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Center for Research on Globalization, Canada
March 30 2014
Suleiman Shah and Turkey's Election Invasion of Syria: Wag the Dog
Turkish-Style or Something More?
By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
The Turkish opponents of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his
beleaguered government have claimed that a distressed Erdogan may try
to start a conflict with Syria and even invade Syrian territory. The
Republic People's Party (CHP) and Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of
the CHP, have even warned the Turkish military not to attack Syria.
According to the CHP and Erdogan's other opponents, the aim of a
Turkish invasion of Syria by Erdogan is to invoke patriotic sentiments
domestically. The aim of a conflict with Syria is to manipulate the
Turkish population for electoral reasons, they have warned...
Turkey is slated to hold municipal elections on March 30, 2014. Prime
Minister Erdogan's declining Justice and Development Party (AKP) is
nervous about the Turkish municipal elections. The AK Party is afraid
that it will perform badly.
A series of events have taken place which have given credence to the
arguments and accusations against the AKP leadership. The first starts
with Ankara's claims that it was concerned about a historic relic
inside Syrian territory known as the Tomb of Suleiman Shah. As a
result of the purported and questionable threats by the Syrian
anti-government forces against the Tomb of Suleiman Shah, Turkey
authorized its troops on March 16, 2014 to enter Syrian territory to
protect the historic site.
The historic figure's crypt is located inside Syrian territory. On the
basis of an agreement signed by France and the Grand National Assembly
of Turkey in 1921, before Syria became an independent republic (and
the Ottoman Empire was officially dissolved), Suleiman Shah's grave is
considered Turkish territory. Turkish troops have been stationed there
as guards since that time to protect the historic site.
Following Ankara's proclamation that it would defend the Tomb of
Suleiman Shah, Turkey downed a Syrian military jet on March 23, 2014.
The downing of the Syrian jet signaled the escalation of tension
between the AKP government and the Syrian government. That, however,
was interrupted by a shattering political scandal tied to YouTube.
The conversations of Turkish officials discussing how to manufacture a
pretext to invade Syria were leaked through YouTube on March 27, 2014.
The YouTube videos are analogous to the Ukraine regime change leak of
the US State Department's Assistant-Secretary Victoria Nuland. The
Turkish leaked conversations also fit into the patterns of an internal
struggle inside Turkey under which the conversations of Erdogan and
Turkish officials had been leaked earlier.
The Downing of a Syrian Aircraft by Turkey
If the claims of Erdogan's Turkish opponents are factual, what do they
disclose about the shooting of a Syrian military jet by the Turkish
military in late-March 2014? Ankara originally claimed that the Syrian
aircraft had violated its airspace alongside another Syrian warplane
that reversed course after Turkish jets were scrambled. The Turkish
government also alleged that it gave four warnings to the Syrian
military jet before shooting it down, but the Syrian government
responded by saying that Ankara was categorically lying and that the
Syrian jet was on a combat mission inside Syrian airspace over the
Latakia District.
The General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces released a statement
about the incident near the Syrian-Turkish border. The Turkish
military statement is an omission of guilt that supports what the
Syrians have said. Putting a shadow of doubt on Ankara's claims that
its airspace was violated, the Turkish military affirmed that the
Syrian warplane crashed 1.2 kilometres inside Syrian territory. The
statement of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces says that
the Syrian aircraft went down at
The geography of Kasab is important. It is a predominately-Armenian
northern town near the Turkish border that is situated in the
Governate of Latakia and its constituent Latakia District. Although
Latakia Governate is mostly known for being the Syrian province with a
high concentration of Alawites, it has a diverse population and its
northern part is inhabited by many Christian Armenians. Towns like
Esguran and Karadash are populated by ethnic Armenian. Kasab is also a
name to remember; it will be mentioned again by other sources. The
reports around the Syrian town paint the picture of some type of
Turkish operation in the area and new push to open a new front in
Syria or to reinforce the northern front.
