Probably all talk? Given that we have a President that doesn’t even know what NATO is and no State Dept, it’s entirely possible Turkey might not stay in I guess. Also… they’re not exactly the good guys anymore in any way, though that was always borderline anyway. Maybe they can hang out with Putin and kill some Armenians and Kurds.
Need to add an “s”, or they’re just decent.
Thank you, sir. I shouldn’t multitask.
Helloooo
The EU is deadly serious on Turkey. It can’t take any more crises, or existential threats to the core ethos of the European Union.
The rise of the far right and Brexit means that any Turkish threats re: migrants/refugees will have to be dealt with far more harshly than they would have been even 2 years ago.
Make no mistake, EU leaders are deeply worried about the threat to both them and the EU project by far right populists riding an anti-migrant and anti-terrorist wave. Turkey has no cards to play with browbeating Europe into accepting it’s descent into dictatorship.
When the economy in Turkey starts to tumble, we’ll see how long Erdogan’s rural support lasts.
Maybe Trump will call to congratulate him on this one too.
They’ve also had another 2 (or is it 3?) purges in the civil/public sector in the last week bringing the totals up to…
etc etc
I don’t think those numbers include tens of thousands suspended either.
Colin Kahl @ColinKahl tweetstorm:
As US-backed Kurdish forces move closer to ISIS’s capital Raqqa, Turkey & US are on a collision course.
Trump team likely thought Erdogan would be less touchy about US backing for the YPG/Kurds following the recent Turkish referendum…
…figuring Erdogan would no longer have to play the nationalist card (via anti-Kurd actions) to get votes to enhance executive power.
But Turkey has real national interests at stake & perceive US is backing independent Kurdish statelet aligned w/PKK insurgency in Turkey.
Trump’s congratulatory call to Erdogan following the referendum was clearly meant to make a bitter pill easier to swallow.
Trump’s call clearly didn’t work. Recent Turkish strikes on YPG/SDF & possible moves toward Tal Abyad by Turkish-backed opposition…
…serve as a reminder that Erdogan can play a spoiler role by hurting and diverting the YPG/SDF from Raqqa.
In the last admin, we would’ve sent a deputy-level civ-mil team to Ankara to sit for days to work through this. Trump has no such team.
It will take more than a presidential call to congratulate Erdogan on democratic backsliding to work this out.
It will take a full-court press to find ways to assure Turkey of limits on SDF/YPG expansion, conditions for US support and…
…compensatory steps to address Turkey’s legit security interests. Does Trump have a plan to do that before things go off the rails?
United States says, “Hold my beer.”
Oh, that’s good.
Don’t worry Trump will send him a message congratulating him on his new missiles soon.
Don’t forget even more arrests since I last posted in April!
15 indictments announced for these thugs
Two arrested, two at large, 11 “shrug”
I’m sure Erdogan will give many fucks.
Turkey + Russia + Nukular
“We hope to get a Turkish nuclear operating license at the beginning of next year and start with the first concrete by the end of Q1.”
https://www.turkishminute.com/2017/09/14/russias-rosatom-aims-to-start-building-turkish-nuclear-plant-by-end-of-march/