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Terrorist State of Turkey Wave of Arrests Targets Erdogan Opposition

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Turkish police on Tuesday arrested 18 people within the police force who are alleged to be supporters of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a foe to President Tayyip Erdogan.

Arrest warrants have been issued for 27 police officers across 13 provinces, but primarily in Istanbul, according to State-run Anadolu Agency. The operation focuses on former officers, including police chiefs, private news agency Dogan reported.

A stream of similar operations targeting alleged supporters of Gulen have been launched since November 1, when the AK Party which Erdogan founded convincingly won a parliamentary election.

Last month, senior police officers and bureaucrats were among the dozens of people detained for alleged links to what prosecutors have dubbed the “Gulenist terror group.”

Gulen was formerly an ally of Erdogan and was very influential. However, Erdogan turned against Gulen after police and prosecutors seen as sympathetic to the cleric opened a corruption investigation into Erdogan’s inner circle in 2013. The president accused Gulen and his followers of trying to create a “parallel state.”

Gulen, who is wanted for arrest in Turkey, has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999. He faces up to 34 years in prison for allegedly seeking to topple Erdogan, allegations which Gulen denies.

From January to October, 98 Turkish citizens across the country were arrested on charges of insulting Erdogan, according to a report by the Republican People’s Party. In total, 5,795 people viewed as being opponents of the government were arrested from January 1 through October 7, the report states.

It also said that in a four-year period, the number of blocked sites gradually increased annually. In 2011, 15,562 websites were blocked, while in 2015 the number has reached 96,000.

During an interview with Spiegel, leader of Germany’s Left Party Sahra Call Erdogan godfather of Terrorism

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1030793556Commenting on the situation with the terrorist threat in the Middle East, the German politician called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the “godfather of terrorism.”

Wagenknecht expressed regrets that the Turkish leader does not stop secretly supporting terrorism and is refusing to close the Turkish border with Syria.

Germany is currently working out a three billion euro plan to “encourage” Ankara to keep potential Syrian migrants bent on a peaceful invasion of the EU on Turkish soil.

However, Wagenknecht does not believe that the promised money will resolve the refugee crisis.

“While Erdogan plays the role of the godfather of terrorism, one should not enter into dirty deals with him,” the politician said.

According to Wagenknecht, another problem is that the United States is pursuing its own interests, which undermine the united front against terrorism.

“Americans do not just want to fight against the ISIL, but also to overthrow the Assad regime,” she said, adding that it was the military activities of the US which contributed to the creation of “a monster called ISIL.”

What is Erdogan’s Game in Syria and Iraq?

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1030846104

BY Pepe Escobar,

The – predictable – reaction across the West over the Russian Defense Ministry’s very serious denunciation of Ankara embedded with ISIS/ISIL/Daesh still begs to be regarded as no less than astonishing.

The actual evidence is not even discussed by Western corporate media. It’s all dismissed as “Russia claims…” Yet not only Sultan Erdogan has been systematically unmasked as a serial liar; the accumulating evidence points to Ankara both as an indirect ally and shady sponsor of the fake “Caliphate”.  

Whatever the Atlanticists can come up with to “excuse” the Erdogan system, at least the devastating PR debacle for the “democratic West” is now a fact of life all across the Global South.

At the same time an elaborate shadow play is in progress. NATO issues non-denial denials — after all it can never back off from its usual “Russian aggression” meme — while the Obama administration, predictably, wallows in doublethink; Turkey may not “support” ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, but Turkey must seal the border with Syria anyway. 

Sultan of Divide and Rule

Since Gezi Park it’s clear the AKP model for Turkey has derailed into a Sultanate dictatorship with a slight electoral veneer. Divide and Rule is the norm.

Sultan Erdogan’s bête noire, internally, is the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). Erdogan wants Kurds — a substantial 20% of the overall population — to choose between the AKP’s Islamist take on Turkish nationalism and the HDP’s Kurdish nationalism with a leftist feel. He’s playing Kurds against Turks no holds barred.

South of the border, Erdogan actively supports Salafi “moderate rebels”, especially his fifth column Turkmen, heavily infiltrated by Turkish fascists of the Grey Wolves kind, in northwest Syria. But Ankara is clever enough not to — directly — support ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. Turkmen have struck de facto alliances with Jabhat al-Nusra, a.k.a. al-Qaeda in Syria. NATO covers Erdogan’s back. 

Russia’s entrance with — literally — a bang in the Syrian war theatre blew up Erdogan strategy’s to smithereens. Couple that with the Obama administration’s penchant to support Kurds across “Syraq”.   

