Overheard on the Web: The Sultan’s Gyrations

Erdogan implying friendship with Russia.

[dropcap]D[/dropcap]raw your own conclusions.....

Right after Washington announces that eight (8) countries will be exempt from sanctions for continuing to do business with Iran, one of them being Turkey, and after the Pentagon turns a blind eye to mass shelling of Kurdish positions East of the Eupharates in Syria by Turkey and commences joint patrols of the illegally occupied North Easter part of Syria with Turkey and its "terrorist" proxies, remnants of ISIS and Al Qaeda, Erdogan announces that Turkey will never recognise the "illegal annexation" of Crimea by Russia, that the killing of Khashoggi is unacceptable "in a NATO country" and that he will be meeting with Trump, "face to face" on November 10-11.

Erdogan's gratitude toward Russia and Putin for saving his bacon in the CIA-backed coup to overthrow him a couple of years ago, has "expired."
Erdogan's role as Moscow's "spanner in the works" has come to an end.

Gone are the Turkish threats of joining BRICS, something none of the original BRICS members even bothered to comment on at the time. Gone also are the threats to fight off not only Israel but the US at the same time, as "Turkey is a major power that fears no one" and it's the "Champion of the Palestinians and the Arab World."

We are now back to "business as usual" with Turkey being the pampered kid of the US, NATO and the EU.

The Clown has returned to the Circus and the "performance" is about to begin. We are likely to hear the Sultan spewing the same kind of nonsense that we had before his initial "U-Turn". Things like "We, together with our allies, can overrun Russia in 6 days." or who can forget his statement right after the downing of the passenger jet over Sinai when all the Russian passengers perished: "I have no sympathy for them, they were returning from carefree vacations while our brethren (ISIS terrorists) are being bombed by Russia."

Erdogan with Pompeo

Some people expressed their concern that perhaps Putin was a little reckless in agreeing to supply Turkey with S-400s. At the time, I confidently predicted that those advanced air defence systems would never be delivered to Turkey. The Turkish nuclear power plants may be built, but it won't be by Russian companies. The "Turkstream" gas pipeline will be shelved.

Turkey will not lose out by this second U-Turn; it will be rewarded with concessions that will be at the expense of Greece and Cyprus and.... Syria.

I have very often stated that the US/NATO can live without Erdogan, in fact they'd like nothing more, but they cannot live without Turkey. Turkey being one of the two "unpunishable" countries as far as Washington is concerned, with the other being Saudi Arabia, but for totally different reasons.

Erdogan, despite his return to the NATO fold, should not feel secure in his invincibility. The planners of strategy in the US, would much rather have the compliant "old guard" at the helm of Turkish politics than the megalomaniac Sultan. One megalomaniac is enough in that alliance and he's already at the top of that pile of sh@t aka NATO.

It was good while it lasted. Moscow obviously knew this day would come; after all, the sign over the gate of the Military Academy in Ankara that reads: "For the Turk, #1 enemy is the Russian and then the Greek", has not been taken down; I just hope they prepared for it.