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Turkey: NATO’S First Rogue State by Dean Andromidas

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Turkey: NATO’S First Rogue State by Dean Andromidas Turkey: NATO’s First Rogue State by Dean Andromidas Jan. 19—Turkey has become the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s first “rogue state.” This term, so pop- ular with the State Department and the neo-conservatives, is used against states with alleged “authoritarian” re- gimes that supposedly support terror- ism and seek weapons of mass de- struction. Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is increasingly being recognized as an “authoritar- ian” whose government is supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria. And now it is reported by specialists in Washington and London that Erdogan is calling for the development of an indepen- dent ballistic missile capability with Saudi-U.S. Relations Information Service a range of 3,000 km, far enough to hit Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosts Saudi King Salman at his palace on almost any target in the European March 2, 2015. Union and the western half of Russia. This confirms Erdogan’s own statement of intent on the British Empire against Russia and its other rivals, ATV television on Nov. 18, 2015. today’s Turkey has become that same tool against But unlike Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, or North Korea, Russia. Since Russia made its strategic move into Syria Turkey is a member of NATO—it could drag the alli- to crush ISIL and end the civil war, Turkey has taken ance into World War III. Many were reminded of this the lead in the attempts to stop it, under orders from its ugly possibility when, on Nov. 24, Turkey became the Anglo-Saudi masters. The shooting down of the Rus- first NATO country since the formation of the alliance sian warplane was only the most dramatic and danger- to shoot down a Russian warplane without provoca- ous ploy. tion. In what is nothing less than a war crime on behalf of the Anglo-Saudi empire, Turkey is using the millions of In Whose Behalf? Syrian and other refugees—which its support of the But make no mistake, this “clear and present danger” war against the Syrian government has generated— is not the folly of the former mayor of Istanbul, who has against Europe. It is an open secret that the Turkish au- delusions of becoming the Sultan of a resurrected Otto- thorities have allowed the people-smugglers to operate man Empire, but is rather the work of the Anglo-Saudi freely along its coasts, generating waves of hundreds of empire that has thrown the entire Middle East into war thousands of refugees into the European Union, most of and catastrophe that, if not stopped, promises to lead them via impoverished Greece. directly to a thermonuclear confrontation between Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos, in an inter- Russia and the West. view with the Germany daily Süddeutsche Zeitung pub- Just as the old Ottoman Empire was manipulated by lished Jan. 18, on the occasion of his official visit to January 22, 2016 EIR British Genocide and War 49 Germany, accused Turkey of facilitating the smuggling Erdogan renewed his membership in the Sunni alli- of migrants. ance last December, when Turkey announced it was “I have serious concerns that Turkish human traf- joining the 34-nation, Saudi-backed so-called Islamic fickers get support from authorities,” Pavlopoulos told military alliance against terror. Erdogan’s official visit the German daily. “In particular, port authorities are to Saudi Arabia followed on Dec. 29, when the two pretending to be unaware of this.” countries agreed to set up a “strategic cooperation That this humanitarian catastrophe is being used as council” to strengthen military and economic coopera- blackmail against particularly Germany, the one coun- tion between the two countries. try seeking cooperation with Russia on these issues, Four days after this visit, on Jan. 2, Saudi Arabia was exposed by Turkish Deputy Prime Minister conducted its infamous execution of 47 prisoners it Mehmet Simsek himself, in an interview with Germa- called called terrorists, including the country’s leading ny’s Die Welt on Jan. 16: “If Germany and others want Shi’a cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, an atrocity that Iran saw as to stop the influx of refugees, they must stop the bomb- a major provocation, and which reinforced the wide- ing against the Syrian opposition.” The “Syrian opposi- spread belief that the Saudi-led “Islamic military alli- tion” to which Simsek refers are Turkmen, most of ance against terror” is nothing more than the sectarian whom are Turkish nationals—such as the Turkmen ter- Sunni alliance that has been backing the overthrow of rorist who murdered the Russian pilot of the Su-24 shot the Syrian government and taking aim at Iran and its down last November in his parachute—or are merce- influence in the region. nary Turkmen from central Asia. As with any pact with the devil, the policy has come In an