latest talking points were quite intriguing:
- “Russian and Belarussian sources” told him there will be no “invasion” of Ukraine.
- The West “should be more careful” in making statements “about the allegedly possible ‘invasion’, as they lead to panic in Ukraine.”
- “We, as Turkey, are not a part of a conflict, war, problem, however, any tension affects us all, the economy, energy security, tourism.”
- “We will have a phone conversation with [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov on Wednesday, [then] with [Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro] Kuleba. We will happily agree to mediate if both parties agree. We gladly agree to host a meeting of the Minsk trio.”
- “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin should not close the door. They [the Russians] don’t have a positive or negative answer.”
Ankara’s efforts in positioning itself as a mediator may be laudable, but what Cavusoglu cannot possibly admit in public is their futility.
As much as Ankara enjoys good relations with Kiev – Bayraktar TB2 drone sales included – the heart of the matter is not even between Russia and NATO; it’s between Moscow and Washington.
Moreover, Erdogan’s offer had already been sidelined by notorious opportunist – and totally out of his depth – Emmanuel Macron, via his meme-celebrated visit to Moscow, where he was politely but bluntly dismissed by Putin.
The Kremlin has been making it very clear, even before issuing its demands on security guarantees, that the only interlocutors that matter are the people in charge – as in the Russophobic/neocon/humanitarian-imperialist combo that remote controls the current president of the United States.
How to “Make Turkey Great Again”
It will be a hard slog to “Make Turkey Great Again” in Washington, even if they’re both part of the NATO matrix. It’s one thing to inaugurate the $300 million Turkevi Center – or Turkish House – in Manhattan, near the UN headquarters, complete with a top-floor presidential suite for Erdogan. But entirely another thing for the Americans to allow him real sovereignty.
Still, whenever he’s snubbed, Erdogan always comes up with a thorny counter. If he is prevented from meeting the real players behind ‘Biden’ last September in New York and Washington, he can always announce, as he did, his intention to buy yet another batch of Russian S-400s which, irony of ironies, is a missile system designed to destroy NATO weaponry. As Erdogan then boldly proclaimed: “In the future, nobody will be able to interfere in terms of what kind of defense systems we acquire, from which country, at what level.”
Global South players, from West Asia and beyond, have been following with enormous interest (and trepidation) how Ankara, from a secular, well-behaved NATO semi-colony on the periphery of the EU eager to join the Brussels machine, turned into an Islamist-tinged regional hegemon – complete with supporting and weaponizing “moderate rebels” in Syria, dispatching military advisers to Libya, propelling Azerbaijan with armed drones to defeat Armenia, and last but not least, promoting their own, idiosyncratic version of Eurasian integration.
The trouble is how Turkey is supposed to pay for all this ambitious overreach – considering the dire state of its economy.
Quite a few Justice and Development Party (AKP) politicians in Ankara are avid promoters of a “Turkic world” that would stretch not only from the Caucasus to Central Asia but all the way to Yakutia, in Russia’s far east, and Xinjiang, in China’s far west. It isn’t hard to imagine how this is viewed in Moscow and Beijing.
It was actually Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the ultra-right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), a top Erdogan ally, who presented a revised map of the Turkic world to the Turkish president.
The response by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who happens to be a Turkologist, was priceless. At the time, he said that the heart of the Turkic world should be in the Altai mountains. That is, in Russia; not Turkey.
And that brings us to the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), the new denomination of the former Turkic Council, as approved by their 8th summit last November in Istanbul.
The OTS has five members (Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) and two observers (Hungary and Turkmenistan). The secretary-general is a Kazakh diplomat, Baghdad Amreyev.
An initial visit to their lovely, salmon-colored historical palace in Sultanahmet – prior to an upcoming official conversation – establishes some much needed context. Among the dazzling Byzantine and Ottoman neighboring structures, we find the tomb of the last Ottoman Sultan, Abdulhamid II, who happens to be none other than Erdogan’s role model.
Depending on who you talk to – the largely AKP-controlled media or Kemalist intellectuals – Abdulhamid II is either a venerable religious leader fighting subversives and the Western colonial powers in the late 19th century or a retrograde, fanatical nutcase.
The OTS is an immensely intriguing organization. It brings together a NATO member with the second most-powerful army (Turkey); an EU member (Hungary, yet still an observer); two CSTO members, that is, states very close to Russia (Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan); and a supremely idiosyncratic, permanently-neutral gas superpower (Turkmenistan).
Even at OTS headquarters they agree, smiles included, that no one outside Turkey knows about the real aims of the organization, which are loosely framed as investment in connectivity, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), green technologies and smart cities. Most of the investment would be supposed to come from Turkish companies.
Until recently, Erdogan was not exactly focused on the Turkic world in Central Asia – which was considered too secular from an Islamist point of view, or even worse, a bunch of dreaded crypto-Kemalists. The focus was on the US-defined MENA (Middle East/Northern Africa) region – which happened, historically, to include the key Ottoman lands.
The record, of course, shows that these neo-Ottoman incursions did not go down so well in Muslim lands. Hence the spectacular re-entrance of Eurasia into Turkish foreign policy. It may sound swell in theory, but way more complicated in practice.
Crisscrossing Eurasia
The OTS may be unified by language – but you won’t find many people speaking Turkish across Central Asia: they’re all about Russian.
History and culture is a different story, and it goes something like this:
As Peskov correctly pointed out, the Turcophone peoples originally came from the Altai mountains – between Mongolia and Central Asia. Between the 7th and the 17th centuries, they were invested in a conquering migration drive in the opposite direction compared to Alexander The Great and his Hellenistic successors, the Seleucid kings and then the Arabs under Islam.
So, for a long time, we had a few ephemeral empires founded by Turkish dynasties and built essentially over Persian Sassanid structures, with an add-on by Turkmen groups, until the Ottomans, based on Byzantine structures, established an imperial system that lasted for no less than five centuries.