It is also worth noting what the British-based Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights has said about the downing of the Syrian jet by Turkey.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is no friend of the Syrian
government. It has supported regime change in Syria and has been
caught fabricating vast amounts of information about the Syrian
conflict just to promote the anti-government militias and ideas
promoting regime change in Damascus. Despite its anti-government
position, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also contradicts the
AKP government's claims about downing the Syrian jet for violating
Turkish airspace. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights has stated that the Turkish military while
the Syrian military plane was engaged in an attack on the
anti-government insurgents.
Regardless of the facts, Prime Minister Erdogan and his government
have gone out of their way, in their characteristic wind-baggery, to
threaten a against the Syrians. Days after the Syrian
aircraft was shot down by the Turkish military, Ankara also started a
rhetorical campaign to portray a picture of itself as a victim that
was only reacting to provocation. The AKP government claimed that (1)
Turkish warplanes were scrambled previously to prevent a Syrian
aircraft from violating Turkish airspace and (2) that the Syrian
military had been continuously harassing Turkish military jets
patrolling their own Turkish airspace by intimidation through putting
a radar lock on the Turks for targeting or firing purposes. Two points
should be clarified about the latter Turkish grievance about the radar
lock: it has no legal bearing nor does it signal any aggression
against Turkey by the Syrians. Unlike frequency jamming, locking onto
a target with a radar tracking system is not an act of aggression or a
violation of sovereignty.
Ankara's grievance was purely rhetorical and contrary to the facts
about defensive military procedures. The units that are the target of
any radar lock may become aware they are being monitored by a
defensive tracking system that could fire on it, but this is not an
offensive move. The radar locking is a clearly a defensive stance on
the part of Damascus which the Syrians and any other country have the
right to do.
What Syrian units were doing with the Turkish jets is a clear
indicator that Syria does not trust the Turkish government whatsoever.
The Syrian military monitors Turkish warplanes inside Turkish airspace
as a security precaution. The reasons for this are that the Syrians
believe that Turkish warplanes could violate Syrian airspace or
conduct some type of mission against Syria at any given moment.
A Turkish Offensive in the Governate of Latakia?
Focus must turn to the Tomb of Suleiman Shah now. Away from Latakia
Governate and the Mediterranean coast, this mausoleum is located in
the northern part of the Aleppo Governate of Syria. Before the downing
of the Syrian military jet, Prime Minister' Erdogan's AKP government
had repeatedly said that it was worried about the safety of the
historic crypt.
Suleiman Shah was a Central Asian tribal chieftain from Merv, which is
located in modern-day Turkmenistan. What makes him significant is that
he was the grandfather of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire.
This is why Suleiman's tomb has historical importance to Turkish
history and to Turks.
Despite the three years of fighting, the Turkish-guarded historic site
was never threatened by either the government or insurgent camps
inside Syria. Ankara, however, begun claimed that it was afraid that
its own insurgent allies in Syria would attack the historic site. Thus
an alarm was sounded by the AKP about the safety of the mausoleum.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu even held a conference from
Van to address his government's concerns about the relic's safety.
Foreign Minister Davutoglu, however, went beyond the airing of
concerns from Turkish authorities. Davutoglu vowed that Turkey would
retaliate without the slightest hesitation to any attack on the Tomb
of Suleiman Shah. He also clarified that Turkey had made preparations
to intervene if the site or the Turkish guard unit stationed there
should come under any form of attack. Vatan, a Turkish newspaper,
quickly outlined that what Davutoglu meant was that Turkey was
preparing to send troops across the Syrian border into Aleppo.
Threats in the form of a video against the historic site in Aleppo
Governate were uploaded on YouTube days later. In the uploaded video
the anti-government insurgents fighting in Syria warned the Turkish
government that Ankara had a few days to surrender the historic site
or that they would alternatively destroy it. The AKP used this to
support its newest pretext for intervention into Syria. The video was
uploaded on March 21, 2014.
