Turkey Turns on America

by Uzay Bulut • December 24, 2018 at 5:00 am

How interesting that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Turkey and the U.S. "strategic partners," when he has repeatedly stated that Turkish campaigns in northern Syria are aimed at eliminating U.S.-backed Kurdish groups. Erdogan referred to these groups as "terrorists" whom Turkey is "burying in the wells that they have dug."
On December 20, Erdogan held a joint press conference with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in which Erdogan announced that Ankara is siding with Tehran against Washington.
President Trump said Turkey "should be able to easily take care of whatever remains" of ISIS in Syria. But Turkey did not bomb or invade Syrian or Iraqi territories when ISIS invaded and took over those lands. In fact, ISIS members and supporters have been operating in Turkey, and the Turkish government has at times treated those who expose ISIS activities more harshly than ISIS supporters themselves.
The U.S. withdrawal will end up costing Americans far more in blood and treasure down the line than the small but deterrent footprint there now. The damage a withdrawal will do at this time is inestimable -- and will go down in history as Trump's legacy, just as Neville Chamberlain's is the bogus deal Hitler dangled in front of him. It would have been so much less costly in blood and treasure to defeat Hitler before he crossed the Rhine. How ironic it would be if Trump were to go down in history as one of those "losers" he so detests.

When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government needs U.S. support or approval for actions outside of Turkey, it touts its "alliance" with America. When addressing its base in Turkey, however, it is openly hostile to the U.S. Pictured: Turkish soldiers drill at a military outpost on the Turkey/Syria border on March 2, 2017. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

On December 18, the day before U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a full withdrawal of American troops from Syria -- on the grounds that the U.S. "had defeated ISIS" -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey was mounting a new incursion into northern Syria.

The same day, December 18, Erdogan gave a speech in which he said:

"We officially announced last week that we would start a military operation on the east of Euphrates. And we did it... We discussed these things with Mr. Trump too. He gave us positive responses... Until the last terrorist in the region becomes ineffective, we will rake through the Syrian territories inch by inch... We will breathe down their necks.

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Turkey's Threats against Greece

by Debalina Ghoshal • December 24, 2018 at 4:30 am

The one issue on which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his opposition are in "complete agreement" is the "conviction that the Greek islands are occupied Turkish territory and must be reconquered."
"So strong is this determination that the leaders of both parties have openly threatened to invade the Aegean." – Uzay Bulut, Turkish journalist.
Ankara's ongoing challenges to Greek land and sea sovereignty are additional reasons to keep it from enjoying full acceptance in Europe and the rest of the West.

In April 2017, Turkish European Affairs Minister Omer Celik claimed in an interview that the Greek Aegean island of Agathonisi (pictured) was Turkish territory. (Image source: Hans-Heinrich Hoffmann/Wikimedia Commons)

Turkey's "persistent policy of violating international law and breaching international rules and regulations" was called out in a November 14 letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres by Polly Ioannou, the deputy permanent representative of Cyprus to the UN.

Reproving Ankara for its repeated violations of Cypriot airspace and territorial waters, Ioannou wrote of Turkey's policy:

"[it] is a constant threat to international peace and security, has a negative impact on regional stability, jeopardises the safety of international civil aviation, creates difficulties for air traffic over Cyprus and prevents the creation of an enabling environment in which to conduct the Cyprus peace process."

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Andrea Leadsom is Nearly Right on How to Save Brexit
And May has two powerful cards in her hand

by Malcolm Lowe • December 24, 2018 at 4:00 am

The whole kerfuffle over the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland – the so-called "backstop" – could be ended by making one simple addition to Article 20 of the Protocol.
The EU keeps insisting that, in order to protect Ireland, the "backstop" cannot be modified. But if that insistence leads to a no-deal Brexit, it will guarantee that Ireland suffers the very damage that the "backstop" was supposed to prevent!
Among the Conservative MPs opposed to May's deal, there is now an emerging consensus that if she can obtain convincing assurances over the "backstop" from the EU, accepting her deal may be the least bad option. This may be a turning of the tide.
If the EU refuses to give May legally binding assurances to ensure a brief application – if any – of the "backstop," it alone will be responsible and worthy of condemnation for every misery that ensues from a no-deal Brexit.

Andrea Leadsom, Leader of the British House of Commons, has proposed a solution to the problem of the Brexit "backstop". (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

Andrea Leadsom is the Leader of the House of Commons, that is, she is responsible for arranging government business. She has also proposed a solution to the problem of the "backstop" which is based on the same principle as our own earlier suggestion, namely, to limit the application of the "backstop" to one year renewable by mutual consent.

If there is anyone fresh to the Brexit drama, let us recall that the deal to leave the European Union negotiated by UK PM Theresa May consists of two documents, the Withdrawal Agreement (WA, 585 pages) and the Framework for the Future Relationship (FFR, 26 pages). The WA both winds up the current UK-EU relationship and defines the nature of the "transition period" from March 29 next, the day that the UK officially leaves the EU, to the end of 2020. During that transition period, the FFR is due to be turned into a full-fledged treaty defining the future trading and other relations of the two parties.

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