In terms of ancient connectivity, the route of the steppes lay more to the north of Eurasia – and was followed in the 13th century, with spectacular success, by Genghis Khan and his successors. We all know today that the Mongols built the very first, real Eurasia-wide empire. And in the process, they also took the southern route traveled by the Turks and Turkmen.
Just like the Persian, Greek and Arab empires, the Turkic and Mongol empires were bent on continental conquest. The main line of communication across Eurasia was always, in the precise definition by Toynbee, “the steppe and desert chains that cut across the belt of civilizations, from Sahara to Mongolia.”
Much like China’s recent revamp of the Silk Road concept, Erdogan – even as he’s not a reader and much less a historian – also has his own neo-Ottoman interpretation of what makes connectivity run.
Instinctively, to his credit, he seems to have understood how the conquering migration runs of the Turko-Mongols from Central Asia towards West Asia ended up shattering this huge zone of discontinuity, very hard to move around, between East Asia and Europe.
The sun “rises again from the East”
Erdogan himself went no-Eurasia-holds-barred at the November summit of the OTS: “Inshallah, the sun will soon start to rise once again from the East.”
But that ‘East’ was very specific: “The Turkestan region, which had been the cradle of civilization for thousands of years, will once again be a center of attraction and enlightenment for the entirety of humanity.”
The mere mention of ‘Turkestan’ certainly sent shivers all across the Zhongnanhai in Beijing. At the OTS though, they assure the organization has absolutely no designs on Xinjiang: “It’s not a state. We unite Turkic states.”
Much more relevant to the ground is the OTS drive towards “sustainable multimodal connectivity.”
Enter a twin strategy juxtaposing the Trans-Caspian East-West Middle Corridor Initiative – a trans-Eurasia link – and the Zangezur corridor, linking the South Caucasus to both Europe and Central Asia.
Zangezur is absolutely key for Ankara, because it allows for a direct link not only to its key OTS ally Azerbaijan but also to Turkic Central Asia. For the past three decades, this connectivity route happened to be blocked by Armenia. Not anymore. Still, a final agreement with Armenia is pending.
In theory, the Chinese New Silk Roads – or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – and the Turkish Middle Corridor binding the Turkic world are complementary. Yet only (connectivity) facts on the ground will tell, in time.
The fact is, Turkey is already neck deep in a major connectivity drive. Take the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway connecting Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Ankara may not have anything nearly approaching the scale and scope of the BRI master road map, which plans all steps to 2049.
What has been designed is a Turkic World Vision – 2040, adopted at the OTS summit, with the Middle Corridor billed as “the shortest and safest transport link between East and West,” including a new special economic zone (SEZ) called Turan, in Kazakhstan, to be launched in 2022.
This SEZ will be exclusively for OTS members and observers. The Turan steppe, significantly, is also considered by many in Turkey as the original home of Turkic peoples. It remains to be seen how Turan will interact with the Khorgos SEZ, at the Kazakh-Chinese border, an essential node of BRI. As it stands, the view that Ankara will pose a major systemic threat to Beijing in the long run are mere speculations.
The bottom line is that the OTS is part of a larger Erdogan initiative also not well known outside Turkey: Asia Anew. It’s this initiative that will be guiding Ankara’s expanding connections across Asia, with the OTS promoted as one among many “tools of regional cooperation.”
Whether Ankara can leverage this vastly ambitious strategic reading of geography and history to build a new sphere of influence depends on a lot of Turkish lira that the Erdogan coffers sorely lack.
Meanwhile, why not dream of becoming Sultan of Eurasia? Well, Abdulhamid II would never have thought that his future pupil would upstage him by going East – like Alexander The Great – and not West.
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Interesting. But while Erdogan plays his games on the geopolitical stage, other more fundamental forces are at work.
The Turks have so far refused to breed according to the commands of the ruling class, and so the government has allowed in massive numbers of refugees from Syria and other places. Initially this was sold to the Turks as a ‘temporary’ expedient to help their brother muslims, but as usual the Turks were lied to: these ‘temporary’ refugees are going to stay permanently. This forced population growth is causing wages to stagnate and fall, and driving up rents, and so quite naturally the Turks are not very happy about this. (Refugees in fear as sentiment turns against them in Turkey, by Suzan Fraser and Ayse Wieting, Associated Press, Sept. 25, 2021).
But the rich like the current situation just fine – they are making tons of money off of it! Which was always the plan. So obviously, if the Turks don’t like this, they must be racist, and their wishes will be ignored. The Syrian and other refugees will stay, the rich have spoken.
Currently there are about 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. And even though the fertility rate of the native Turks is now close to two, the fertility rate of the Syrian refugees in Turkey is very high (The Syrian Observer, Birthrate on the Rise among Syria’s Refugee Diaspora in Turkey, Monday May 22, 2017 by Sada al-Sham.). If this is maintained, the 3.6 million can turn into 7.2 million in as little 18 years (the doubling rate in Syria before they ran out of water), and then 14.4 million in 36 years, and 28.8 million in 54 years, and 57.6 million in 72 years… and that’s not counting refugees from other countries, or the possibility that the rich might import even more Syrians or Afghans etc., or the fact that the Kurds are currently average twice the fertility rate of the Turks…
It is well within the realm of possibility that a native Turk born today could live to see himself dispossessed in what used to be his own country – a country that could easily be as miserably poor as Pakistan or Bangladesh. And for better or worse, Erdogan’s foreign policy antics are of little long-term consequence.
“we unite turkic states”…… i wonder if they plan to include israel?
Very good article It will be interesting to monitor the development of infrastructures under Turkic connectivity. Ergodan likely feels Turkey is at the junction of Central Asia, the Middle-East and Eastern Europe and with a little extrapolation at the center of the relations between Africa, Europe, the NATO countries and Asia. That gives Ergodan a lot of leverage if he plays his right cards. However there are a couple of mountains between Turkey and Central Asia that might slow down the process of integration for some time.