In the same timeframe as the downing of the Syrian military jet, it
was also reported by Turkish sources with varying degrees of emphasis
that the Turkish Armed Forces had sent military ground units into the
Syrian town of Kasab and its environs. Some sources said that the
Turkish units were illegally escorting anti-government insurgents into
Syrian territory, that wounded insurgents were also being taken back
to Turkish military field hospitals (similar to the ones that Tel Aviv
has setup in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for the insurgents),
and that the Turkish military was getting involved in expanding the
combat zone in Syria.
Erdogan and the Turkish government were clearly planning something
alongside the entire Syrian-Turkish border. Turkey has militarily
helped the insurgents in their armed offensive on Kasab and Latakia
District against the Syrian military. The downing of the Syrian
aircraft was part of the Turkish support for this operation against
Syria. The anti-government forces inside Syria would claim that they
captured and secured government-controlled town of Kasab during this
time period too.
In the United States, the Armenian Bar Association would send a letter
of distress to the US government on March 25, 2014. The group would
demand that the Obama Administration condemn the Turkish military
incursion into Kasab. Members of the Armenian community would blast
Turkey as being legally responsible for the violence in Syria and for
the hardships and deaths of ethnic Armenians in Kasab and the
Governate of Latakia.
Leak Wars: Erdogan, Davutoglu Caught Red Handed like Nuland, Catherine Ashton?
Bombshell revelations were made shortly after. Leaked conversations
between Turkish officials about their plans in Syria were released.
The leaks were made through two YouTube videos that were uploaded on
March 27, 2014. One video was a little over seven minutes long, while
the other was about nine minutes long.
Before this, Prime Minister Erdogan had been facing a steady stream of
leaks exposing his government's backdoor dealings and activities.
Erdogan and AKP officials have blamed the Gulenists, an influential
international movement run by a US-based Turkish preacher, for the
previous leaks. Although the latest leaks could possibly be part of
the internal conflict between Erdogan and the Gulenists inside Turkey,
they could also be the work of a foreign intelligence agency.
Leaks of US and European Union officials have proven the increasing
efficiency that divulging the secret conversations of governments has
on exposing the underlying agendas of Washington and its cohorts. The
leak of US Assistant-Secretary Victoria Nuland and US diplomat
Geoffrey Pyatt illustrated how the goal of Washington in Ukraine had
been regime change in Kiev and installing Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the
prime minister of Ukraine. A later leak involving Catherine Ashton
being told by Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet that the head
doctor for the Euromaidan protesters expressed views that Yatsenyuk
and lead opposition politicians could have been involved with the
killing of civilians also put into serious question the narrative
being peddled by the US, Canada, and the European Union about the
protests in Kiev.
The Turkish leaks illustrate that Turkish authorities have been
planning on manufacturing an incident with Syria. The basis for this
could have and could be political motivations aimed at securing an AKP
victory in the Turkish municipal elections being held at the end of
March. The leaks revealed that, during a conversation, Foreign
Minister Davutoglu tells Hakan Fidan, the chief of the Turkish
National Intelligence Organization (MIT), that an attack could help
them.
Ahmet Davutoglu says, the Davutoglu is positing the use of an
incident at the historical mausoleum as a pretext for a Turkish
incursion into Syria. It remains to be seen if he was talking about
the upcoming municipal elections strictly or if he could have been
talking about the insurgent's military offensive in northern Syria or
even something else.
Hakan Fidan's response, however, goes further. The MIT boss responds
to Davutoglu with the following proposal:
Suleiman Shah's Tomb: Where Ottoman History's Start is Where Neo-Ottomanism Ends
The reaction of the Turkish government to the leaks was quick. AKP
authorities have said that the leaks are manipulated to paint the
dialogue in a malicious way to undermine their government and Turkey.
