Istanbul should be center of UN: President Erdoğan
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“We believe that Istanbul, with its ancient history, cultural richness, strategic location and natural beauties, will provide critical contributions to the U.N.’s mission and goals as a center of the organization,” he said.
Repeating the phrase he often uses, Erdoğan said that “the world is bigger than five.”“In line with our call that `the world is bigger than five,’ which I often stress, we will continue, on every platform, our support for a comprehensive reform of the U.N. that will ensure a fairer representation as well as a more democratic, transparent, effective and accountable functioning of the U.N. Security Council.”
○ March 12, 1938: Hitler announces an Anschluss with Austria
As I had written some time ago …
○ Erdogan: A New Hitler Stands Up
○ Secr. Clinton’s Embrace of Erdogan, Muslim Brothers and Chaos
Erdogan proclaims Mosul and Aleppo belong to Turkey
ANKARA, TURKEY (1:20 P.M.) – Speaking during an opening ceremony for an educational institution in Bursa on Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared the way that Syrians and Iraqis have been driven away from homes because of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS; ISIS/ISIL), to how Turkish people were once forced out from the same cities.
Erdogan added that the cities of Mosul and Aleppo belong to the Turkish people.
Video footage of this speech was broadcasted by Ruptly on Sunday morning …
The United States and especially the Pentagon Ashton Carter, give more than moral support to the idea of enlarging Erdogan’s empire and using Turkey’s military might to “calm” tensions in the Kurdish regions. What a major bs of a chaotic foreign policy in the Near East under president Obama.
○ Russia will pay price for Syrian airstrikes, says US defence secretary
Turkey, Iraq reach agreement ‘in principle’ on Mosul, U.S. says
Turkey and Iraq have reached an agreement in principle that could eventually allow a Turkish role in the campaign to retake Mosul from Islamic State, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said after talks with President Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan has previously voiced frustration that NATO member Turkey has not been more involved in the U.S.-backed assault on the Iraqi city, once part of the Ottoman empire and still seen by Turkey as firmly within its sphere of influence.
Iraq, meanwhile, views Turkish military moves on its territory with apprehension, and any agreement on Mosul would defuse a major source of tension between the neighbors.
Carter made clear that details on Turkey’s potential role in the unfolding Mosul campaign still needed to be hammered out and a senior U.S. defense official noted non-military assistance was also a possibility.
“That will have to obviously be something that the Iraqi government will need to agree to and I think there’s agreement there in principle,” Carter told reporters traveling with him in Turkey, voicing his own conditional support for some type of Turkish role in Iraq.
“But now we’re down to the practicalities of that … and that’s what we’re working through.”
Turkey has been locked in a row with Iraq’s central government over the presence of Turkish troops at the Bashiqa camp near Mosul, where it has trained thousands of forces. Erdogan has warned of sectarian bloodshed if the Iraqi army relies on Shi’ite militia fighters to retake the largely Sunni city of Mosul.
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U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, accompanied by Turkey's Defense Minister Fikri Isik, talks to media as he visits Turkish Parliament in Ankara, October 21, 2016. (Reuters/Adem Altan)Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik, who met Carter, also said there was agreement in principle on Turkish involvement in “determining the future of Mosul” and that he had agreed with his U.S. counterpart on the need for the three countries to work together to reduce tensions between Ankara and Baghdad.
Iraqi official denies US claims on Iraq-Turkey military cooperation deal
So, when (allegedly) Turkey becomes involved in the battle against ISIS in a neighboring state, to you, it’s Anschluss, but when Russia parks an aircraft carrier off the Syrian coast and more airplanes on Syrian airfields and then sets out to obliterate Aleppo, to you, it’s just a friendly ally coming to the aid of the Syrian state against the American imperialists. Got it. Thanks for the explanation.
I think you’ve gone a bit too far down the rabbit hole labeled “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.