US-NATO and Soros prefer to introduce the IMF by force in Turkey and launder billions in drug money with their friend in Pennsylvania, Fethullah Gulen.
Video Link
See: Turkey’s NATO Exit & the New Turkey-Russia Alliance: A Turning Point in the Global Power Structure
On Mrs Sibel Edmond’s Newbud:
https://www.newsbud.com/2016/08/19/turkeys-nato-exit-the-new-turkey-russia-alliance-a-turning-point-in-the-global-power-structure/
Show notes:
Ticking Time Bomb: Media Hypes Nuclear Threat in Turkey to Justify Action
Newsbud Breaking News: Turkey’s Coup Plotters are Members of NATO’s Rapid Deployable Corps
Turkey considering military ties with Russia as NATO shows unwillingness to cooperate
Turkey Could Provide Incirlik Airbase for Russian Anti-Terror Campaign-Russian Senator
US moves nuclear weapons from Turkey to Romania
Erdogan Threatens to Abandon US Dollar in Trade with Russia
Why the U.S. Should Move Nukes Out of Turkey
U.S. TURKEY AIRBASE NUKES AT RISK OF SEIZURE FROM ‘TERRORISTS’: REPORT
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Hint: Çavuşoğlu is the exact synonym of Ceauşescu. A name that would better fit the (originally Pontic Greek) Erdoğan.
Erdogan is as reckless as Putin is cautious.
Callahan’s final remark in MAGNUM FORCE applies to Erdogan.
“A man’s got to know his limitations.”
Erdogan acts like he’s a modern sultan or something. What damn fool.
Whatever one thinks of Erdogan, he’s considered an enemy of Israel and thus on Joe Biden’s shit list:
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Yup, Erdogan did the Western elite’s version of “Invade the world, Invite the world”. And as the economy of Turkey tanks, people are getting pissed at the refugees.
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Syrian refugees face growing opposition in Turkey
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Attacks against Syrians in Turkey raise fears of escalation | AFP
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WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH SYRIAN REFUGEES IN TURKEY? | Institutional Racism & Discrimination
Leftist media as usual.
Nah – the EU will be forced to embrace their Western allies, as they already
do in Song Contest and feetsball.
Turkey is well on its way to jettisoning NATO with its S400 purchase. The idea that Erdogan can speak for NATO is not supported by any facts. Erdogan support for Morsi’s Muslim Terrorist Brotherhood grab for power in Egypt is another wedge between Turkey and the NATO powers.
Erdogan has problems joining the Russia block due to his campaign for regime change in Syria.
Finding a key ISIS commander in Turkey controlled Syria is a problem for both the NATO block and Russian block.
Bottom line, Erdogan is 100% on his own.
PEACE 😇
The Turkish Lira is in free fall. Their latest proposal is to try to trick their population to turn over their under the mattress Dollars and especially gold. Erdogan is looking at major social issues going forward, so his fantasy of rebuilding the Ottoman Empire might have to wait.
Once the currency goes, so does the power.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/now-weve-done-it-we-pissed-cia
UNZ is next or is it already ?
“Major Social Issues ” ? Most Turks are peasants and Islam allows them the luxury of Paradise in the near future.
Erdogan , like Biden , does not rely upon an intellectually rational voter base .
In the former’s case it’s Islam and in the latter’s case it’s Liberalism. Guess which one will prevail.
It would please me to see the entire Turkish people, discounting those whose DNA is not at least 50% derived from original Turkic stock, to relocate themselves to Turkmenistan or some such location.
As the Turks themselves are deeply central Asian, they really do not belong in Anatolia in the first place.
At this point it strikes me that Erdoganian strategy would be to disperse the Syrian migrants broadly across Anatolia, while the most ethnologically apposite location would be in the formerly Syrian districts of Alexandretta, in Turkey’s far southwest. Over a generation or two, then, that region would revert to rejoining the Syrian state. At present that is mostly a no-go, for among other reasons that many of these refugees have Muslim Brotherhood sympathies or direct connexions and would scarcely be welcomed back in the Baathist state which has long been troubled by that extremist Islamist “botherhood”.
This is what happens when you pegged your economy on the dollar :p
But turkey is 100% safe. why? they hold the refugees at bay. EU have to keep the Turkish economy alive no matter what. What erdogan did was kill the ability of hot money from escaping but also hurting the turkish economy at the same time.
erdogan got balls of unabtaininium.
The Dumb andf Dumber stupid NEOcons insist in more WARS. The talks between Germany and Russia difused the Ucranian Crisis, BUT not so fast the Idiotic NEOcons may still not ready to give up another opportunity to REignite another WAR. It is pathetic to see Biden talking tough about NATO defeding Ucraine when it is a FIXED issue that Ucraine is not and will not be part of NATO..After all this tough USA posturing the initial objective for the USA was NOT achieve Nordstream I and II..? will become operational. The Russian gas will power the German Economy..precisely what the USA must had stopped all along. Another NEOcon failed aventure…The TRUMP thesis has been proven correct once again…Peaceful Coexistance is the best alternative for BOTH nations..let the Markets settled the rest. The NEOcons had been discredited outsatged once again, their rule over the American State Dept MUST end NOW. While the NEOcons played the role of war/blood thirsty lunatics…Putin can claim the role of rational Peace maker…America can NOT rule with the fear of their war machine but USA must unleash the forces of its Economic offers and the FREEDOM of its ideas civic virtues…First America MUST end this internal WOKE madness…solidify from within to project its power from without.
well one could say Slavs dont belong in Siberia either….
ZH is a mixed bag. On the one hand they publish decidedly anti-US regime (and Canadian regime) stories that are antagonistic to NATO (and the ‘Truckers’). This is what the CIA evidently objects to.
On the other hand, they have an aggressive anti-mainland Chinese (and pro Taiwan) face. This is no doubt due to their association with the Epoch Times, a pro Taiwan news operation said to be tied to the cultish Falun Gong.
