Blog

The West is strengthening Erdogan's aggression

of Burak Bekdil

(Photo by Alexandr Demyanchuk/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

Turkey's Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is militarily threatening his NATO ally Greece, using increasingly threatening rhetoric.

He also proudly announced that Russian President Putin had promised him that he would make Turkey an international gas transit hub for the distribution of Russian gas through Turkey, bypassing international sanctions. The response from the Americans and other Westerners is 'friendly pats on the back,' the columnist quotes.

As Steven Cook from the Council on Foreign Relations reported in the newspaper "Kathimerini", the most dangerous period for Greece is the one leading up to the presidential elections in Turkey, which Erdogan definitely wants to win in order to be President during the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic in 2023.

Erdogan is determined to use every means available to achieve this goal, and Greece naturally figures into his plan. However, the Aegean is close to Turkey and the two countries' warplanes fly so close together that the possibility of an accident, mistake, or misunderstanding cannot be ruled out.

Last September, Greek Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos visited Kastellorizo, in the eastern Aegean Sea, about two kilometers off Turkey's southern coast. Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar considered this visit a 'provocation' and stressed:

"Noticing their (Greeks') provocative behavior recently, we forget that they know how to swim. If they persist in this mentality, knowing how to swim will be useful to them." This logic needs explanation, the columnist says.

Why does a visit to a point in a sovereign state constitute a challenge for the neighboring country? Especially within NATO borders?

Also on October 6, President Erdogan said that Greece should take his warnings seriously. He again resorted to the threatening rhetoric of recent months, the same rhetoric that had prompted the US to urge the two NATO allies to negotiate.

A month earlier, Erdogan again raised tensions in the Aegean, stating that “we may suddenly come overnight,” hinting at a military invasion of Greece.

Then, further irritating Greece, on October 18, Turkey conducted a test launch of a domestically manufactured Tayfun medium-range ballistic missile in the Black Sea, which traveled 561 kilometers before crashing into the sea off Sinop.

Commenting on the program, Erdogan said on October 21, “now we have Tayfun…and this is a message to some countries.” Erdogan did not name the countries, but state television showed a map showing Greece within range of the Tayfun missile.

The Greek press, such as "Kathimerini", "Ta NEA", "To VIMA" and Skai television, covered the launch of Tayfun extensively.

While Erdogan is explicitly threatening a NATO ally, he also has a plan to undermine Western sanctions against Russia.

As he stated on October 19, he agreed with his Russian counterpart Putin to create a natural gas hub in Turkey, to enable the storage of Russian gas in the Thrace region of Turkey and its subsequent sale to Western customers.

This would effectively lift Western sanctions against Russia, while Turkey would earn transit fees from every cubic meter of Russian gas sold to European buyers. It is a win-win plan for the two authoritarian leaders.

What was the US reaction to these developments? Approval for the sale of F-16 aircraft!, the columnist reports.

On October 11, the US Senate withdrew two amendments to a bill that would have banned the sale of F-16s to Turkey under the NDAA 2023 (National Defense Authorization Act). An earlier version of the bill had tied the sale to the condition of not using the aircraft against Greece.

Now, Erdogan hopes that, before the end of the year, Congress will give the 'green light' for the sale of the F-16s.

"Turkey and the US have so far held four meetings on the F-16 issue. In New York (in the context of meetings at the UN General Assembly) I met with US Senators, who were very positive. The talks are continuing. The (US) government is taking the necessary positive steps (to make the sale happen)," Erdogan stressed in statements to reporters on October 21.

What other absurd anti-Western moves does Erdogan have to make for US President Biden to understand that Turkey's authoritarian Islamist leader is a pawn of Putin within the NATO Alliance? Or is Biden also a pawn of Putin?

Source: https://el.gatestoneinstitute.org