{"id":31535,"date":"2020-08-25T22:51:02","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T20:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/norkhosq.net\/?p=31535"},"modified":"2020-08-25T22:51:28","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T20:51:28","slug":"turkey%e2%80%99s-adventures-in-the-eastern-mediterranean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/norkhosq.net\/?p=31535","title":{"rendered":"Turkey\u2019s Adventures in the Eastern Mediterranean"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Edmond Y. Azadian<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s erstwhile political soulmate, Ahmet Davutoglu, who served as Turkey\u2019s foreign minister, was the country\u2019s major ideologue defining its foreign policy. The basic paradigm of that policy was that their administration would move to a position of zero problems with the neighbors.<\/p>\n

Perhaps, the main reason that the two leaders eventually fell out was that Erdogan committed all sorts of transgressions to antagonize all the neighbors, contrary to their earlier stated position. Davutoglu, angered, disassociated himself from the Erdogan clan to form his own political party called Future.<\/p>\n

We do not know what the future holds for Davutoglu, but one thing is clear \u2014 Erdogan is expanding the circle of his enemies far beyond Turkey\u2019s immediate neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s aggressive stance in the Eastern Mediterranean drilling for oil and gas in waters internationally recognized as belonging to Greece, drew criticism from many quarters, including Armenia.<\/p>\n

Armenia\u2019s Foreign Ministry issued a statement which read, \u201cWe reiterate Armenia\u2019s unequivocal support and solidarity with Greece and Cyprus and call on Turkey to de-escalate the situation, respect international law and cease all activities within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Greece and Cyprus.\u201d<\/p>\n

That statement drew a stern and sarcastic rebuke from Turkey\u2019s Foreign Ministry.<\/p>\n

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Hami Aksoy, the Turkish Foreign Ministry\u2019s spokesman, said, \u201cThe issue at hand is the Eastern Mediterranean, not Lake Sevan. Following its provocative statement on the Treaty of S\u00e9vres, Armenia\u2019s expressing an opinion regarding the Eastern Mediterranean this time is a novel instance of impertinence and irresponsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing after the examples of the United Arab Emirates and France, the fact that Armenia, a country with no coastline to any sea, presumes itself worthy of speaking about the Eastern Mediterranean, unravels the dimensions of an insidious alliance that is being attempted to be forged against Turkey,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

Aksoy did not forget to include a reminder that \u201cArmenians have not learned their lessons from history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact that Armenia does not have a coastline is thanks to Turkey. Also, reminding Armenians of the \u201clessons\u201d of the past (while asserting that there was no Genocide!) has been a recurring threat from former Turkish leaders, dating back to Turgut Ozel and Tansu \u00c7iller, up to Erdogan himself, all reminding Armenians that the unrepentant Turkish government is ready to repeat its murderous actions \u2014 or lessons.<\/p>\n

The paranoia manifested in Aksoy\u2019s statement demonstrates that under Erdogan, Turkey has gone from zero problems with neighbors to a mentality of siege, which has indeed led to a coalition of nations whose sovereignty has been trampled on or resources usurped by Turkey.<\/p>\n

President Erdogan defies and then defines international law and its application. Whether right or wrong, he claims that a major country like Turkey deserves to benefit from the natural resources of the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not back down in the face of sanctions or threats, \u201c he said recently. \u201cWe will never bow to banditry on our own continental shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turkey has sent its scientific vessel Oruc Reis into the disputed waters off Cyprus to search for oil and gas, escorted by Turkish warships. On the other hand, Greece has sent its own military vessels to monitor the situation. Both countries are on a collision course.<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron has said that he will increase France\u2019s military presence over \u201cunilateral\u201d gas explorations by Turkey.<\/p>\n

The \u201cinsidious\u201d coalition is growing against Turkey, as countries like Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Israel join it.<\/p>\n

Recently, Egypt signed an agreement with Greece delineating their maritime boundaries and exclusive economic zones for the rights for the exploration of hydrocarbon resources. President Erdogan has called that agreement \u201cworthless paper,\u201d while he had signed a similar deal with Libya\u2019s Tripoli government, headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, which represents half of that country, the other half being controlled by Gen. Khalifa Haftar.<\/p>\n

Cyprus and Greece are members of the European Union, whose foreign policy chief has tweeted that the EU is \u201cin full solidarity with Greece and Cyprus, calling for immediate de-escalation by Turkey and recognizing dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

All that solidarity amounts only to a call for dialogue, because Turkey has learned to pit one EU country against another. For example, though France is not the only country critical of Turkey\u2019s aggressive behavior, it also has not sent its warships to Eastern Mediterranean to warn Turkey of further escalation.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the other powerful EU member, Germany is dragging its feet.<\/p>\n

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, has said that \u201cthe provocations\u201d that are taking place in the region \u201ccan\u2019t continue,\u201d adding, \u201cnor can the Turkish drilling.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statements clearly land Germany on Turkey\u2019s side, since it also is the German government which has derailed the regime of economic sanctions against Turkey contemplated by the EU.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Turkey and Greece are NATO members, while Greece is getting short shift there too, as a weaker party in the alliance.<\/p>\n

Armenia should not be comforted that the Turkish government has too much on its plate. Turkey has attained such a military status that it can be engaged on many fronts \u2014 and even wage wars on many fronts.<\/p>\n

Many analysts believed that Washington has licensed Turkey to play the role of the policemen in the Middle East. But Turkey seems to have misconstrued the role, because while policemen defend the parties under their control, Turkey has in fact targeted all the nations in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

The fact that Turkey is able to keep Russia at bay in the Caucasus and in Syria and Libya, all at the same time, indicates that it has been rendering valuable service to the US and consequently is being rewarded by America\u2019s benign indifference to its aggressions against weaker countries in the region. Turkey could not have dared to defy another NATO member nation like France, without receiving a nod of approval from Washington.<\/p>\n

In his rebuke to Armenia, Mr. Aksoy has not forgotten to remind Armenia that Turkey will continue giving all possible support to Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

Within the context of these political developments, if war breaks out between Armenia and Azerbaijan, with Turkey\u2019s encouragement, Ankara\u2019s target will be Moscow, not necessarily Yerevan. Turkey is building up its military forces in Nakhichevan, to provoke and challenge Russia, especially now that Russia has a distressed Belarus on its hands.<\/p>\n

Turkey is threatening Greece and Cyprus. The way the EU or NATO is handling those conflicts gives a clear indication as to what the leadership of these two structures can or cannot do for the targets of aggression, when the bully is Turkey.<\/p>\n

That leadership consists of the same politicians who advocated that Armenia will become a paradise by joining the EU or NATO.<\/p>\n

There was even a pointed question in the BBC news program \u201cHARDTalk\u201d by Stephen Sackur<\/a> last week posed to Prime Minister Pashinyan, on whether Armenia will continue to remain as a suffering Russian ally or seek salvation by looking to the EU and NATO.<\/p>\n

That leadership\u00a0in and outside of Armenia\u00a0consists of the same politicians who advocated that Armenia will become a paradise by joining the EU or NATO.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/mirrorspectator.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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    by Edmond Y. Azadian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s erstwhile political soulmate, Ahmet Davutoglu, who served as Turkey\u2019s foreign minister, was the country\u2019s major ideologue defining its foreign policy.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/norkhosq.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/norkhosq.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/norkhosq.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norkhosq.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norkhosq.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31535"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/norkhosq.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31537,"href":"https:\/\/norkhosq.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31535\/revisions\/31537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/norkhosq.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norkhosq.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norkhosq.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}