Whenever one doesn’t respect the right of sovereign states to exist, it does more than violate the letter and principles of international law. It opens up the floodgates to further crises. These crises often come back to bite the very countries who initially engaged in illegal interventions into sovereign states.
An offensive launched two weeks ago by Al-Qaeda in the northern areas of Syria’s Hama province appears to be unravelling, with Jihadi forces in the area coming under heavy bombing by the Russian air force and forced onto the retreat by a counter-attack launched by the Syrian army.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan frequently threatens to ‘unleash’ waves of migrants onto Europe. The latest threat came as Turkish representatives said to European leaders, that ‘we will blow your mind’, in respect of the vast quantities of migrants. In spite of the odd nature of Erdogan’s ministers using the slogans of the psychedelic rock era, the threat has worried many in Europe.
Turkey’s illegal invasion and occupation of Syria is known by Ankara as Operation Euphrates Shield. It formally commenced on the 24th of August, 2016. According to Turkey, Euphrates Shield was aimed at fighting ISIS as well as Kurdish YPG forces near the Turkish border.
In reality, Turkey has trained, armed and funded members of the jihadist Free Syrian Army in what Syria classifies as a war of aggression. In recent months, the operation became far more about fighting Kurdish forces in Syria than about any of Turkey’s other wider goals such as regime change in Damascus.
The Al-Qaeda led offensive in eastern Damascus has been comprehensively repelled by the Syrian army, which has recovered all the ground lost to the Jihadis since they began their offensive on Sunday.
Over the last 20+ years, America hsa applied the nebulous term ‘rogue state’ with a bit of impunity.
Syria was called a rogue state for having the audacity to pursue an independent foreign and economic policy in the Arab world.
Yugoslavia was called a rogue state by the US for trying to defend the borders of what until the foreign meddling of the 1990s, was the most successful multi-cultural state in late modern Europe and possibly the world.
21st Century Wire says…
The inflammatory, baiting commentary of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued today where he has once again compared Europe to Nazi’s saying that they “would revive gas chambers” if they weren’t ashamed.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was also in the firing line at todays rally in Istanbul with Erdogan accusing her of ‘Nazi practices’.
The tit-for-tat diplomatic battle between Turkey and the Netherlands has been one of the top international stories this week.
It all started with the Dutch refusing to allow the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, entry to the Netherlands to attend a rally of the Turkish expatriate community.
The rally was being held in support of a referendum called by Turkish president Erdogan to greatly expand his powers.
Upon the break-up of The Beatles, John Lennon wrote a song called God, a kind of pessimistic surrender to nihilism after the idealism of his quests for spiritual fulfilment and his idealistic Beatles years, came to an end at the same time.
The Netherlands, the culture that once sheltered Spinoza and the first western European society to embrace the idea of freedom of religion, has now surrendered to nihilism.
Or an alternative title for this post could ‘Turkey Comes to the Aid of Geert Wilders’. I’m just going to come out and say it – even though I could be totally wrong about this. Does anyone else think that the ‘Turkish protests’ in the Netherlands are teeny-weeny bit suspect? I hinted at this yesterday in the […]
