Erdogan is playing his own game. Turkey dreams of controlling the Eastern Mediterranean, especially now that fossil fuel deposits have been found there. They’ve been trying for years to create an incident with Greece to take control of several islands and to get the occupied part of Cyprus to be recognized as a legitimate state.
The problem is that both Greece and Turkey are part of NATO, and control of the disputed areas and sea zones has already being decided by treaties before.
Turkey is playing both sides, in an effort to get NATO to force Greece to give them concessions in the Agean, as well as increase Turkey’s importance to the alliance.
A few years ago, they were helping NATO in Syria and opposing Russia, in an effort to take control of Syrian soil, which they succeeded. Now that that’s over, Erdogan switched sides. In a few years he will switch sides again.
He can afford to, because Turkey has an important geographical position, one of the largest military forces in NATO, and can leverage the large Turkish diaspora in Western Europe to affect internal politics.
He will play both sides as he always does. Erdogans support base arent prowest liberals, frankly they despise the west, they feel they have been a tool of the west for decades and have gotten nothing in return (which frankly is true). Turkey has tried to join the EU and has been its lapdog for decades, and yet they havent been allowed to, all while everyone wants to let Ukraine in immediately. Turkey is only good for pointing missiles to Russia, but not good enough to join the “superior white civilized” EU. Thats where Erdogan comes in, hes a nationalist, he claims to “put Turkey first, defend its interests”.
Thats a big problem for the west, thats why they tried to coup him in 2016. However, that doesnt mean Erdogan is antiimperialist or antiwest, hes more comparable to Orban in Hungary. Hes willing to be the wests lackey, but only for a good price, otherwise he will serve the wests enemies. Thats what this is about, getting the west to bow before him, instead of Turkey bowing towards the west, as had been the case during the Cold War. Not a good guy but creates trouble for the west so thats cool i guess.
Ew, so the trade with Russia was just posturing? Or does he intend to not give a shit like always?
Erdogan is playing his own game. Turkey dreams of controlling the Eastern Mediterranean, especially now that fossil fuel deposits have been found there. They’ve been trying for years to create an incident with Greece to take control of several islands and to get the occupied part of Cyprus to be recognized as a legitimate state.
The problem is that both Greece and Turkey are part of NATO, and control of the disputed areas and sea zones has already being decided by treaties before.
Turkey is playing both sides, in an effort to get NATO to force Greece to give them concessions in the Agean, as well as increase Turkey’s importance to the alliance.
A few years ago, they were helping NATO in Syria and opposing Russia, in an effort to take control of Syrian soil, which they succeeded. Now that that’s over, Erdogan switched sides. In a few years he will switch sides again.
He can afford to, because Turkey has an important geographical position, one of the largest military forces in NATO, and can leverage the large Turkish diaspora in Western Europe to affect internal politics.
He will play both sides as he always does. Erdogans support base arent prowest liberals, frankly they despise the west, they feel they have been a tool of the west for decades and have gotten nothing in return (which frankly is true). Turkey has tried to join the EU and has been its lapdog for decades, and yet they havent been allowed to, all while everyone wants to let Ukraine in immediately. Turkey is only good for pointing missiles to Russia, but not good enough to join the “superior white civilized” EU. Thats where Erdogan comes in, hes a nationalist, he claims to “put Turkey first, defend its interests”.
Thats a big problem for the west, thats why they tried to coup him in 2016. However, that doesnt mean Erdogan is antiimperialist or antiwest, hes more comparable to Orban in Hungary. Hes willing to be the wests lackey, but only for a good price, otherwise he will serve the wests enemies. Thats what this is about, getting the west to bow before him, instead of Turkey bowing towards the west, as had been the case during the Cold War. Not a good guy but creates trouble for the west so thats cool i guess.