Following Michael's comment

Submitted by Alexandros (United Kingdom), Nov 30, 2015 at 05:48

Hi Michael,

First of all i am a UK resident for the past 6 years now, unbelievable how time flies, of Greek ancestry and Greek citizenship.

I agree with your comments almost completely, but the Greek government, although the Greek economy is in a really bad position at the time, has options in my opinion, in order to tackle Turkish provocations on every level. The problem is that the current Greek government is, still at least, bad because their ideologies fall apart in front of their eyes and being inexperienced they are trying to cope. With a few exceptions most of the government members i am sure that they cannot believe of how unethical the European leadership is first of all. And i am not talking only about the financial crisis, but mainly i am talking about how EU deals with Turkey.

I am not saying that America should not intervene in any way, i am strongly suggesting though that America should set clear objectives in order to intervene and they should grab this opportunity in order to intervene, because other wise America is going to be doomed to decline without return.

What we have at the moment is Erdogan holding hostages the US and EU. We have to recognise that this has been a great success fof Erdogan. In addition he upgraded his position by bringing down a Russian plane, and even though Russia has reacted, they have reacted in a way that actually Erdogan not only he is not hurt, but possibly is enhanced among the extremists of Islam. Besides his material relations with ISIS it is astonishing that he excused the terrorist attack against the Russian civilian plane in public and then actually mocked the attack in Paris since he did not say anything and a few days later in a full stadium in Istanbul most of the people booed the one minute of silence kept for the victims of Paris yelling Allah Akbar in the end! Further than that he is trading human beings(refugees) in order to gain political and geopolitical gains with EU, mocking all the normative principles of EU, and actually European leadership accepts him ignoring that he uses artillery against Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin in cities, imprisons all kind of opposition etc.

Personally i do not buy that American leadership is ignorrant of all of that. I think they must be saying to each other in the corridors of the White House, "he is a bastard, but our bastard", however they are only fulling themelves, Erdogan has his own agenda and it is not compatible with America's and even worse his agenda is more dangerous than Russia's. A few time ago i had read an article that was saying that even though Russia or China claim the global leadership from the US they do not actually have to propose a different system, a different paradigm, they just want to take over the current one, Erdogan though has a new paradigm to propose and a very appealing one to many people, since a lot of them are willing to blow themselves up for it. Unfortunately this is not read by the US leadership, because they are stack with their ideologies and fears.

From what i can see is that Erdogan wants still to show that he is pro-Western, he simply feels that he is not ready yet to turn his back to the West, but he will do it in due course. At the moment his only major threat are the Kurds, the Kemalists are through, he destroyed their parastate and substituted with his own. He has established a proper dictatorship, MIT is playing a crucial role like the secret services of Iran and Saudi Arabia, people vote at gun point and if they vote against Erdogan they are being bombed. he does not care about the 20% of kemalist and 10% of nationalists, because they just give him international legitimacy. But he is worried for the Kurds, the Kurdish party managed to take away his dream to become a proper Sultan, and he can see the tides of change in Syria and Iraq where the Kurds have autonomous states, even though they are seperated in fractions, something different is going on this time and he is scared. In that respect Erdogan supports ISIS against the Kurds and Alqaeda against Assad. At the same time he is trying to expand in the Aegean, in Cyprus, upgrade the Turkish position as a peripheral power, and gain leadership among the extremist Islam becoming the big brother of the region. He succeeds, because he is taking advantage the hostilities among the nations in the Middle East and Balkans, enhancing their differences, and because USA and Russia have the geographic obsession, while EU is scared of the far right and Euroskeptical movements that emerge because of refugees and migrants who Erdogan is trafficking.

In my opinion the nations surrounding Turkey should become more bold. They must find a way to cooperate. It is an opportunity to forge strong allies, but unfortunately the statesmen seem to be not as decisive as they should. In Syria the conflict is not civil, it is an invasion, and it could end up in a third world war. Russia and the US are obligated to agree in resolving the issue. I cannot believe that Assad is a man Israel cannot negotiate with or that he is that worse than ISIS leaders, but America has been trapped in this anti-Assad discourse in order to oust the Russian naval base from Syria and because probably some corporation wants to build oil pipelines from the Gulf to Syria and the Saudis do not want to get it through Shia regimes, while Israel does not want Assad in order to weaken Hezbolah and Iran. Russia on the other hand wants Assad regime because they want to keep their naval base and also need the help of Iran in order to deal with their Muslim extremists in Russia. it is a stalemate for the surrounding forces, but it is a tragedy for the Syrians, the Iraqis and the Kurds. In my opinion the solution can be a Kurdish state with an exodus to the Mediterranean. This is the only way for everyone to be happy. Kurds are Sunnis in their majority, but the extremists are a minority and they are fighting for ISIS, Kurds are also traditional allies of Israel if i am not mistaken. Then there is going to be an alternative exodus to the Mediterranean, the Russians will be able to keep their naval base and let Assad be judged by the Syrians themselves. Syria and Hezbolah are already weakened a lot and at the same time you have an ally of Israel significantly enhanced, Assad will have been defeated since he will have lose Syrian soil, but he will not be humiliated since he will have managed to defeat ISIS. The problem is again Turkey. Turkey must lose but not be humiliated, but they must lose otherwise they will not stop, they will only become more aggressive. Cyprus is the key here and the Kurds. Greek solution in Cyprus, autonomy in the Kurdish regions of Turkey, agreement in the Aegean according to the international law of sea!

This solution has another advantage, it will press Iran to recognise some kind of autonomy to the Kurds of Iran as well. The Kurdish independent state should be the Iraqi Kurdistan and the Syrian Kurdistan, but with an exodus to the sea, which could actually be through the autonomous Turkish Kurdistan.

Roughly, this would be my suggestion, but this also means that Israel, Cyprus, Greece, and Egypt at least, should cooperate much stronger than they do now!

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