Comments on: Erdogan again

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 31 May 2023 19:32:01 +0000

Edrogan has been quite clear on wishing to restore Turkish hegemony in the Muslim world. The Ottomans ruled for many centuries.

By: Abraxas

Abraxas — Wed, 31 May 2023 19:12:55 +0000

But what’s his destination? Making Turkey into Iran or Isis? Restoring the Caliphate or the Ottoman Empire? Maybe the destination was permanent power for himself?

The tram comment is strange. We know what it means to the Western press. I’d be interested in knowing the context and how Turks reacted to it, and in reconstructing just what it might have meant to Erdogan himself.

By: Barry Meislin

Barry Meislin — Wed, 31 May 2023 07:09:39 +0000

Essentially, the Greeks are in a low-burn conflict with Erdogan (i.e., not Turkey, per se).
Sometimes it’ll flare up and you’ll hear about it.
But since both are NATO partners (even if Turkey is wonky, and purposely so) it’s a tricky—and sensitive—business.
Erdogan will subvert things when he feels he needs to; will prick, will antagonize, will make threatening declarations (e.g., WRT the Greek islands in the Aegean, just a stone’s throw off the coast of western Turkey). All part of the act.
But as in former-USSR military doctrine, there is ALWAYS the chance that THEATER (threats, maneuvers, belligerence, etc.) will convert quickly to ATTACK.
While this is unlikely in Erdogan’s case, it’s always a card he can play if he believes he can get away with it—or, worse, if he believes that he MUST do it to survive—once again, he (Erdogan); not Turkey…but the L’etat c’est moi, n’est-ce pas?…
Similarly, Greek Cyprus is very nervous…even if Turkish Cyprus—which seems to have reached a modus vivendi with the former—would much prefer that Erdogan “cool it” with the belligerence…but why should Erdogan necessarily listen to them?…
(It’s the same, BTW, vis-a-vis Israel, which for some reason believes that Erdogan has somehow “reformed”. No shortage of “dreamers” in Israel, either… though one COULD ask, “What alternative do they really have except to play this game of “make believe” very cautiously?)

By: Philip Sells

Philip Sells — Tue, 30 May 2023 23:20:29 +0000

As I’ve probably mentioned before, being a member of a Greek Orthodox parish, I’m very well informed about the Greek man-in-the-street view of Turkey and Turks in general. But I mean, what is the reaction to this current election result in particular? If it has anything distinctive about it, it could be interesting to know, since the Greeks are the nearest European neighbors who have to consider its consequences, if any.

By: Barry Meislin

Barry Meislin — Tue, 30 May 2023 18:16:24 +0000

Not just secular.
And the sentiment is usually generously reciprocated.
With interest.

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 30 May 2023 17:30:40 +0000

Secular Turks don’t like the Greeks, and the feeling is reciprocated.

By: Philip Sells

Philip Sells — Tue, 30 May 2023 17:03:38 +0000

What’s the Greek reaction to the election result? In view of the saber-rattling going on around some of the Aegean islands, that would interest me.

By: miguel cervantes

miguel cervantes — Tue, 30 May 2023 14:53:28 +0000

i researched the gulen/erdogan alliance around the time, that they were making a big deal with general flynn, the latter enabled the former, and much like the other associates of big brother in 1984, they ended up in the dark or worse,

erdogan came out of an anticommunist youth league, yet he makes alliances with western leftists, and islamists like hamas,

By: BrooklynBoy

BrooklynBoy — Tue, 30 May 2023 14:31:13 +0000

Sennacherib

“Erdogan sees himself as the next Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. It’ll be an empire but of low round furniture.”

What’s the deal with the Ottoman Empire? An empire based on putting your feet up on a piece of furniture?
Jerry Seinfeld

By: BrooklynBoy

BrooklynBoy — Tue, 30 May 2023 14:27:59 +0000

Neo
Islamists, Communists, and Fascists never share or voluntarily give up power. If they cannot get elected in a fair election they try to join the government as part of a coalition or so called “Popular Front” and they eventually seize control (first by taking control over the police, Interior Ministry, and security services). This is what happened in Czechoslovakia in February, 1948 and we have seen it time and time again; Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, and Recep Tayyip Erodgan in Turkey.