3 ms·

> The parallels with Turkey’s mercurial president Erdoğan seem obvious. The invariant remains the desire of the West to insure the Turks are down, and that the

> The parallels with Turkey’s mercurial president Erdoğan seem obvious. The invariant remains the desire of the West to insure the Turks are down, and that the region is destablized. The three historic reasons (for the West) remain: Russia, Oil, and Asia trade routes. Given these invariants and historic realities of the region, any sensible wanna-be region native unifier will aim for the same "itihad" (Unity) "-i" (of) Muslims. Is this rocket science? No, it is not. So to correct the typically myopic view of the region per European (cum West) regarding Turkey, since Western goals and designs for the region have NOT changed in the past 150+ years, so to the reaction from the region's (semi-)indepdentent regimes and/or rulers. (You may have a clue per above, regarding the very ambitious gambit of the crown prince of the Arabian peninsula minus the "semi-independent" part.) > cult of personality Is that like the cult of personality of the Donald the MAGA? Or before that, the Obama the savior? Why is it that Western press always needs to include a "tyrant", "mercurial", "<insert put down here>" when mentioning the target regions' leaders? Are Western leaders men and women of worth? (Insert chuckle here.) > the Sultan's nose It is called 'prestige'. Every state has prestige sensitivities since that is one pillar of maintaining power. For example, a "foreign agent" news agency, RT, has been pointing out the symbolic 'big nose of the Western governments', and oh boy, they are not amused in the West. See, it is all very "parallel" to what goes on elsewhere. Nothing to see here, really, except Oil, strategic geography, and containing the maybe-maybenot-European power called Russia.

woodandsteel 9y ago
>The invariant remains the desire of the West to insure the Turks are down, and that the region is destablized. That's ridiculous. The West wants to keep the Middle East stable, so that oil flows are guaranteed, to keep the Russians out, and because a chaotic Middle East breeds Islamic terrorists. And so it has taken policies for many decades to ensure this, including supporting Turkey. However, you are quite right that the West doesn't want a new Ottoman empire that would try to take over Europe, like the old one did.

woodandsteel 9y ago

>The invariant remains the desire of the West to insure the Turks are down, and that the region is destablized. That's ridiculous. The West wants to keep the Middle East stable, so that oil flows are guaranteed, to keep the Russians out, and because a chaotic Middle East breeds Islamic terrorists. And so it has taken policies for many decades to ensure this, including supporting Turkey. However, you are quite right that the West doesn't want a new Ottoman empire that would try to take over Europe, like the old one did.