Salem Alketbi

Turkey looks to change the rules of the game

الثلاثاء - 08 سبتمبر 2020

Tue - 08 Sep 2020

Turkey and other international powers want to change the rules of the game vis-à-vis Europe, says Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. In an article published in the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, Borrell said some countries want to establish a new balance of power in the world.

Turkey, Borrell explained, is trying to show itself as a major player in the region. In the Eastern Mediterranean, Ankara is using a variety of methods, he continued.

This strategic diagnosis identifies the problem of the regime of Sultan Erdogan in its recent external actions. His goal is not just to change the rules of the game with respect to Europe. He also works to change the rules of the game in the Middle East.

The unprecedented disruption of the Arab regional system, the collapse of many of its key powers, and the focus of others on internal crises and circumstances are all to his advantage. There is every reason to believe that Erdogan’s regime is starting to display a measure of haughtiness towards others.

Ankara is ignoring the positions and interests of its neighbors. If it were not for the red lines established by the Egyptian leadership in the Libyan situation, it would have acted with much more impunity.

The EU, for its part, holds Erdogan responsible for the “bad situation” in the Eastern Mediterranean, with Brussels pointing the finger at him for continuing his escalation against calls for calm. The Europeans remain calm and patient in the face of the Turkish escalation and only threaten to “take severe measures.”

Meanwhile, the political discourse of the Turkish sultan and his clan is going wild and mobilizing. He is talking about “struggle” and “sacrifices. ” In a letter published on August 30, erdogan said that “no wonder those who are trying to exclude our country from the Eastern Mediterranean are the same ones who tried to take over its territory a century ago. ”The struggle for independence, led by founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 110, culminated in an inevitable and lasting victory through the battle of Dumlupinar on August 30, 1922,“he continued. Erdogan tied his project to his ambitions for the gas of the Eastern Mediterranean and the dignity and status of Turkey.

Some pro-Sultan Turkish opinion-makers now speak of making Turkey greater. Metin Kulunk, a member of parliament from the ruling Justice and Development Party, from the same province where Erdogan’s parents live, tweeted a call for a”Greater Turkey.“It would include large areas of northern Greece and the eastern islands of the Aegean Sea, half of Bulgaria, Cyprus and Armenia as a whole, as well as large areas of Georgia, Iraq and Syria. He clearly suggests that Turkey intends to conquer and militarily control territories in Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa.

Given Erdogan’s recent warnings to the French and Greek people and his threat to make them pay a heavy price for their”incompetent leadership,“the world is faced with a new adventurer of the kind that has historically fomented major wars.

The man talks about the history of his country without having a whiff of self-awareness.”Turkey is one of the few countries that has never been an aggressor and colonialist country in its history,“he says, although history is full of aggression, grievances and colonization of many countries.

He has no concern for global security and stability. He is pushed by some leaders in the hope that his adventures will bring him political death.

However, the world and the region risk losing out on these adventures, which could open the door to unbearable destruction not only for the countries of the region, but also for Turkey itself.

Its economy is paying the price for the adventures of people in power, their impulsive foreign interventions without a mandate and clash with neighbors over energy resources. Some Turkish experts warn against the collapse of the national currency under the spectre of war with Greece. Others have warned of the danger of an inevitable”crises cycle“. The Turkish economy contracted in the second quarter of 2020, by 10% year-on-year, as a result of the lira’s fall against the dollar and the widening budget deficit.

Erdogan obviously does not feel bothered by these indicators and bets on expansionist nationalist illusions that tickle the ears of his Turkish devotees. The silence of the international powers on Erdogan’s interventions in Libya and Syria has been a catalyst for his ambitions for the gas of the Eastern Mediterranean to take on Greece and France, his NATO partners.

The issue went beyond the energy conflict to become a symptom of the organization’s decline. Its members seem to be on the verge of a military confrontation.

The way out of all these problems begins with a firm message from the Europeans and a strong common position vis-à-vis the Turkish sultan’s project. Turkish aggression, riding on the chaos that currently reigns in international relations, has to be checked.