It turns out that human suffering is human suffering, regardless of the label on the munitions. Few of the people getting blown to bits are guerrillas, “terrorists”, jihadists, whatever you want to call them.
There are no good guys in the Aleppo mess, just people getting killed because they wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s questionable whether there are any good guys among the military forces around Mosul, either: some of the militia involved have nasty records of summary executions of people they suspect to be ISIS militants, for example.
I’ve covered the events of the Arab “Spring” quite closely for the last 5 years. I’ve analyzed the politics leading to the bloody sectarian/religious/civil war in Syria and written dozens and dozens of diaries. My interpretation has been nearly 100% correct. You clearly have no idea what the power play is in the Levant during the last two decades. It’s just a horrendous post you’ve put up, copy/paste of western imperial propaganda. What a bs!!
The stage of events from the Clinton presidency for the overhrow of Assad the Elder, though Bush and the Iraq invasion/occupation, creation of opposition from Sunni population (AQI), the regime change in Libya (thx to HRC) and in Syria contrary to the UN charter and International Law.
Even John Kerry just a fortnight ago stated it quite correctly: “The Russians were invited by the legitimate regime of Syria, the U.S. has no status by international law to carry out bombing raids.”
Russia and Putin intervened for their state interests, to keep the naval base in Tartus and keep Assad in power. Russia intervened AFTER 350,000 deaths were recorded! Read on, and enlighten yourself …
Russia and Iran are at least able to know what kind of government they could expect from Assad’s victory (e.g., the one with billions of dollars in arms supply and oil extraction contracts with Russia), and it is favorable to them. Most of the U.S.’s interventionists can’t begin to say where the power would actually lie if Assad were to die or flee Syria, but it would seem historically unlikely that power would accrue to someone gentler and more democratic than Assad.
Many just like seeing Hezbollah and al Qaida killing one another and could give a shit otherwise.
Curious, Oui, do you read War Nerd?
The sycophantic excuses offered by some on the left for Putin are bizarre in the extreme.
A bit off topic, but could Erdogan have staged the “coup” attempt in order to justify his subsequent purges in the military/government/education systems?
From my perspective everything seemed to line up much too easily for Erdogan, and he has now significantly consolidated his power while punishing anyone who was seen as remotely opposed to him.
>>could Erdogan have staged the “coup” attempt in order to justify his subsequent purges
totally. it could have been real, but when everything turned out just exactly perfect for the govt it’s hard not to suspect a setup.
While I agree with much of the diary, I don’t think that Erdogan’s criticism of the security council belongs here. Its a long standing criticism of almost every country that the security council is fundamentally unfair and undemocratic since it allows the big 5 to do whatever they want with their veto power while others have to be subject to their decisions (or become a really close friend of one of the big 5).
It may be a necessary evil since any UN actions might effectively be unenforcable without all of the big 5 behind them but its still unfair.
Big 5? The three occupyimg powers of West-Germany after WWII victory plus Soviet Union and Communist China. Hardly a decent representation of the global population. A representation of the earliest nuclear powers minus the latecomers Israel, India and Pakistan.
The UN not well equipped going forward, just look at the ICC erosion, not that the US would care …
○ Turkey Passes Legislation in Rape of Minors
h/t MoA – How White Helmets Videos Are Made
A second source – Syrian rebel media releases staged White Helmets rescue “mannequin challenge” video — then deletes it also archived original video and tweet.
The White Helmets’ public profile has been carefully cultivated by The Syria Campaign, an
advocacy group that lobbies for regime change on ostensible humanitarian grounds and that
was created by a Western PR firm, with the help of exiled Syrian-British billionaire Ayman Asfari.
○ Syria timeline
My earlier posts about the rebel forces’ “White Helmets”.
○ Americans Living In a Parallel Reality on Iraq and Syria
○ UK Commons Calling for WRexit In New Attack on Russia
○ Fake News Alert: CNN Finally Admits “White Helmets” Staged Fake Video by Tony Cartalucci