Thus, if the CIA is anti-Zero Hedge, then it shows that they are ‘half-empty’ thinkers, and not ‘half full’ types.
Two years ago ZH often ran ‘disaster porn’ articles about the Yellowstone Caldera blowing its top and destroying the world, but after the virus hit, the site began running daily Covid horror articles, claiming everyone and their brother was going to die from the rebranded flu. The past couple of months, after realizing how ridiculous that was, they have pretty much stopped that.
Commenters on ZH appear to be mostly low-level libertarian types who are typically against the Fed, mixed on Bitcoin (and various other ‘electric’ currencies), and tend to think Joe Biden is somehow controlled by the Communist Party of China, in ways that are not exactly clear to anyone.
Whatever I think of Erdogan, he has way more balls then the Anglo Zionist cocksuckers: Turkeys started to unravel the moment he stuck it to Israel, before that he was Obama’s best friend in the Middle East, head-choppers or not.
Hahaha
Erdogand is criminal mafia man and his party (Justice & Development Party, AK Parti) is a criminal organization (there have been some revelations by some Turkish mafia bosses lately) involved in protection money racket (havta in India) in Turkey.
There is this Turkish gentleman, Atilla Yesilada, who writes about the reality of Mafia boss Erdogan which foreigners like us will not know, about the deep problems in Turkish economy and the problematic long term future. His channel is called REAL TURKEY. This shit decided to interfere in our Indian affair and support Pakistan, and his economy collapse. LOL.
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What is the difference between Turkey and a Banana Republic?
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How Erdogan is Destroying Turkish Economy ?
Only our Modiji is true leader who cares for his people.
—-Mehool Bhai, Mumbai
Yep, and Erdogan is not getting any younger. That silly, taffy yanking Turk will be called to account by the ultimate ruler soon.
Turky is an influential player in the middle east and central Asia. Erdogan may come across as a fool, but he represents a new pan Turkish movement that is eying big chunks of other countries, notably Iran which has almost 20 to 25 million Turkish population in Azerbayjan .Those Turks seem more attached to Turkey than to the Persian ruling regime and could create a major bloody ethnic strife if they decide to split and join the other Azerbayjan.
The Turks are also eying Syria too and are trying to establish a vassal state there as well which they cannot. Ironically Syria wants Eskanderoon, formerly part of Syria and mostly populated by Arabs, back to its territorial fold too.
Sounds like the dangerous game of territorial expansionism is getting worse and worse in the middle east and Central Asia and so the consequences could be bloody in next several years.
“Meanwhile, why not dream of becoming Sultan of Eurasia?”
Because we don’t live in times of horse and scimitar and brute strength… in the days of America, Russia, China and India being space powers, Turks, who have never invented anything and most likely have the national IQ on par with Mexico, which means they never will agree to a scientific state, will always remain a backward state like all Islamic countries. And any semblance of progress one sees in Turkey, be it trains, planes, ships, phones and internet etc is all a legacy of the European race. Only the Whites, Jews, East Asians and some Indians (brahmas) have high enough intelligence to compete in the modern world and no brutes need apply, especially, the Turk!
As my belaboring comments attest, I’m fascinated by the memory-holing of the world-historical Sad Story that is the US’s “Unipolar Moment.” Indeed, it’s such a pathetic imperial performance, those most responsible for it are trying to double-down on the forgetfulness.
Undeniable abject failure means moving from ignoring how we increasingly pissed away the post-Cold War period to in event denying that it ever ended. A day doesn’t pass now without Democrats, RINOs and Neocon filth shouting that Putin has been playing possum for twenty years so we need to get serious about that twilight struggle again.
I know the above might seem tangental as a comment on Turkey but bear with me for a moment. Accept that Russia has methodically teed up a do-over of the end of the Cold War contours, with the West feeling so bad about itself it would rather die than mention that just a few decades ago the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact alliance collapsed.
Also accept that Biden is Yeltsin (circa 1996-99).
The good news is that putting down the Ukraine crack pipe is as much if not more in the US national interest as it is Russia’s.
By the way, you’ll note that except for one sarcastic mention I’ve avoided personalizing Russia by talking about “Putin, Putin, Putin.” Believe me, he has played his difficult hand brilliantly. But this is my pushback against the delusion in the West that if only the terrible, awful Putin were gone the Russian sovereign would cease effecting its national interests.
Understand the counter-intuitive, there’s no higher complement to pay Putin than that he’s got the Russian sovereign functioning again.
This is distinguished from the US where it’s questionable if you know how to fog a mirror if you think Trump was a distinction without a difference from Obama and now “Biden.”
Some of us are old enough to remember the then blinkered, now good enough for government work, narrative that “the US didn’t win the Cold War, both sides lost.” I humbly propose that the broad brush place to begin today is with the present truth of that.
Turkey is a geopolitical pivot point because of its geography. Suffice it to say, that gives it options even if it’s a second tier power. Say what you will about Erdogan, he’s a survivor. Which means that for the last two decades he hasn’t lost the repeated rounds of musical chairs despite the heavy-hitters having selected him for it.
You cannot understand Turkey/Erdogan in context without remembering that Obama, after partnering with Erdogan to unleash the Muslim Brotherhood on the Middle East in a solid effort to destroy our position there, carried out a lame and failed coup against Erdogan.
I used to day that it was impossible to overstate the damage that Obama did but it’s now being topped by his avatar, the illegitimate Biden.
Yes. Palestine was Ottoman for 400 years — 400 years of peace in Mideast.
I agree, the Turks can negotiate, deal, barter, try to cut your throat, and still stay in their Game better than most others. The Russians understand this and that’s why Putin keeps in contact with the Turks. They are like very good friends but go off the deep end for awhile – then come back to reality. lol
It looks like the Turks are trying to rally all their peoples together, the Russians are trying to rally all the Slavs together, The Chinese are trying to rally all the Asians together , but the US is trying to destroy everyone. I’m waiting for Alfred to comment. Pravda.
