At least there's only one Turkey.

Submitted by Ted Gruen (United States), Jun 4, 2013 at 12:45

The Turks and everybody else should be glad there is only one Turkey rather than something like the Arabs have had; i.e., a congeries of states with a succession of competing ideologies that have led them into dangerous military adventures at which they failed and never really recovered. The most glaring example occurred the day in June 1967 when Egyptian dictator Gamal 'Abd al-Nasir, piqued at being told off on the radio by Jordan's King Hussein to the effect that he should stop chastising other Arabs for not lining up to head into war against Israel so long as he was hesitating himself, summarily dismissed the facesaving UN peacekeepers in Gaza so as to be out of the way on the oncoming armies of Egypt (then fatuously called the United Arab Republic.)

Erdogan, being more a legend in his own mind rather than, the Islamist leader supported by the Arabs whom he convinced himself he would be, knew better than tk follow through on his threat to deploy the "invincible" Turkish navy against Israeli offshore natural gas claims.

But as he fades from power, can anybody count on him not to talk himself into some really dangerous adventure of the kind that humbled Gamal 'Abd a-Nasir?

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