The only thing Erdogan wants from NATO is a “safe zone” — an euphemism for a no-fly zone that Ankara will use to prevent YPG Syrian Kurds from unifying their three cantons along the Turkish-Syrian border. For Erdogan, the prospect of Kurds preventing Turks from providing logistical bases and weapons to the whole Jabhat al-Nusra galaxy, and of course ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, is anathema.  

So Erdogan had been using the Turkmen against the YPG. Russia went for the jugular. And the Sultan, predictably, went bonkers.

Russia’s strategy — coordinated with the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) — will only intensify. The priority is to completely rout Turkmen and al-Nusra all across the Bayirbucak region. Two objectives are crucial. 1) to secure Latakia and thus Russia’s Hmeymim air base. 2) to get rid of the Chechens, Uzbeks and Uyghurs infiltrated among the Turkmen (crucial for Moscow, aware of the “900 km from Aleppo to Grozny” syndrome, and also for China.) 

As for the notion that Erdogan will now abandon his Turkmen strategy and start fighting ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, that’s a myth. Erdogan will never accept the American support for the YPG. The thing is there’s not much he can do about it. 

Sultan Changes the Subject

The downing of the Su-24 was a crude attempt by Erdogan to force NATO to choose his Turkmen/al-Nusra/anti-Kurd strategy instead of any possible coordination with Russia to fight ISIS/ISIL/Daesh.

Talk about a monumental blowback; Erdogan handed Moscow on a plate the deployment of the S-400s to Hmeymim. Short-term, this means any Turkish F-16 entertaining funny ideas over Syrian skies will be summarily shot down. Mid-term, this means the “Assad must go” obsession is now six feet under. But the cherry in the cake is long-term; Russia has solidified a permanent strategic stake in the eastern Mediterranean.

Across the battlefield, the most important development is that Russia, and not Iran, has taken over tactics, planning operations and also re-equipping the SAA with everything from 152-millimeter MTSA-B guns to the absolutely devastating TOS-1A Solnitsa rocket launcher, able to fire 30 220-mm thermobaric (incendiary) rockets in a single salvo.

Freshly arrived Russian Marines are also about to advise the SAA counter-offensive against Daesh in Tadmur, western Palmyra.

The Russian tactic is essentially to blow everything up, big time. Of course this implies a serious risk of civilian casualties — something that can only be alleviated by good ground intel, provided by the SAA. It’s the SAA that is actually capturing those areas on the ground.

With his back against the wall in Syria, Erdogan — what else — changed the subject and made a play in Iraq, via the now famous “incursion” of alleged 150 Turkish troops along with 20-25 tanks.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu swears Ankara had been “invited” in by the Nineveh provincial government, with Baghdad’s approval (a bald-faced lie). A spokesman for the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq said everything is legit.

Turkish daily Hurriyet spun it as Ankara holding a permanent military base in Bashiqa, near Mosul, to train Peshmerga forces, a deal signed between KRG President Massoud Barzani and Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu earlier last month.

But Ankara, we got a (huge) problem. Mosul and Bashiqa are not even part of the KRG.

So this has nothing to do with training Peshmerga — as much as Erdogan and the AKP heavily hedge their Kurd hatred: the KRG racket and the Peshmerga are “good Kurds”, while the PYD/YPG and the PKK are “bad Kurds”. 

When in doubt, follow the oil. The Barzani Mob is selling oil that belongs to Baghdad to Turkey — illegally. They literally own the oil racket in the KRG; and they make a killing, thanks to cozy relations with “partner”.

Genel oil, whose chairman is Tony “Deepwater Horizon” Hayward.   

It has been widely proved that Erdogan’s son in law cum Energy Minister Berat Albayrak holds the exclusive rights to move KRG oil through Turkey. Following evidence collected by the Russian Defense Ministry, Daesh stolen oil may well be mixed with KRG oil along the way. And a key beneficiary of the whole scheme is Erdogan’s son Bilal, a.k.a. Mini Me, through his BMZ shipping company which delivers the oil mostly to Israel. Mini Me is now self-exiled in Bologna, Italy, where he manages untraceable amounts of cash safely ensconced in Swiss bank accounts. 

Obviously none of this is seriously examined in Atlanticist circles, thus providing Erdogan with some solace; if the stolen Syrian oil racket may be moribund, the Iraqi side of the op seems to be untouched. 

So what we have now in effect is Turkey “violating” the borders of Iraq (remember those famous “17 seconds”?) Baghdad is actually part of the “4+1” coalition (Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, plus Hezbollah). Turkey knows it. The “incursion” is yet one more — serious — provocation. If Russia — and Iran — decide that’s one too many, Erdogan’s oil racket protecting tanks better get ready to meet their maker.