The AKP has called the leaks a serious threat to Turkish national
security. As a result the Turkish government quickly blocked all
YouTube use and access inside Turkey. This was done so that the
Turkish population could not get access to the leaked conversations.
Several things needed to be analyzed and reflected on. The timing of
the leaks, released only days before the March municipal elections in
Turkey, is worth reflecting on. So are the assertions by the AKP that
there is a conspiracy to topple the Turkish government.
Regardless, the unraveling events bring new life to the
failures of Prime Minister Erdogan and Foreign Minister Davutoglu.
Their visions of Turkey as an imperialist power have crumbled and the
final nails are being hammered into its coffin. Some would argue that
their neo-Ottomanism was really the whole time.
The two and the AKP have been slowly digging their own political
graves through their Syria policy.
In a case of historical irony, Turkish history may in conceptual terms
start at the Tomb of Suleiman Shah whereas Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
seems like it may start its ending there. There is a lot of grumbling
in the lower ranks of the AKP about Erdogan. He has lost a lot of
popularity, even among AKP loyalists. The municipal elections are a
litmus test for Prime Minister Erdogan and his AK Party. If the AKP
does badly, Erdogan and his close associates will face an internal
revolt in the AKP. This is why the municipal elections are so
important for them and why it is unfathomable that they would create a
new crisis with Syria for the sake of protecting their political
careers.
A Response to the Events in Ukraine?
This entire scandal is more than a Turkish-style case of The consequences are unpredictable and could lead to escalation.
They also come at a time where there is a US and NATO buildup on the
western borders of Russia and Belarus in Eastern Europe and the Black
Sea.
The Eurasian chessboard is in motion. The events in Syria and Turkey
should not be viewed in a vacuum from other events in the broader
world as if they are unrelated to one another. The pieces are moving
on the geopolitical chessboard. Some type of confrontation between
Turkey and Syria could very well be an answer to the events in Ukraine
and Crimean reunification with Russia. In other words, a Turkish
conflict with Syria may not merely be a ploy to help the AK Party
during the March 2014 elections alone.
Additionally, the leaks further expose the involvement of the Turkish
government in supporting the insurgency in Syria. Whatever remaining
doubts that members of the AKP grassroots had that the AKP leadership
is not corrupt, should go flying out the door. AKP leaders are not the
pious Muslims they portray themselves as, they are conniving
businessmen and liars that hide behind faith.
Deputy Chief of Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces Lieutenant-General
Yasar Guler is also part of the leaked conversation between Davutoglu
and Hakan Fidan. Lieutenant-General Guler describes that what was
being discussed between the Turkish officials was the ignition of a
war between Turkey and Syria. In context of what was being discussed,
he recommends during the conversation that Turkey increase its combat
support for the insurgents inside Syria by making additional
deliveries of weapons and ammunition to their fighters.
Before these leaks, in January 2014, a scandal was caused when Turkish
law enforcement personnel stopped an undercover MIT truck heading to
Syria secretly. The MIT truck was filled with weapons for the
insurgent fighters killing civilians and trying to topple the Syrian
government. An embarrassed AKP claimed that "supplies" were merely
being delivered to Syrian Turkmen and then refused to say anything
more citing national security for the secrecy.
As a result of the increasing global public cognizance about the
nefarious role of the Turkish government in destabilizing Syria,
Turkey's own collaborators and allies have been publicly distancing
themselves from Prime Minister Erdogan and the AKP slowly -- at least
in part. Ankara should take note: there are now reports with unnamed
officials from places allied to Turkey that are washing their hands
clean of the actions of Turkey -- making it sound like Turkey has been
a maverick supporting Al-Qaeda with no US or NATO involvement. These
same people will not hesitate to abandon Turkey after it does their
dirty work in the Black Sea or Middle East for them.
The original article was published by the Moscow-based Strategic
Culture Foundation (SCF).
http://www.globalresearch.ca/suleiman-shah-and-turkeys-election-invasion-of-syria-wag-the-dog-turkish-style-or-something-more/5375855
March 30 2014
Suleiman Shah and Turkey's Election Invasion of Syria: Wag the Dog
Turkish-Style or Something More?
