‘Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. What could the possible outcome regarding the Syrian Civil War be? Does the US really want Russia to be part of a negotiated settlement? Is the Syrian opposition becoming more dangerous to the US and its allies? CrossTalking with Ariel Cohen and Nabil Mikhail (15 May 2013)’.
‘As the United States moves toward increased intervention in Syria, we’re joined by Robert Fisk, the longtime Middle East correspondent of the British newspaper The Independent. Just back from two weeks in Syria reporting around the capital Damascus, Fisk discusses what he calls the “theater of chemical weapons,” the latest in Syria’s civil war — a battle he says the Syrian government is winning — as well as his reaction to what he calls President Obama’s “pitiful” backing of the recent Israeli missile strikes. “Don’t ask me if they have used chemical weapons,” Fisk says. “It’s conceivable. There really isn’t any proof. What you have got to realize is that this is a propaganda war just as much as it is a savage war, killing many thousands of human beings” (7 May 2013)’.
‘Israel launched air strikes into Syria in response to border fire from the Golan Heights. What is Israel’s role in the Syrian civil war? What is their hidden agenda? And what about the future of the Golan Heights? CrossTalking with Sabah Al-Mukhtar, Dan Arbell and Nabil Mikhail (27 March 2013)’.
Last year, I posted this: ‘Over the past months, Turkey has been one of the most vocal critics of the Assad regime. Tayyip Erdoğan has more than once called for Assad’s removal. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, on the other hand, has instead called for calm and deliberation in dealing with Damascus, insisting on the implementation of the Annan Plan. Earlier this year, the recently much-publicised U.S. whistleblower Sibel Edmonds declared publicly that her sources indicated that the Syrian armed opposition has been receiving logistic aid and military training since April 2011. Edmonds also declared that the U.S. and Turkey had been cooperating on this, and that the U.S. Air Force base in İncirlik (Turkey) is used as a training facility for the so-called Free Syrian Army and other opponents of the Damascus regime. At the same time, reports have surfaced that Libyan fighters from Misrata went to Syria in an effort to support attempts to overthrow Assad. In addition, rumours have equally abounded about Saudi Arabia and Qattar’s mobilization of Jihadi fighters to undermine the secular Baath regime in Syria’.[1]
‘Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: Israel needed Obama to broker Turkey deal as Netanyahu’s policies and unstable region put Israel in a precarious position (25 March 2013)’.
‘It has been 10 years since the US-led invasion of Iraq, which marked a turning point in the West’s so-called war on terror. The pretext of the Iraq war was security and freedom, but the bombastic and openly pronounced objective was no less than remaking the greater Middle East region. For the US, Iraq became a quagmire and a humiliation – a strategic and moral failure that the country has spent the last four years trying to forget. But how much has America’s calculus of war really changed? And as Africa becomes the new frontline in the ‘war on terror’, have the Europeans learnt from America’s mistakes? Empire explores the merits, objectives, costs and morality of these wars with our guests: John Nagl, a retired Lieutenant Colonel who co-authored the US army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual; Jean Marie Guehenno, the director of the Center of International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University, and former United Nations under secretary general for Peacekeeping Operations; Barbara Bodine, a professor at Princeton University and a former US Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen who also served with the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq; and Christopher Hedges, a senior fellow at The Nation Institute, former New York Times Middle East bureau chief, and author of several books, including War is a Force That Gives us Meaning and Empire of Illusion’ .
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivers his first major public address on investing in a strong foreign policy at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA on February 20, 2013.
On Sunday, 20 January, the news agency Reuters reports that a ‘senior aide to Iran’s supreme leader warned against the overthrow of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, saying his fate was a “red line”, in one of the Islamic state’s strongest messages of support for the Damascus government. Iran has steadfastly backed Assad’s rule since an uprising against his rule began almost two years ago and regards him as an important part of the axis of opposition against arch-foe Israel’.[1] Following President Obama’s much-publicised declaration that Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his adversaries would constitute a red line, now finally, President Assad’s only regional allies have come out with their own declaration. Speaking on Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen satellite television, Ali Akbar Velayati, who could very well be Ahmadinejad’s successor in June, declared the following: “If the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is toppled, the line of resistance in the face of Israel will be broken . . . We believe that there should be reforms emanating from the will of the Syrian people, but without resorting to violence and obtaining assistance from the (United States of) America”.[2]
It is assumed that about 60,000 people have perished in Syria as a result of the violent opposition to the Assad regime, which the mainstream media are at pains to portray as yet another chapter in the ongoing saga of the Arab Awakening. As I pointed out in a piece published in Hürriyet Daily News, it would even be foolhardy to regard these uprisings across the wider Arab world as spontaneous emanations of any popular will.[3] Even so, it seems to me that the situation in Syria is in many ways similar to the violent “Assisted Rebellion” in Libya, as an orchestrated uprising that could be seen as a proxy-conflict in the New Cold War between the U.S., its NATO allies and the up and coming superpowers of Russia and China, while at the same also targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran.[4]