Erdogan is not crazy but hasn’t proved to be a wise guy either . His intervention in Syria though at the prodding of USA has been a disaster .His initial fight with Russia was absolutely based on the hope that NATO would support his stupid dream of Eretz Turkey . His ass was saved by Russia . Xinxinag canard is fiction made into headlines by media of US,Australia and Germany by some right wing Christo evangelics ,someone with anticommunism neurons populating entire the front cortex . He should focus on mending relation with Syria and Armenia, and focus on Iran .He should try to bring Pakistan from the clutches of Saudia Arab and form an economic and political entity stretching from Pakistan to Turkey and reaching out to Syria,Yemen and Ethiopia . Russia and Chian rising .That’s where the future . Russia on its apart has to get off the horse that always tries to gallop towards the west .Russia also needs to reconsider its support for India – a country whose elites are bought and bribed and nurtured by USA. Russia like Turkey is trying to balance a lot of pieces on the chessboard . May be both should stop being around the showtime for the game anymore . Russia is reaching out to Saudi- a notorious anti -modern corrupt kleptocrats .
Russia needs to see the changing picture that America has drawn on itself – its economic fall is guaranteed ,its saber rattling gets pooh-poohed and it is oblivious of the future direction and not ready for its own inevitable color revolutions and street mayhem .
There is interesting information –
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/us-accuses-financial-website-spreading-122709021.html
– sign of weakness .
Yep, as soon as he was critical of the Zionist entity he became an evil man, a pariah, in the West.
However, I can see why he waffles on NATO. Germany and the US are safety valves for the Turkish economy. Technology transfers from Germany and the rest of Europe and population relief by sending Turks to both countries are big incentives to Erdogan to stay in the West’s graces.
He should still play both sides, Russia and the Anglo Zionist Empire, while looking east to rich Muslim nations for influence and more help in staying independent.
As for Izrael, nuke it!
As Russia gradually over centuries expanded eastwards into Siberia, they had no need to conquer nations—as there were none in that sparsely populated landmass, occupied primarily by tribal peoples who were neither genocided, nor removed from most of their lands. When the Seljuks and later the Ottomans swept into Anatolia and later, deep into Europe, they did this as conquerers of long established civilizations.
So you compared oranges with apples.
LOL What an idiot!!! Your Modi is nothing but an Indian Erdogan. The similarities in between both of them is enormous. Both tried to put their own ideologue people in Universities, for example. Both Erdogan and Modi are Thag Sultans, supported by the thaggard masses. So is Chavez, the thag sultan of Venezuela. The Thaggard masses are like the bitches who is in love with their asshole thag boyfriend leaders, they masturbate to the idea that their thag sultan boyfriend/leader loves them and cares for them but like psychopath, these leaders do not care for their thagard masses but end up screwing up their countries. Some British Viceroy like Lord Curzon cared far far more for the Indian people than your asshole Modi. Sure the Indian thagard masses love Modi, they are idiots. Some kind of Stockholm Syndrome for psychopath megalomaniac Thug leader.
Hey Mehool Uncle check this out, you know Satya Pal Malik, the Governor of Meghalaya State and from the same party as Modi, the BJP. He says Modi is an asshole megalomaniac!!!
Governor Satya Pal Malik: Modi is a ruthless asshole
https://thewire.in/politics/modi-was-very-arrogant-when-i-met-him-to-discuss-farmers-issues-satya-pal-malik
‘Did 500 Farmers Die For Me?’, an ‘Arrogant’ Modi Asked Me, Says Meghalaya Governor Malik
“He was very arrogant. When I told him that 500 of our own farmers had died, he asked, ‘Did they die for me?’”
Meghalaya governor Satya Pal Malik on Sunday (January 2) told a gathering in Dadri, Haryana that when he had tried to speak to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the farm laws, Modi had been “very arrogant” and the two ended up fighting.
https://thewire.in/politics/the-real-import-of-satya-pal-maliks-warning-about-narendra-modi
Satya Pal Malik’s Real Crime is That He Revealed a State Secret About Narendra Modi
The governor has revealed Modi to be a ruthless ruler, unbothered by the human costs of his megalomaniacal projects.
–Malla Bhai from Delhi.
Allegedly he is sick, and has only a few years to live.
I tried to give you an Agree – LoL – and a Thanks, but Unz only allows one at a time – lol
Whilst Turkey controlled the trade routes from East to West and back, it held some importance.
But the question is ; what does Turkey offer to it’s allies and neighbours?
The only answer is that it will not bully and invade them.
For 600 years it held an Empire by being willing to wage war and being (somewhat) magnanimous in victory.
Russia, China, and all the ‘stans’ have technology and resources, they have oil wealth and East-West access to offer, but Turkey has absolutely nothing.
When it goes bankrupt and spectacularly resembles Ukraine or Georgia it will have no relevance at all.
Since 1918 it has been knocking on the door of the West asking to be allowed to join the club.
Sorry ‘Erdy’ but you have, are and will be blackballed.
Nobody likes you, mainly because you are unreliable, duplicitous and have no value to us.
The Turks, like the Americans, do not rely on upon an intellectually rational voter base, for they vote by party affiliation or some fancy slogan. There, I fixed it for you.
“Only the Whites, Jews, East Asians and some Indians (brahmas) have high enough intelligence to compete in the modern world and no brutes need apply,”
What are you talking about? No whites are represented in the sciences or getting PhDs in anything but transgender studies. They spent their formative years drooling over football players so they can “fit in” and are equipped for little more than a supervisory job at Walmart. The top still get jobs in the lecherous investment banking industry or legal profession in which they contribute virtually nothing to the world, but get a giant paycheck. There are still apps being produced in Silicon Valley with a white guy who does the marketing and gets the cash but is entirely reliant on the talents of Asian workers to produce anything.
