While the world focuses on Crimea and the comical "tick-tac-toe" between President's Obama and Putin, there is another geo-political problem, which in terms of scope and strategic importance to the West, is far more critical than Crimea.
That problem is called Turkey, on the opposite side of Crimea, with the Black Sea in between .
Here we are now facing a corrupt and paranoid PM and his government, who have gone power crazy and totally out of control, taking Turkey down the road of potentially violent public disturbances and economic meltdown.
Even though, in all fairness Erdogan's accession on to Turkey's political scene more than 10 years ago "raised many eyebrows right from the start, most Turks gave him the benefit of the doubt and overlooked Erdogan's hard-line reputation, and the religious undertone of his AKParty given the apparent prosperity the country was experiencing under his leadership.
Then came a change, the "Genie got out of the bottle", and the AKparty and Erdogan became more and more dictatorial, eliminating all forces of opposition, including those in the powerful Turkish military, the press and many other organizations.
The situation got even worse after Erdogan got into a "spat" with his Guru and Mentor, Muhammed Fethullah Gülen, who lives in Pennsylvania, USA, as an exile and from there also controls a global network of schools and organizations under the banner "Moderate and Peaceful Islam.".
Obviously back in Pennsylvania Muhammed Fethullah Gülen, was not very happy his "pupil" Erdogan had stopped listening to him and rumors and evidence began circulating about the billions Erdogan and his croonies in government had swindled.
Erdogan pointed his finger at his former buddy Muhammed Fethullah Gülen claiiming that it was him who had created a parallel state within the state that wanted to topple his government.
Unfortunately for Erdogan despite his illegitimate reshuffling of thousands of police officers and hundreds of judges and prosecutors, he nor his government were able to track down a single piece of evidence of what he called a "parallel state".
In light of all these signs of corruption, it has also become evident to many people in Turkey that the whole parallel state argument by Erdogan was an imagined enemy that Erdogan, like Don Quixote, used in his fight against the "windmills".
But
Erdogan still has quite a few cards to play. As a result of the Turkish
electoral and voting system Erdogan and his party still control the
Turkish parliament. Consequently Erdogan's AKParty is approving new
laws on a daily basis to consolidate and strengthen his grip on every
level of the Turkish society.
Mr
Erdogan's other major fobia is that he is totally intolerant of
criticism from whatever source it comes and has not hesitated to use his
powers to have anyone he considers "a threat to the Republic" thrown
into jail.
Turkey now has more journalists in prison than just about any other country in the world.
Turkey ranked 154th out of 180 countries surveyed in the World Press Freedom Index released by the Reporters Without Borders Association on Feb. 12, even behind China and war-torn nations such as Afghanistan and Iraq. The report noted further that “the Gezi Park revolt highlighted the repressive methods used by the security forces, the increase in self-censorship and the dangers of the prime minister’s populist discourse,”
More recently, audio recordings that appear to be of Erdogan have shown how deeply he is involved in government corruption, were posted on Twitter by an anonymous account holder, just weeks before the March 30 local elections in the country.
Even though Erdogan denied that these recordings were legitimate he apparently decided it was better to be 'safe than sorry' and just get rid of Twitter altogether.
On Thursday, March 20 Erdogan made good on his promise to wipe out Twitter in his country, and Turkish tweeters are now reporting that they are unable to access the service.
Twitter published a message on its service that same day advising users in Turkey that it was still possible to send Tweets on twitter using mobile phone text messaging.
Erdogan has previously also called social media a "menace to society" and threatened to ban YouTube and Facebook. Last year, at least 25 people were arrested for tweeting messages of protests against Erdogan and his government. It now also appears that Facebook is being shut down in Turkey.
Indeed, the world, and particularly the EU should wake up and "smell the roses" about the situation in Turkey,
Like it or not, Turkey is a powerful economic ally of the West, a member of NATO and a candidate member of the EU with a population of 81.7 million.
In contrast Crimea and its 2.3 million people, which since 700 BC has been changing hands many times including being part of the Cimmerians, Bulgars, Greeks, Scythians, Romans, Goths, Huns, Khazars, Kievan Rus, the Byzantine Empire, Venice, Genoa, Kipchaks, the Golden Horde, the Ottaman Empire, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, Germany, Ukraine and now Russia again.
Crimea or Turkey - Come on EU Commission and EU-Parliament - You don't need to be Einstein to figure that one out ?
As to Crimea, let's be frank - Crimeans voted fair and square they don't want to be part of Ukraine anymore. Maybe the simple solution would be for President Obama to shake hands with President Putin, wish Crimea well, and tell President Putin not to start messing with Ukraine in the future, or else.
Turkey now has more journalists in prison than just about any other country in the world.
Turkey ranked 154th out of 180 countries surveyed in the World Press Freedom Index released by the Reporters Without Borders Association on Feb. 12, even behind China and war-torn nations such as Afghanistan and Iraq. The report noted further that “the Gezi Park revolt highlighted the repressive methods used by the security forces, the increase in self-censorship and the dangers of the prime minister’s populist discourse,”
More recently, audio recordings that appear to be of Erdogan have shown how deeply he is involved in government corruption, were posted on Twitter by an anonymous account holder, just weeks before the March 30 local elections in the country.
Even though Erdogan denied that these recordings were legitimate he apparently decided it was better to be 'safe than sorry' and just get rid of Twitter altogether.
On Thursday, March 20 Erdogan made good on his promise to wipe out Twitter in his country, and Turkish tweeters are now reporting that they are unable to access the service.
Twitter published a message on its service that same day advising users in Turkey that it was still possible to send Tweets on twitter using mobile phone text messaging.
Erdogan has previously also called social media a "menace to society" and threatened to ban YouTube and Facebook. Last year, at least 25 people were arrested for tweeting messages of protests against Erdogan and his government. It now also appears that Facebook is being shut down in Turkey.
Indeed, the world, and particularly the EU should wake up and "smell the roses" about the situation in Turkey,
Like it or not, Turkey is a powerful economic ally of the West, a member of NATO and a candidate member of the EU with a population of 81.7 million.
In contrast Crimea and its 2.3 million people, which since 700 BC has been changing hands many times including being part of the Cimmerians, Bulgars, Greeks, Scythians, Romans, Goths, Huns, Khazars, Kievan Rus, the Byzantine Empire, Venice, Genoa, Kipchaks, the Golden Horde, the Ottaman Empire, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, Germany, Ukraine and now Russia again.
Crimea or Turkey - Come on EU Commission and EU-Parliament - You don't need to be Einstein to figure that one out ?
As to Crimea, let's be frank - Crimeans voted fair and square they don't want to be part of Ukraine anymore. Maybe the simple solution would be for President Obama to shake hands with President Putin, wish Crimea well, and tell President Putin not to start messing with Ukraine in the future, or else.
Let's get real - its time to focus on Turkey. .