By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
The Turkish opponents of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his
beleaguered government have claimed that a distressed Erdogan may try
to start a conflict with Syria and even invade Syrian territory. The
Republic People's Party (CHP) and Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of
the CHP, have even warned the Turkish military not to attack Syria.
According to the CHP and Erdogan's other opponents, the aim of a
Turkish invasion of Syria by Erdogan is to invoke patriotic sentiments
domestically. The aim of a conflict with Syria is to manipulate the
Turkish population for electoral reasons, they have warned...
Turkey is slated to hold municipal elections on March 30, 2014. Prime
Minister Erdogan's declining Justice and Development Party (AKP) is
nervous about the Turkish municipal elections. The AK Party is afraid
that it will perform badly.
A series of events have taken place which have given credence to the
arguments and accusations against the AKP leadership. The first starts
with Ankara's claims that it was concerned about a historic relic
inside Syrian territory known as the Tomb of Suleiman Shah. As a
result of the purported and questionable threats by the Syrian
anti-government forces against the Tomb of Suleiman Shah, Turkey
authorized its troops on March 16, 2014 to enter Syrian territory to
protect the historic site.
The historic figure's crypt is located inside Syrian territory. On the
basis of an agreement signed by France and the Grand National Assembly
of Turkey in 1921, before Syria became an independent republic (and
the Ottoman Empire was officially dissolved), Suleiman Shah's grave is
considered Turkish territory. Turkish troops have been stationed there
as guards since that time to protect the historic site.
Following Ankara's proclamation that it would defend the Tomb of
Suleiman Shah, Turkey downed a Syrian military jet on March 23, 2014.
The downing of the Syrian jet signaled the escalation of tension
between the AKP government and the Syrian government. That, however,
was interrupted by a shattering political scandal tied to YouTube.
The conversations of Turkish officials discussing how to manufacture a
pretext to invade Syria were leaked through YouTube on March 27, 2014.
The YouTube videos are analogous to the Ukraine regime change leak of
the US State Department's Assistant-Secretary Victoria Nuland. The
Turkish leaked conversations also fit into the patterns of an internal
struggle inside Turkey under which the conversations of Erdogan and
Turkish officials had been leaked earlier.
The Downing of a Syrian Aircraft by Turkey
If the claims of Erdogan's Turkish opponents are factual, what do they
disclose about the shooting of a Syrian military jet by the Turkish
military in late-March 2014? Ankara originally claimed that the Syrian
aircraft had violated its airspace alongside another Syrian warplane
that reversed course after Turkish jets were scrambled. The Turkish
government also alleged that it gave four warnings to the Syrian
military jet before shooting it down, but the Syrian government
responded by saying that Ankara was categorically lying and that the
Syrian jet was on a combat mission inside Syrian airspace over the
Latakia District.
The General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces released a statement
about the incident near the Syrian-Turkish border. The Turkish
military statement is an omission of guilt that supports what the
Syrians have said. Putting a shadow of doubt on Ankara's claims that
its airspace was violated, the Turkish military affirmed that the
Syrian warplane crashed 1.2 kilometres inside Syrian territory. The
statement of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces says that
the Syrian aircraft went down at
The geography of Kasab is important. It is a predominately-Armenian
northern town near the Turkish border that is situated in the
Governate of Latakia and its constituent Latakia District. Although
Latakia Governate is mostly known for being the Syrian province with a
high concentration of Alawites, it has a diverse population and its
northern part is inhabited by many Christian Armenians. Towns like
Esguran and Karadash are populated by ethnic Armenian. Kasab is also a
name to remember; it will be mentioned again by other sources. The
reports around the Syrian town paint the picture of some type of
Turkish operation in the area and new push to open a new front in
Syria or to reinforce the northern front.