Perhaps you still think we are living in your glory days in the 20th century.
You can thank the Turkish scientists that discovered Pfizer covid vaccine and saved your sorry white asses.
Dr. Ugur Sahin, left, and Dr. Özlem Türeci,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/business/biontech-covid-vaccine.html
You are an illiterate TROLL who knows shit about Iranian history. Why don’t you shut up and start educating yourself instead not to be laughed at.
Rasul Guliyev, in the video, is the former Speaker of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan from 1993 to 1996, was interviewed to talk about Iran/Azerbaijan relations. He talks about the ‘Azerbaijani’ history.
Guliyev believes ‘Azerbaijan’ is part of the Iranian territory where Russians have taken the land by force in 1812. After the demise of the Soviet Union, he said: ‘we’ claimed our ‘independence’.
The ‘republic of baku’ – where Iranians call it – stands on a shaky foundation.
The Iranian people do not call it ‘Azerbaijan’, they call it ‘republic of Baku’ where one day is going to CONNECT with their brothers and sisters in Iran. Azerbaijan already exist and is a province of Iranian territory in the Northern part of the country. Small part of it was stolen by the Russians in the 19th century, and now is under the tyranny of an illegitimate family stealing its wealth to buy real estate in the West to have a comfortable life when they are kicked out of the country. This corrupt family supported by the dictator Erdugan, a Trojan dog of US imperialism and zionism. Whoever trust Erdugan should his/her brain should be examined. Putin must come clean. RG said:
Rasul Guliyev: Russian attack Iran (Persia) in 1812 and occupied this land. In 1806 or 1807, Alexandria I, was in power. It was In 1812, when The Napoleon Bonaparte came to power, Alexandria I had been offered his desire to the Ottoman sultan to destroy Persian empire. I mean, from the beginning, the Russian wanting to occupy ‘Azerbaijan’, that’s why the occupation of these lands started in 1812.
In 1812, Khanates of the Nakhchivan, Derbent and Baku and other khanates of Iranian territory were occupied by Russians. When Qajar came to power in Persia, then they took these territories back from Russians. They came and set Tiflis and Georgia on fire because Russians have taken Georgia in 1800 from Iran. Later, when Qajar, weakened, the Russian took Baku, and called it ‘Azarbaijan.’
In the other words, our land, Azerbaijan, where was part of IRANIAN territory, OCCUPIED by Russian empire and they called us ‘Tatars of Caucasus.’ We were even NOT called
‘Azarbaijan’ until 1918. This is written in the history book, go and read the HISTORY.
What Rasul Guliyev said that Iran truly have never recognized the lost of its territory.
****
In fact, Azarbaijan is located in Iran and still is part of Iran. To call Baku, ‘republic of Azarbaijan’ is FAKE and this is done by Russian for political purposes.
The Russian who took Iranian territory by force, BAKU, later called it ‘Azerbaijan’ for evil purposes, plotting to steal the rest, but the soviet union went to its grave, yet REAL Azerbaijan still stands tall in Iran. Here is the short history:
[After a series of wars between the Russian Empire and Iran, the treaties of Gulistan (1813) and Turkmenchay (1828) forced Iran to cede the South Caucasus—that is, the lands north of the Aras River—to Russia. The khanates of the southern Caucasus in the regions of Karabakh, Nakhchivan, Derbent (Darband), Talesh and Shirvan.
Under the Treaty of Gulistan, Persia was forced to recognized Russian control of most of today’s Georgia and the Republic of Azerbaijan. North of the Aras (Araxes) River, the Persians retained only the regions of Yerevan (in modern Armenia) and Nakhchivan (today an Azeri enclave inside Armenian territory).]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Azerbaijan
The Iranian people have not forgotten what Russians have done in Iran and will not trust Russia easily.
Haha, thanks.
did they work in conjunction with ft. detrick and u.n.c. under the direction of dr. fauCIA, and ralph baric? thanks for this fine example of turkish humanitarianism.
No, you pagan godless vermin, you do understand that a majority of the world’s population follows one form of theism or another, right?
Most of the wretched peoples of the world who consider themselves “theists,” are indeed pagan polytheist mangods-worshippers.
Even the psychopathic whitevils who exult much in their worldly accomplishments are batshit crazy when it comes to their pagan faith. How rational is the belief that God is man-like, and he reincarnated himself into his son? This is simply hindooism-lite. You think hindooism is rational?
So, you find the true monotheism of Islam, God is One, without any other embellishing deceit, less rational than that pagan garbage? You are not able to compare the two objectively, and you delude yourself a rational person?
No, you are a pagan godless mofer of the first order. Know your place as a beggar in the spiritual realm, and be careful what you comment on.
Ultimately, the whitevil race is cursed. A case of… so near (to a beloved prophet of God), yet so far (from God).
So, as a Turk you are saying that Turks aren’t white?
I’m so glad to learn that the Azeris in Azerbaijan are eager to join the Azeris in Iran, under Tehran’s tutelage, leadership, and umbrella. Finally, those wayward Turkics seems to have realized who has the superior culture to which they should willingly submit.
Hey animal-worshipping dotnigger, sit the fuck down!!
Yes, cares enough to push you unwashed scum into the dirty-as-fuck Ganges.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-57154564
Dot-dindoo fascists like you, with your beliefs in queer deities, rapist deities, animal deities, worship of shiva’s phallus, are a mind-boggling curse on mankind!! Every rabid mofer of you should be gathered in a desert, and nuked from this earth!! The fact that you will spawn billions more souls, to go down this path of utter godlessness is heartbreaking.
Good question, the target audience of my comments will swear that I am not white, so I accept their position and argue on their terms as a rhetorical device. Whether I am White or not is more of a Rorschach test than anything else.
I had to laugh out loud. You are right above the target, but not taking flak from UNZ libertarians, such as one born freedumb and truth vigilante.
Since they are low IQ types, somebody like Pepe flies over their head, and their absence is notable.