At the same time, Turkey, that appears to have been part of the Syrian conflict since the very beginning,[5] is now in the process of receiving the promised Patriot missiles to “protect” its borders against Syrian incursions: ‘Germany has sent 240 soldiers to southern Turkey as part of a NATO mission using Patriot missiles to deter cross-border airstrikes from war-torn Syria. Units are also being provided by the Netherlands and the US. The main German contingent flew out of Berlin Sunday [, 20 January], headed for Kahramanmaras, 100 kilometers (62 miles) inside Turkey’s border with Syria, where two German Patriot units are to be fully operational by early February [2013]. An advance Bundeswehr team is already on site and the missiles with launch equipment arrived by ship in Turkey on Monday [, 21 January]. The deployment will number some 350 German soldiers, including medics’, as reported by the Deutsche Welle.[6] Using a somewhat warped form of logic, German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere explains that these Patriot missiles are supposed to produce a “deescalating effect” on the Assad regime. The Minister explained further that “We learnt during the Cold War that deterrence can only function when in doubtful moments one is ready to use the weapons . . . Should Syrian rockets be fired at Turkey then NATO will use the Patriot missiles”.[7]
On Monday, 7 January 2013, one can read in Hürriyet Daily News that ‘Turkey aims to increase its trade volume with African countries to $50 billion by 2015, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told journalists at Istanbul Atatürk Airport before his departure to Gabon. “Turkey has been exerting efforts in the development of Africa,” Erdoğan said. The prime minister will visit Gabon, Niger and Senegal in his first foreign trip abroad in the new year, where he will meet with heads of state, chair meetings between the countries’ officials, participate in business forums and sign several agreements during the six-day African tour. In Gabon, Erdoğan is set to meet with Gabonese President Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba and the country’s prime minister, Raymond Ndong Sima, as well as appear in a joint press conference. Accompanied by a large delegation of Turkish businesspeople, Erdoğan will speak at a Turkish-Gabonese business forum that would seek opportunities for cooperation in trade and investment. Erdoğan will then visit Niger on Jan. 8 on the second stop of his African tour and meet with President Mahamadou Issoufou. On Jan. 10, the last stop of the tour, Erdoğan is set to arrive in Senegal to meet with President Macky Sall and Prime Minister Abdoul Mbaye. Turkey’s exports to Senegal stood at $109 million in the January-October period of 2012, down from $116 million over the same period a year earlier. Turkey has opened embassies in 19 African countries in the last three years to bring the total number of its top diplomatic missions in the continent to 31’.[1]
The Financial Times’ Turkey correspondent Daniel Dombey puts forward that over “the past three years, Turkey has opened 19 embassies on the continent [of Africa]. It now has 26 south of the Sahara and will have opened delegations in Chad, Guinea and Djibouti by the end of January [2013] as Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister, visits Gabon, Niger and Senegal”.[ii] Dombey explains further that these diplomatic efforts are “part of a concerted push by Turkey deep into Africa, as it follows China, Brazil and India in seeking to secure economic and political influence on the continent. As Ankara looks to diversify away from the stuttering European economy, it is searching not only for new markets but also a more prominent role on the world stage”.[3]
And this is part of yet another trend, step aside BRIC here comes MIST: ‘Jim O’Neill, the Goldman Sachs economist who came up with the now-mainstream “BRIC” catch-all for four quite different economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China – has done it again. “MIST” – or Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey – is O’Neill’s latest rhetorical agglomeration, pulling four more far-flung countries together and talking-up the next tier of large “emerging economies”. Pundits might have a field day with this, with MIST obviously more vapid and perhaps lacking the solidity of its BRIC antecedent. Still, all four have in common a number of factors: a large population and market, a big economy at about 1% of global GDP each, and all are members of the G20’.[4]
As an up and coming MIST country, Turkey is attempting to crack the African market now. In previous months, Turkey’s commitment to Somalia was apparent as part of its more overt Islamic image; but now, the cold reality of economics seems to be taking a front seat. But, the ever-diplomatic Turkish PM instead appears to use his trip to criticise Europe for its colonial legacy, highlighting Turkey’s difference and suitability as an equal business partner with no harmful colonial heritage. In Niger, for example, attending a Turkish-Niger Business Forum in Niamey, he stated plainly: “That is why we are in Niger today. We do not aim to take this country’s oil, gold and diamonds, but to show how we can build brotherhood, make an effort to advance development and fight for freedom of a colonial logic that has endured here for centuries”.[5] According to Today’s Zaman, ‘Erdoğan said [further that] Ankara will continue supporting Turkish small businesses to increase their investment in Niger and that Turkey will be delighted to see its construction companies take part in Niger’s development projects’.[6] But Turkey is not just an interesting destination for smart investors and relaxing tourists, ‘up to 50 intrepid Arab tourists arrive in Istanbul every day to undergo [a certain] procedure [to do with facial hair]. Moustaches are seen as a sign of virility and seniority in many Middle Eastern countries, and visitors are arriving in Turkey in droves for procedures designed to provide thick and impressive hair on their upper lips. The surgery is performed under local anesthetic, with doctors taking hair follicles from more hirsute areas of the body and implanting them in the face. Costing anywhere up to $7 000, the procedure has seen a spike in popularity in patients from the Middle East. In fact the job has become bread and butter work for Turkish cosmetic surgeon Dr. Selahattin Tulunay, based in the fashionable Nisantasi district, the so-called Beverly Hills of Istanbul, and who performs up to 60 follicular transplants a month’.[7] In fact, about a month ago, the Young Turks did a piece on this very topic.
CrossTalk: Syrian War Outcome
‘Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. What could the possible outcome regarding the Syrian Civil War be? Does the US really want Russia to be part of a negotiated settlement? Is the Syrian opposition becoming more dangerous to the US and its allies? CrossTalking with Ariel Cohen and Nabil Mikhail (15 May 2013)’.
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Americana, CIA, Current Affairs, Current History, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Israel, Middle East, NATO, New Cold War, Obama, Oil and Gas, Political Commentary, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey, Uncategorized