expression of caution from the side of the U.S. with a bloody price. In a February 2015 interview with military, the daily Defense News noted Turkey’s likeness the Turkish daily, Today’s Zaman, retired British MI6 to a rogue state in its report on Jan. 16 that Erdogan is officer Alastair Crooke warned that Turkey could seeking long-range ballistic missiles. It also quoted an un- become like the Pakistan of the 1980s under pro-Mus- named, Ankara-based NATO ambassador, who expressed lim Brotherhood President Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, his concern that “Such ambitions can fuel sectarian ten- who suffered serious blowback from the same terrorist sions in the region. A missile rivalry between a NATO organizations he had sponsored, also with Saudi money, member Turkey and Iran does not sound pleasant.” to fight the Soviet forces then occupying Afghanistan. These were the same groups that later morphed into the Turkey as Pakistan Taliban and al-Qaeda, backed by the same Saudi net- With the outbreak of the so-called Arab Spring in works responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the New York 2011, Turkey’s foreign policy of “zero problems” with World Trade Center and the Pentagon. neighboring countries became that of the chief standard- Crooke, who is director and founder of Conflicts bearer for the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of the Forum and former adviser on Middle East issues to entire Middle East. When the Arab Spring hit Syria, former EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana, told the Turkey under Erdogan went from being a “strategic Turkish daily that the Turkish government’s strategy partner” with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to be- for playing a leading role in the region may be costly, coming the logistical base for the massive, Saudi-fi- because Turkey might become hostage to ISIL. nanced military operation to overthrow the Syrian Gov- “I was there at that time,” Crooke said. “Zia ul-Haq ernment. was a strong, Muslim Brotherhood-oriented leader, and Again, the mastermind was not the would-be sultan, he rejected any notion of blowback. For 25 years, I have but is seen in a very clear deal Erdogan signed with the seen political leaders who believe that they can control Anglo-Saudi monstrosity known as the Sunni alliance, and use the Salafists for their own ends, but who subse- which led to billions of dollars pouring into Turkey, not quently find it is they who have been used by the Salaf- only to pay for the war against Syria, but also to keep ists.” Erdogan in power. It is no secret that Erdogan’s Justice Zia ul-Haq paid the supreme penalty for his policy. and Development Party won the last election thanks to He died in 1988 in the crash of the C130 transport air- billions of dollars that poured into the country during craft in which he was travelling. The official inquiry the election campaign, money that originated in Saudi found that the most probable cause of the crash was Arabia and Qatar. sabotage. 50 British Genocide and War EIR January 22, 2016 Blowback on Turkey over the defense of Turkey’s airspace bordering Syria Almost one year after that interview, Crooke told with the deployment of NATO’s AWACS surveillance EIR for this article that he believes the situation in planes and maritime patrol aircraft and ships provided Turkey in this respect is even worse than it was in Paki- by Germany and Denmark, while Spain will deploy its stan in the 1980s. Erdogan’s courting of ISIL and the Patriot surface-to-air missiles along Turkey’s border to Salafists has seen these forces penetrating the entire replace those recently removed by Germany and the “fabric of the state,” as it is well known that MIT, the United States. Turkish National Intelligence Service that takes its Under the cover of NATO’s security umbrella, orders from Erdogan, has been supporting Islamic ter- Turkey believes it can continue to channel support to rorist operatives in Syria. Now these groups have “le- ISIL and other terror groups operating against the verage,” and any attempt to curtail their operations is Syrian government and Russian forces, including their very dangerous. Crooke pointed to the recent Istanbul smuggling of oil from ISIL-controlled oil fields in suicide bombing targeting the city’s most important Syria. None of this has deterred Russia and Syria from tourist site—in which 10 German tourists were killed— carrying out their operations against ISIL in Syria, as a case in point. which are said to be achieving considerable success. Although this was the first attack on tourists, the Is- Turkey has facilitated the movement of thousands of tanbul bombing is only the latest of several high-level anti-Russian fighters—who are wanted in Russia for ter- terrorist attacks in Turkey, including one last summer in rorism—from the Russian Caucasus to fight in Syria as Ankara, Turkey’s capital, that killed more than 100 well as their return to conduct terrorist operations in people.
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