The topic was Turkish scientific capacity.
I am not a vaccine cheerleader, but recent trends indicate Omnicron appears to be killing a lot of elderly recently because it is so transmittable. In fact, I just heard an isolated, elderly friend of the family died the other day because his house cleaner infected him.
It could be as you say, but its anyone’s guess what is going on.
The Logos is a piece of god being inserted into the Christ. This “piece” of god is in all people, hence man is the image of god. The idea is to perfect yourself while on earth, to become more Christ like. Christ story is an exemplar of how to behave and think… how to improve yourself. Reincarnation was taken out of Christianity after about 300 years, especially with the Arian controversy. (The Trinitarians won the battle at council of Nicaea, and made Christ a god instead of an evolved human.)
Based on your comments, I would say you have a long way to go to becoming Christ like. People that are psychopaths or sociopaths often engage in reverse projection, such as calling others “whitevil” or other demeaning terms. This puts you above them doesn’t it? It is form of self aggrandizement, which in turn is sociopathic.
You have absolutely no idea what the hierarchy is in the spiritual realm… nobody does. You only believe what instruction narrative you have been programmed with from birth, and now you are regurgitating what you think you know.
ZH=Epoch Times=Falun Gong=CIA. QED. Sinophobic hatred and warmongering is the GREATEST priority that the Five Eyes monsters have ever pursued. Or ever will. The ABSOLUTE PRIORITY-see the evil, moronic, inferno of Austfailian politics with the two major parties growing truly deranged in a competition to throw the most villainous abuse at China, and denounce each others as ‘traitors’, ‘Manchurian Candidates’ and ‘soft on China’.
Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
In the past year, by way of considering ways to exit the Israeli vassal state in which I live, I did some research into Turkey. It’s not hard to get citizenship (if I recall, something like a $250,000 investment is all that’s needed). But my impression (mainly from reading) is that Turkey is dick deep in the zioglobalist/WEF/4th Industrial Revolution project, the Green boondoggle, the Smart Cities panopticon etc. They are as vaccinated as every other white country and showing little resistance to injection mandates and masking rules etc. No where to run, man. I’ve resolved to go down with the ship.
I could see Erdogan securing a massive, very generously priced multi-decade energy import deal from Russia, as well as the right to buy near-top Russian weapons, in return for Turkey withdrawing from NATO and requiring US troops to leave.
That would stabilize and even lower the cost of manufacturing as well as home heating and cooling, driving, and just about everything, for the beleaguered Turkish people.
Imagine also if both Russia and China recognized Northern Cyprus as an independent nation and demanded that it get a seat in the UN General Assembly.
Of course, any such moves could get Erdogan assassinated by the US thugs. But he might as well get out in front and get big benefits for his people. Russia and China could also make clear that if a country is found to have knocked off a foreign leader, there will be severe consequences.
Yours is the best explanation I have read about Zero Hedge. I couldn’t bother to keep reading it and the comments section is worse.
Nope, they’re not all that Central Asian anymore.
I was recently read that genetic studies typically report Turkish DNA to be in the range of 25-40% European (ostensibly mostly from the many many conquered or enslaved Greeks, Bulgarians, and Slavs), 35-45% Middle Eastern, and less than 20% central and south Asian combined.
http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/anatolian-turks.html
Certainly many Turks by appearance fall in the category “looks pretty white to me.”
OT: there’s a good Turkish-language instruction channel on YouTube called Turkishle. The young guy Can (pronounced John) has a great manner and sense of humor.
There’s another YouTube channel called Mick and Trudie, British expats living long-term in Turkey. Mick Scarbrook aka “Mick Amca” (Uncle Mick to the Turks) is an impressive and engaging guy. In his early 60s, Mick’s Turkish is impeccable after 30 years living, owning a hotel / restaurant and other businesses, and marrying and raising kids in the Mediterranean coastal city of Fethiye, Turkey. The language skills combined with his love of the culture, and his amiable and some say charming nature, bring out wonderful reactions from the people. It’s the perfect travel vlog: tourist tips mixed with history, food reviews, and a high level of photography and production (he’s improved a lot over the years). It’s partly because of Mick’s infectious enthusiasm and information that we’re visiting Turkey.
Excellent text Pepe. It raises a number of ongoing geopolitical movements. I would like to raise the following points: (i) the project of the “Turkish world” is not a desire of the populations of the States involved, but rather a project of the local ruling classes, a priori; (ii) Erdogan is clearly the political leader of this project, however we must remember who Erdogan is: a pupil of the M16; (iii) being a project “coordinated by local elites” whose leader was a British asset, we must remember (iv) who financed Napoleon to destroy the European continental monarchies and invade Russia? (v) who financed the white armies against the Bolshevik armies and against the Communist Revolution itself? (vi) which monarchy had a Prince named Philip with links to the Nazi party, which party went to invade Russia again? Erdogan, a gangster, and his minions like Aliyev, another gangster, is not a ‘new Hitler’ marching on Moscow only because the Russian armed forces are indefectible in the current historical moment.
See also the http://www.TurkishDNAProject.con
Our family is looking forward to visiting Turkey in the next year. Conversely, we are not planning a visit to India. I’d enjoy seeing India, but life’s flying by and money is finite as well — it’s far down our list and unfortunately it seems we won’t get to it.
We will consider buying a home and spending part of the year in Turkey in retirement, as an increasing number of westerners do. Can’t say the same about India.
This is like Marx Brothers, or Duck Soup.
Islamic nations are slowly but steadily working towards scientific progress. We will get there in time.
As far as religious faiths are concerned, since the advent of Islam, the collective Ummah has always been a Hyperpower (at the spiritual level), because the true monotheism of Islam is unassailable. Every muslim can proclaim the Tawheed, while spitting on your pagan garbage beliefs, such as the Trinity, or the Trimurti, and so on.
Pagan polytheist beggars of the world can only envy us muslims from outside, even if entry into the blessed club can’t be any easier;
There is no God, but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God!!!
