Turkey, the “beloved” (of the same European leaders who wanted to throw Greece out of the Eurozone and the EU in 2010), has once again proven to be inferior to the circumstances and a problematic neighbor of Greece and Israel. While those European leaders who patronize it are trying to convince it to enter European armament programs now, but also to the Euroarmy, if and when it is formed. The argument is that Ankara has the largest army in Europe, a strong defense industry and that all of this will work to the benefit of the security of the European continent. This is where Greece and Cyprus must oppose and communicate in every way that Ankara has its own agenda which is very far from the interests of Europe and the West, and is essentially against them.
And to be clear: For decades, Turkey has been funding seminaries, mosques, and organizations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood around the world. It also laundered Maduro’s black money (for a fee, of course). It also laundered Iran’s black money (through the Halk Bank), while significant funds from Qatar, probably through Turkey, were used to finance the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood. It is also known that leadership groups of all these organizations, when things get difficult, find safe haven in Turkey. Furthermore, Ankara did business with ISIS by buying stolen Syrian oil from it. In that war, the Turkish Air Force bombed Kurdish positions – both in Syria and Iraq – while its army armed and trained Islamists closely linked to ISIS. It is no coincidence that a German news agency called the Turkish Air Force “the ISIS air force”.
It is also known to everyone that it instigated the war in Nagorno-Karabakh and armed the Azerbaijanis against the Armenians. In the Libyan civil war, it supported one side for its own interests, while not participating in the European force that is trying to limit the flow of weapons to Libya. On the contrary, it constantly sends weapons and thousands of Islamists whom it recruits to Syria, refusing to comply with the European pursuit. Its ships hit Haftar’s positions in Libya and Turkish soldiers operate drones, anti-aircraft guns and are trying to establish an air base. It is the only country that refuses to allow the European naval force to inspect its vessels, and in fact, a Turkish navy frigate trapped a French frigate in one incident with its weapons. While of course it signed a memorandum with a Libyan government, which had no jurisdiction, for a “Turkish-Lybian EEZ” while the two countries do not border and a third party, Greece, intervenes.
Then: During Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is the only country that did not comply with the embargo declared by the West against Moscow, while it continued to do business with both sides with oil, grain and drones. During Hamas’s attack on Israel, it never condemned its criminal actions, calling it a “liberation army.” During Jolani’s rule in Syria, his army, equipped by Turkey and guided by the MIT, carried out executions, war crimes and ethnic cleansing of Alawites, Greek Orthodox and Druze, while where there was strong resistance, such as that of the Kurds, Jolani’s Islamists were assisted by Turkish drones and heavy artillery.
In the Aegean Sea now, against every rule of international law, Ankara is obstructing with warships the installation of a Greece-Cyprus-Israel electrical interconnection cable, which is a European-funded project with a clear economic and geopolitical footprint on Europe’s energy security. It also states that no project will be carried out in the entire Eastern Mediterranean without its approval.
In the US-Israeli war against Iran, it refused to take a position, while it was quick to condole the death of Khamenei. It refuses to take a position against its co-religionists even when three ballistic missiles have been launched against it. And while it borders Iran in its eastern regions, it sends six F-16s to the illegally occupied European territory of Cyprus where it maintains troops of 45,000 men, not to confront the threat of Iran (according to Erdogan’s statement), but against the Greeks. Whose Greeks, together with the Italians, Spaniards, British and French, created a joint force to protect the farthest edge of Europe… namely Cyprus. And it transfers the F-16s to the occupied territories, violating the law on the use of American military equipment. In a recent speech, Erdogan calls for unity and a united front of Muslims… against whom?
For all of the above reasons, George Horton, (1859 – 1942) an American diplomat and poet, in his 1926 book titled “The Blight of Asia”, called Turkey the Blight of Asia.