It is also worth noting what the British-based Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights has said about the downing of the Syrian jet by Turkey.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is no friend of the Syrian
government. It has supported regime change in Syria and has been
caught fabricating vast amounts of information about the Syrian
conflict just to promote the anti-government militias and ideas
promoting regime change in Damascus. Despite its anti-government
position, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also contradicts the
AKP government's claims about downing the Syrian jet for violating
Turkish airspace. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights has stated that the Turkish military while
the Syrian military plane was engaged in an attack on the
anti-government insurgents.
Regardless of the facts, Prime Minister Erdogan and his government
have gone out of their way, in their characteristic wind-baggery, to
threaten a against the Syrians. Days after the Syrian
aircraft was shot down by the Turkish military, Ankara also started a
rhetorical campaign to portray a picture of itself as a victim that
was only reacting to provocation. The AKP government claimed that (1)
Turkish warplanes were scrambled previously to prevent a Syrian
aircraft from violating Turkish airspace and (2) that the Syrian
military had been continuously harassing Turkish military jets
patrolling their own Turkish airspace by intimidation through putting
a radar lock on the Turks for targeting or firing purposes. Two points
should be clarified about the latter Turkish grievance about the radar
lock: it has no legal bearing nor does it signal any aggression
against Turkey by the Syrians. Unlike frequency jamming, locking onto
a target with a radar tracking system is not an act of aggression or a
violation of sovereignty.
Ankara's grievance was purely rhetorical and contrary to the facts
about defensive military procedures. The units that are the target of
any radar lock may become aware they are being monitored by a
defensive tracking system that could fire on it, but this is not an
offensive move. The radar locking is a clearly a defensive stance on
the part of Damascus which the Syrians and any other country have the
right to do.
What Syrian units were doing with the Turkish jets is a clear
indicator that Syria does not trust the Turkish government whatsoever.
The Syrian military monitors Turkish warplanes inside Turkish airspace
as a security precaution. The reasons for this are that the Syrians
believe that Turkish warplanes could violate Syrian airspace or
conduct some type of mission against Syria at any given moment.
A Turkish Offensive in the Governate of Latakia?
Focus must turn to the Tomb of Suleiman Shah now. Away from Latakia
Governate and the Mediterranean coast, this mausoleum is located in
the northern part of the Aleppo Governate of Syria. Before the downing
of the Syrian military jet, Prime Minister' Erdogan's AKP government
had repeatedly said that it was worried about the safety of the
historic crypt.
Suleiman Shah was a Central Asian tribal chieftain from Merv, which is
located in modern-day Turkmenistan. What makes him significant is that
he was the grandfather of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire.
This is why Suleiman's tomb has historical importance to Turkish
history and to Turks.
Despite the three years of fighting, the Turkish-guarded historic site
was never threatened by either the government or insurgent camps
inside Syria. Ankara, however, begun claimed that it was afraid that
its own insurgent allies in Syria would attack the historic site. Thus
an alarm was sounded by the AKP about the safety of the mausoleum.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu even held a conference from
Van to address his government's concerns about the relic's safety.
Foreign Minister Davutoglu, however, went beyond the airing of
concerns from Turkish authorities. Davutoglu vowed that Turkey would
retaliate without the slightest hesitation to any attack on the Tomb
of Suleiman Shah. He also clarified that Turkey had made preparations
to intervene if the site or the Turkish guard unit stationed there
should come under any form of attack. Vatan, a Turkish newspaper,
quickly outlined that what Davutoglu meant was that Turkey was
preparing to send troops across the Syrian border into Aleppo.
Threats in the form of a video against the historic site in Aleppo
Governate were uploaded on YouTube days later. In the uploaded video
the anti-government insurgents fighting in Syria warned the Turkish
government that Ankara had a few days to surrender the historic site
or that they would alternatively destroy it. The AKP used this to
support its newest pretext for intervention into Syria. The video was
uploaded on March 21, 2014.