And, you are in. 😀
But, we all know you pagan godless vermin will not be seeking entry anytime soon, right? Y’all will remain spiritual beggars looking in forlornly.
But, why is India still such a shithole? Nobody seems to have an answer for that.
I’d long suspected that the Seljuk and Ottoman invasions were not in huge numbers, yet the probable 13% of the Turkish people with a heavy dosage of that DNA was even smaller than I had anticipated. My big gripe with Turkey is that it Turkicized and circumcized as well as Islamicized the large majority of their population. Also the language: Ughogolu.
Erdogan is just a hypocrite and not more. He follows any winds which smell money. That’s why he is recently bending over for UAE. Economy is bad so he’s started to hang from Israeli’s balls. He knows where to go to solve the problem! As for Azerbaijan we Azeris don’t see ourself as a Turkic people but part of Persia. We have not forgotten Ottoman occupation and crimes in Azerbaijan. We won’t get tricked by his bs. It won’t be long before north section of Azerbaijan will connect back to motherland Persia and show the mid finger to Turkistan dude. The Ottoman guy has not learned from history that whoever become buddy buddy with the chosen gang will be doomed.
You can laugh at a Turkish speaking person who tells the truth about the nature of FAKE ‘republic of Baku’ and Erdugan a zionist stlooge as much as you want, but you should tell the truth about the corrupt nature of the Turkish ‘real estate’.
Some Iranians from the province of Azerbaijan or other parts of Iran who have bought a house or an apartment in Turkey are complaining about corrupt Turkish society to deceive them. They are telling others that the Turks cannot be trusted. If you decide to sell the property that you have bought in Turkey, then you have difficulties to sell it. They want you sell it very cheap back to them. They sell you much higher than its value, then they buy it from you half price if you are lucky. They steal from you.In the other words, the Turks are corrupt and deceptive.
According to the news:
[Discovery of fraud in the sale of real estate to foreigners in TURKEY
The new evaluation of many houses sold to foreigners is much higher than their real value, and now with the new evaluation system, many new purchase contracts have been canceled.
In the last two weeks, dozens of property sales transactions worth more than 500 million liras have been canceled due to a mismatch between the real and nominal value of the properties sold.]
The buyers be aware of the deception.
An interesting video; thank you.
If I were a prosecutor looking to bring Biden up on, say, a charge of criminal collusion with foreign or domestic agents or indeed of commission of any of the many crimes he is certainly guilty of, I would be reduced to tears of despair by his remarks to the editors of the Times—and not simply for reasons related to his breathtaking inability to use standard English grammar and syntax.
What I mean is as follows: Is there anything Biden states at one point in these remarks that he does not manage to contradict, wittingly or otherwise, at some other point? Frankly, if there is, it has eluded me. Biden never quite says that white is actually black or up is actually down, but he comes pretty close. Throughout, he is recognizably the same man who lectured Clarence Thomas about natural-law philosophy while making plain that he hadn’t a clue what natural law was.
As for those self-important Times Jews, their capacity for obsequiousness and sycophancy is surely something to marvel at. How could anyone with any self-respect listen to Biden’s ramblings for even the two-and-a-half-minute duration of the clip without showing at least a modicum of strain from having to suppress a guffaw?
So will every chrizzie/juden/hindoo/pagan/atheist tyrant psychopath who has caused orders of magnitude worse death and suffering for humankind.
You think the true monotheist Erdogan will find it more difficult on that Day, when every man and woman will tremble in terror, than the most evil utterly despicable pagan albinoroaches such as, Churchill, Hitler, Stalin, Bush, Blair or Netanyahoo? Lol, no!
I assume you’re a supposed moslem but your words are very unislamic. Check yourself brother and ask for forgiveness. Read what the prophet says about words such as yours!
There have been health rumours for at least a decade, often promoted by what opposition media remain in Turkey. It reminds me of speculation about Syria’s Hafez al-Assad, who was reportedly ill in the early 1980s. True or not, he did not die until 2000.
In recent pictures Erdoğan does not look well, admittedly, and he actually said not long ago that he had the Omicron version of Covid. This was probably as mild for him as Omicron usually is. He will pop off eventually, of course, and since his party is less popular than he is some people are already looking for the exit.
Name-calling, flowery dramatic language, conclusory assertions, no evidence and no logic. Yep, sounds like religion alright.
Other than “because we said so, and lots of people say the same things with confidence, and they’ve been saying it for a long time, and you’re gonna go to hell if you don’t believe our assertions”, what’s your actual reasoning?
That kind of reason-free nastiness and zealotry is frightening, whether Muslim or Jewish or Christian or whatever. Now threaten me with hellfire; so far, we’ve got no reason to expect anything more of you.
Don’t presume to know the hearts of strangers, let alone pretend to know what God wants, beyond reasonable discussion, in every detail of our lives and thoughts. You don’t, nor does anyone else. It’s arrogance to claim that you do.
Agree that the Christian doctrines and VK concepts you’ve mentioned are just as absurd, unitive, and unprovable as yours. Well done.
Turkey has now instituted a system to stop this, as well as guarantee the usd value as of the date of the sale against currency fluctuations that could take the purchase below the minimum for citizenships.
There is no minimum purchase required to apply for a residence permit, so the valuation tricks and kickbacks you’re taking about can’t even potentially affect us or most people buying homes and moving to Turkey.
The $250 k min minimum purchase is for immediate citizenship by investment only.
Good insight. I had also heard Erdogan is a figure head has been owned by the Turkish Deep State since his involvement in a number of scandals. The DS is acting in Turkeys interests however ruthlesss , but prior to that he was subservient to Mi-6. This is how Turkey was able to gain regional power.
To understand the genius of Christian European progress in castle and cannon technology w.r.t Turks, Indians etc… check this out.
Military Architecture
Check out from 23:04 minutes to 1:04:29 hours: minutes