WTF is Erdoğan playing at?

[Ricky Spanish]

Is he really a president of the people or of the Islamic state he's trying to impose on his people?

Turkey’s political culture has changed since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002.

For 13 years, large segments of Turkish society have been under the strong influence of a multifaceted project promoting Islamic conservatism, which the AKP has pushed systematically through its political leadership, the police and judiciary, the education system, the media, social networks and local administrations. The drive has markedly intensified since 2011, a milestone year during which the AKP won general elections with 50% of the vote, weeded out Kemalists in the military and embarked on a regional policy aimed at toppling the Bashar al-Assad regime in neighboring Syria.

The AKP government, which has evolved into the “Erdogan regime,” has sought through social engineering campaigns to permanently reshape Turkey and consolidate its power. Islamist radicalization has been one of the by-products of this political culture, which can generally be described as Islamist, pro-Sunni and Ottomanist.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/11/turkey-syria-turkish-sympathy-for-isis-is-serious.html#

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said his only concern is Islam, while slamming the defenders of terrorists and atheists in Turkey.

“We have only one concern. It is Islam, Islam and Islam. It is impossible for us to accept the overshadowing of Islam. Islam is damaged from what is all being done now. We all have to show the will to categorically deny terrorism without looking at its basis or identity,” said Erdoğan in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta as part of a visit to the Far East and Southeast Asia.

http://tinyurl.com/oe7yv2a

The hardline president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declared that the West doesn’t like Muslims and wants to see them dead in a Thursday address in Istanbul.

“Believe me, they don’t like us,” Erdogan stated at a meeting of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC), Agence France-Presse reports. “They look like friends, but they want us dead, they like seeing our children die. How long will we stand that fact?”

The Turkish president, who’s a noted Muslim fundamentalist and Western critic, further claimed the West and “foreigners” in general only want to exploit the Muslim world for its resources and intentionally spread conflict in the region.

“Only we can solve our problems. I speak openly; foreigners love oil, gold, diamonds, and the cheap labor force of the Islamic world. They like the conflicts, fights and quarrels of the Middle East,” Erdogan said.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/11/27/turkish-president-the-west-wants-muslims-dead/

Why else would he antagonise the bear on his doorstep?


**ETA** this intersting little Article:

The downing of a Russian warplane by Turkish fighter jets near the Syrian border on Tuesday is not a NATO concern, nor should it be.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that an F-16 Turkish fighter jet had shot down the Russian plane — a Sukhoi Su-24 supersonic, all-weather attack aircraft — with an air-to-air missile. However, the Russian jet had been in Syrian airspace at the time and had never threatened Turkey’s territory....

... The United States must understand that with the shooting down of the Russian jet while conducting anti-terrorist operations over Syria, Turkey has once again shown its true face. The incident is solely of Turkey’s own doing, and this is not a matter for NATO.

Let’s dispense with the niceties of diplomatic phraseology and political correctness. Turkey under its current leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been nurturing and supporting Islamic State behind the scenes for many years.

Interestingly, this assertion was also clearly stated by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden for which he was widely condemned and forced to apologize for his statement. During a visit to the Harvard Kennedy School in October, Biden remarked:

“Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria,” explaining that Turkey and U.S. allies were “so determined to take down Assad,” that in a sense they started a “proxy Sunni-Shiite war” by pouring “hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons” towards anyone who would fight against Assad. “And we could not convince our colleagues to stop supplying them.”

Turkey’s clear and present interest lies in developing its position as the dominant Islamic state, prepared to extend its legitimacy over the Sunni Muslim world. Strategically, Islamic State would then become a pawn in preparing the ground work: to take over the territory conquered by Islamic State. Ultimately, the West would then view the Turkish caliphate as a moderate alternative to Islamic States medieval Islamic rule.

http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/lets-be-clear-russia-is-not-the-enemy-islamic-state-is/

WTF is Erdoğan playing at?

Does he think that because Turkey is a part of NATO - HE has carte blanche to use that as an excuse/reason to be a terrorist??

[wigginhall]

I think it's part of the proxy war in Syria.  Russia is lining up with Iran and Hezbollah, to support Assad, and the Sunni tribes are violently opposed to this, along with the 'Sunni axis', which includes Turkey.   So some of the tribes have been supporting IS, and allegedly, Turkey also. 

I haven't a clue as to how this can be resolved, and I wonder if the Western powers have some kind of plan.  If they don't factor in the Sunni tribes, forget it, they will stick with IS.

There is some history behind this in Iraq, where the tribes fought against Al Qaeda, but then felt betrayed by the Iraqui govt, who ignored them, hence the drift back to IS, as part of the so-called Sunni revivalism.

[Udayana]

The Russians had been attacking Turkmen rebels near the Turkey/Syria border. These groups are allied with Turkey and part of the Syrian rebellion against Assad, not aligned with ISIS/ISIL.
 
I.e it is about Turkish and Russian game playing not the conflict with ISIS/ISIL directly. More of this kind of thing is to be expected as more countries get involved.

[Sassy]

I suppose the Russians aren't letting the buggars near their Country...

[Udayana]

Which "buggars"? ISIS/ISIL? or Syrian refugees? Of-course not. However Islam related terrorism already occurs within Russia and can only be expected to rise with their involvement in support of Assad.

ETA: Actually, yesterday the Times was reporting how Russia had cluster bombed the Syrian refugee camp just by the Turkish border:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article4623770.ece

And the situation between Russia and Turkey continues to escalate, with Russia throwing out Turks and imposing sanctions.