In the same timeframe as the downing of the Syrian military jet, it
was also reported by Turkish sources with varying degrees of emphasis
that the Turkish Armed Forces had sent military ground units into the
Syrian town of Kasab and its environs. Some sources said that the
Turkish units were illegally escorting anti-government insurgents into
Syrian territory, that wounded insurgents were also being taken back
to Turkish military field hospitals (similar to the ones that Tel Aviv
has setup in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for the insurgents),
and that the Turkish military was getting involved in expanding the
combat zone in Syria.
Erdogan and the Turkish government were clearly planning something
alongside the entire Syrian-Turkish border. Turkey has militarily
helped the insurgents in their armed offensive on Kasab and Latakia
District against the Syrian military. The downing of the Syrian
aircraft was part of the Turkish support for this operation against
Syria. The anti-government forces inside Syria would claim that they
captured and secured government-controlled town of Kasab during this
time period too.
In the United States, the Armenian Bar Association would send a letter
of distress to the US government on March 25, 2014. The group would
demand that the Obama Administration condemn the Turkish military
incursion into Kasab. Members of the Armenian community would blast
Turkey as being legally responsible for the violence in Syria and for
the hardships and deaths of ethnic Armenians in Kasab and the
Governate of Latakia.
Leak Wars: Erdogan, Davutoglu Caught Red Handed like Nuland, Catherine Ashton?
Bombshell revelations were made shortly after. Leaked conversations
between Turkish officials about their plans in Syria were released.
The leaks were made through two YouTube videos that were uploaded on
March 27, 2014. One video was a little over seven minutes long, while
the other was about nine minutes long.
Before this, Prime Minister Erdogan had been facing a steady stream of
leaks exposing his government's backdoor dealings and activities.
Erdogan and AKP officials have blamed the Gulenists, an influential
international movement run by a US-based Turkish preacher, for the
previous leaks. Although the latest leaks could possibly be part of
the internal conflict between Erdogan and the Gulenists inside Turkey,
they could also be the work of a foreign intelligence agency.
Leaks of US and European Union officials have proven the increasing
efficiency that divulging the secret conversations of governments has
on exposing the underlying agendas of Washington and its cohorts. The
leak of US Assistant-Secretary Victoria Nuland and US diplomat
Geoffrey Pyatt illustrated how the goal of Washington in Ukraine had
been regime change in Kiev and installing Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the
prime minister of Ukraine. A later leak involving Catherine Ashton
being told by Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet that the head
doctor for the Euromaidan protesters expressed views that Yatsenyuk
and lead opposition politicians could have been involved with the
killing of civilians also put into serious question the narrative
being peddled by the US, Canada, and the European Union about the
protests in Kiev.
The Turkish leaks illustrate that Turkish authorities have been
planning on manufacturing an incident with Syria. The basis for this
could have and could be political motivations aimed at securing an AKP
victory in the Turkish municipal elections being held at the end of
March. The leaks revealed that, during a conversation, Foreign
Minister Davutoglu tells Hakan Fidan, the chief of the Turkish
National Intelligence Organization (MIT), that an attack could help
them.
Ahmet Davutoglu says, the Davutoglu is positing the use of an
incident at the historical mausoleum as a pretext for a Turkish
incursion into Syria. It remains to be seen if he was talking about
the upcoming municipal elections strictly or if he could have been
talking about the insurgent's military offensive in northern Syria or
even something else.
Hakan Fidan's response, however, goes further. The MIT boss responds
to Davutoglu with the following proposal:
Suleiman Shah's Tomb: Where Ottoman History's Start is Where Neo-Ottomanism Ends
The reaction of the Turkish government to the leaks was quick. AKP
authorities have said that the leaks are manipulated to paint the
dialogue in a malicious way to undermine their government and Turkey.
The AKP has called the leaks a serious threat to Turkish national
security. As a result the Turkish government quickly blocked all
YouTube use and access inside Turkey. This was done so that the
Turkish population could not get access to the leaked conversations.
