Seems like Erdogan's mimicking us with dreams of Empire because his troops, ships and jets are all over the place. He's continuing to send arms and terrorists to Libya, and now he's invading or re-invading Syria as well. Idlib is where the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorists (Al Nusra) fled to when Syria was being liberated. A cease fire treaty was negotiated in January between Russia and Turkey, but the terrorists are continue to attack the army and civilians despite the truce and last week, at least 40 Syrian servicemen were killed and 80 injured. Because of that, the Syrian army restarted its offensive and has freed a large part of the area - so Erdogan true to his Ottoman delusions said they are invading 'his' territory. (He needs to look at the map, because it's not Turkey, it's Syria). "...A large number of vehicles belonging to the Turkish military entered Syria from the Kafrlosin border crossing, Al-Arabiya reported on Sunday. According to the broadcaster, the convoy is heading in the direction of Aleppo and Idlib. The news comes after earlier this week Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Damascus of violating a ceasefire in the region and warned that Ankara may launch a military offensive unless the operation there is "quickly halted". https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/...itary-vehicles-cross-syrian-border---reports/
Twofold standards. Russia isn't allowed to support Donbass,while Turkey may officially occupy large amounts of independent countries.
There is a difference. The Russians are supporting the Russian speaking people in the Donbas from the 'Galatian' Nazis who have openly said they want to kill them - and yet Russia doesn't want the Donbas back. Turkey though wants to grab lands from Syria and repopulate it with Turks. Erdogan doesn't look at populations or what they want, instead he's thinking in terms of the Ottoman Empire and the lands that were under it. To him the break up of the Ottoman Empire after WWI was a great injustice.
And guess what? Six Turkish soldiers in the convoy were killed and Erdogan is fuming and blaming Damascus. Russia said they weren't notified of the Turkish troop movements which Erdogan denies. He said they did notify Russia and that Turkish jets retaliated for the attack by bombing the Syrian forces. But Russia denies that and said they did not retaliate, so it was probably said for internal consumption.. Anyway, there is a great deal of resentment towards Russia in Turkey for hindering their Ottoman ambitions so let's see how long it will be before Turkey does something foolish and the whole area blows up.
If anyone thinks that this is not leading to a conflict between the US and Russia, then they are sadly mistaken. In a scenario reminiscent of Germany in WWII, Erdogan is lashing out at its own neighbors for survival. The difference though is us. Instead of stopping him like we did Germany, we're supporting him and Turkey to hurt Russia's competitive edge. According to a Syrian military source, the Syrian Army is continuing its military operation against the militants, (terrorists) who have been fighting civilians and using them as "shields" in Saraqib and Tell Touqan in Idlib. "...Our armed forces are trying to give the last chance to the militants and save the lives of the besieged civilians. The army units operating in the region have been ordered to allow those (militants) who decide not to rely on the support of the Turkish forces, to surrender their weapons..." And then there is Pompeo's response, who naturally supports Turkey's so called 'defensive' actions. I guess then Erdogan is right and the maps and UN are wrong, and that Idlib (including Aleppo) is now part of Turkey and not Syria. “We stand by our NATO Ally Turkey in the aftermath of the attack, which resulted in the death of multiple Turkish personnel serving at an observation post used for coordination and de-escalation, and fully support Turkey’s justified self-defence actions in response", Pompeo said. So a Turkish convoy sneaking into Idlib to support the terrorists, is now an observation outpost? Interesting!
As the rebels collapse, Turkey is getting more and more aggressive verbally to stop the rapid advance of the Syrian and Russian forces (5km from Idlib city). Turkish Government is threatening to personally fight in Idlib and East of the Euphrates in Kurdish territory if the Syrian Government does not retreat to where they were before the rebel front lines collapsed. Turkey also busy in Libya, where they are trying to stop the LNA from ending the war. Erdogan is helping prop up the losing side in both conflicts when these conflicts should be over. +President Erdogan is rather aggressive lately.
Erdogan told his people that they will act aggressively or they will cease to exist - and he's right. Other than the 20 million Kurds in Eastern Turkey and the constant warfare, they are also surrounded by Greek territorial waters. Erdogan is trying to solve the problem by bullying, and then rationalizes his actions in some way. This works well with the Turkish people who feel they've been unjustly treated with the break up of the Ottoman Empire. Right now Israel, Greece and Cyprus have made agreements regarding the seas and the mineral rights in the Eastern Mediterranean and they want to start exporting the gas to Europe. So what Erdogan decided is that only continental shelves have sea rights, but not islands. With this rationale, he completely ignores the island of Crete and Rhodes, and made a deal with the current Muslim Brotherhood president of Libya uniting Turkey's territorial waters to Libya's. This way they can lay claim to all the mineral rights between them. Other than infuriating Greece, it has panicked Pres. Sissi of Egypt, since he fears a Muslim Brotherhood Libya takeover. In addition to this, Turkey is searching for oil and gas in Cypriot waters, and will not recognize the rights the Cypriot government has given to other nations. The bullying worked with Italy a few years ago, so they turned back, but it's not working with France. Their battleship is now near Libya.
Erdogan is in a pickle. I think his presidency and life depends on the success of his endeavors - and yet he knows he can't fight Russia. From what I read, Russia hasn't pulled any of its punches. Quite a few Turkish soldiers and tanks have been bombed. Two years ago, Turkey was put in charge of the Idlib deconfliction zone. It was a terrorist stronghold since 2011 and Erdogan was to separate the 'moderates' from the terrorists. Turkey did not. Instead the terrorists were using Turkish missiles to attack civilian areas as well as the Russian air base. This is the same ruse Obama used in Syria in the past. By claiming that some of the terrorists were anti government moderates, Washington was not only able to arm them, but also to keep Russia from attacking them. Erdogan as an Ottoman, sees himself as the leader of Islam. He feels Syria has no sovereignty and was unjustly taken from them by the British at the end of WWI. To get part back, he became an instigator and player in the war. He wanted to help bring secular Syria back into the Islamic fundamentalist realm, but he was hindered by his problems with Israel and their support of the Kurds. Part of Syria was planned to go to Saudi Arabia. Turkey was to take Idlib and the industrial city of Aleppo. Towards this end, he invited the Syrian refugees into Turkey, but his quest for a no fly zone in Idlib to settle them didn't play. The allies could see through it. “We will not step back in Idlib. We are not the guests in this realm, we are the hosts,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting of his AK party on Wednesday. Vowing to bring “the regime’s attacks” to an end, Erdogan said Ankara is giving Damascus time to pull forces back from Turkish observation posts, but that time “is expiring at the end of the month.” Erdogan said he'd tried to secure Donald Trump's support before getting tough on Idlib, “but there is no support yet.” He said: “It seems that we will have another meeting this time.”