Several things needed to be analyzed and reflected on. The timing of
the leaks, released only days before the March municipal elections in
Turkey, is worth reflecting on. So are the assertions by the AKP that
there is a conspiracy to topple the Turkish government.
Regardless, the unraveling events bring new life to the
failures of Prime Minister Erdogan and Foreign Minister Davutoglu.
Their visions of Turkey as an imperialist power have crumbled and the
final nails are being hammered into its coffin. Some would argue that
their neo-Ottomanism was really the whole time.
The two and the AKP have been slowly digging their own political
graves through their Syria policy.
In a case of historical irony, Turkish history may in conceptual terms
start at the Tomb of Suleiman Shah whereas Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
seems like it may start its ending there. There is a lot of grumbling
in the lower ranks of the AKP about Erdogan. He has lost a lot of
popularity, even among AKP loyalists. The municipal elections are a
litmus test for Prime Minister Erdogan and his AK Party. If the AKP
does badly, Erdogan and his close associates will face an internal
revolt in the AKP. This is why the municipal elections are so
important for them and why it is unfathomable that they would create a
new crisis with Syria for the sake of protecting their political
careers.
A Response to the Events in Ukraine?
This entire scandal is more than a Turkish-style case of The consequences are unpredictable and could lead to escalation.
They also come at a time where there is a US and NATO buildup on the
western borders of Russia and Belarus in Eastern Europe and the Black
Sea.
The Eurasian chessboard is in motion. The events in Syria and Turkey
should not be viewed in a vacuum from other events in the broader
world as if they are unrelated to one another. The pieces are moving
on the geopolitical chessboard. Some type of confrontation between
Turkey and Syria could very well be an answer to the events in Ukraine
and Crimean reunification with Russia. In other words, a Turkish
conflict with Syria may not merely be a ploy to help the AK Party
during the March 2014 elections alone.
Additionally, the leaks further expose the involvement of the Turkish
government in supporting the insurgency in Syria. Whatever remaining
doubts that members of the AKP grassroots had that the AKP leadership
is not corrupt, should go flying out the door. AKP leaders are not the
pious Muslims they portray themselves as, they are conniving
businessmen and liars that hide behind faith.
Deputy Chief of Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces Lieutenant-General
Yasar Guler is also part of the leaked conversation between Davutoglu
and Hakan Fidan. Lieutenant-General Guler describes that what was
being discussed between the Turkish officials was the ignition of a
war between Turkey and Syria. In context of what was being discussed,
he recommends during the conversation that Turkey increase its combat
support for the insurgents inside Syria by making additional
deliveries of weapons and ammunition to their fighters.
Before these leaks, in January 2014, a scandal was caused when Turkish
law enforcement personnel stopped an undercover MIT truck heading to
Syria secretly. The MIT truck was filled with weapons for the
insurgent fighters killing civilians and trying to topple the Syrian
government. An embarrassed AKP claimed that "supplies" were merely
being delivered to Syrian Turkmen and then refused to say anything
more citing national security for the secrecy.
As a result of the increasing global public cognizance about the
nefarious role of the Turkish government in destabilizing Syria,
Turkey's own collaborators and allies have been publicly distancing
themselves from Prime Minister Erdogan and the AKP slowly -- at least
in part. Ankara should take note: there are now reports with unnamed
officials from places allied to Turkey that are washing their hands
clean of the actions of Turkey -- making it sound like Turkey has been
a maverick supporting Al-Qaeda with no US or NATO involvement. These
same people will not hesitate to abandon Turkey after it does their
dirty work in the Black Sea or Middle East for them.
The original article was published by the Moscow-based Strategic
Culture Foundation (SCF).
http://www.globalresearch.ca/suleiman-shah-and-turkeys-election-invasion-of-syria-wag-the-dog-turkish-style-or-something-more/5375855