Source:sputniknews.com

Defending Turkey’s Role in Daesh (ISIS) Oil Trade Destroys US Credibility

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Video by Gagrule.net

Video by Gagrule.net

Institute for Gulf Affairs founder and director Ali al-Ahmed claims that Turkey plays the dominant role allowing Daesh to defy international sanctions and the refusal by the United States to acknowledge the situation is destroying Washington’s international credibility.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Turkey plays the dominant role allowing Daesh to defy international sanctions and the refusal by the United States to acknowledge the situation is destroying Washington’s international credibility, Institute for Gulf Affairs founder and director Ali al-Ahmed told Sputnik.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that almost everything goes out through Turkey and that the Turkish government knows about it,” al-Ahmed said.

He explained that Turkey’s role has been intensely embarrassing for the Obama administration.

“This is very embarrassing for the US government defending these actions. It is protecting its allies. But it is destroying its own international credibility,” he stated.

The sheer scale of Daesh oil traffic into and through Turkey made it impossible for the Turkish government to be ignorant of it.”

Al-Ahmed also noted that 10,000 oil trucks carry the oil trade into Turkey.

“It is impossible to hide a trade of that size from the Turkish military. They carry Syrian and Iraqi oil and sell it cheap to the Turks,” he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip and his inner circle, al-Ahmed continued, have been directly benefitting from the trade as Russian officials have claimed.

“In Turkey, to do this, you must be close to the government and be especially close to Mr. Erdogan. Erdogan and his family and circle are completely involved Businesses with relationships to Erdogan are making a killing,” he added.

Daesh, Nusra and other jihadist groups received their weapons, munitions and other supplies through Turkey, al-Ahmed pointed out.

“Everything they sold for profit they got out through Turkey or the Gulf states. They sold to or through Turkey their oil, even machinery looted from cities in Syria and Iraq,” the analyst said.

In addition to the enormous scale of the illicit trade through Turkey, al-Ahmed says, Daesh is obtaining funds from the thousands of trucks it captured in northern Iraq and Syria.

“[Many] of the trucks they seize are sold to Gulf countries and to Turkey,” he observed.

Turkey’s domestic economy has been benefiting enormously from the cheap oil, but also food looted from Syria and Iraq by the Islamic State, which were sold afterwards at bargain basement prices, al-Ahmed said.

“The Turks are buying that oil at $10 to $20 a barrel instead of the $40 to $50 a barrel they would have to pay at current market prices. Wheat too they can buy at 25 percent of its international market price,” he noted.

Daesh was taking full advantage of some of the most fertile land in the region, the professor concluded.

source: sputniknews.com

Erdogan’s Turkey is Turning Into NATO’s ‘de Facto Enemy’

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1031249778President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might have called his NATO allies right after Ankara shot a Russian Su-24 bomber out of the Syrian skies but Turkey is a NATO ally “in name only,” Victor Davis Hanson wrote for Townhall. It is a “de facto enemy” of the North Atlantic Alliance.

“The problem with Turkey and the West … is that their relationship is decades out of date. What was once an alliance is now nothing special at all,” the American military historian noted.

Take a look at Turkey’s relations with extremist groups in Syria or its downing of a Russian aircraft, which was on a counterterrorism mission in Latakia.

Erdogan never misses an opportunity to underscore Turkey’s critical role in tackling Daesh, also known as ISIL/The Islamic State, but privately militants “have received a wink and nod from Turkish border authorities, given their shared hatred of Russia, Syria and Iran,” the columnist asserted.

“The Islamic State may be a primordial death cult, but Erdogan apparently believes that it is at least a Sunni, not a Shiite, killing machine, and is occasionally useful in fighting common enemies, especially the Kurds,” Hanson added.

The Su-24 incident shows just how two-faced Ankara really is. The Turkish Air Force shot down the aircraft citing alleged airspace violations, when the plane in fact never crossed into Turkey.

“Turkey now demands justice from Russia for violating Turkish airspace. But no country in the world violates foreign airspace as often as Turkey. A Greek defense analyst counted 2,244 times that Turkey violated Greek airspace in 2014 – an average of more than six violations per day,” the analyst explained.

Not exactly a model NATO member regardless of what Barack Obama might think. The US president used to call his relationship with Erdogan a “special friendship.” He was also a champion of Turkey joining the EU.

“All that can be said for Obama’s current ‘model relationship’ is that Turkey is strategically located, with a large and powerful military, and hosts NATO bases. Those facts make it wise to keep Turkey neutral rather than hostile,” Hanson added.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/politics/20151204/1031249506/turkey-erdogan-nato-enemy-isis.html#ixzz3tMjyOYeA

March 13 2015 Zaman Publish Article: Book: Erdoğan’s son-in-law involved in Kurdish oil deal

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Berat Albayrak is married to President Erdoğan's daughter Esra Albayrak. (Photo: Today's Zaman, Mehmet Demirci)

Berat Albayrak is married to President Erdoğan’s daughter Esra Albayrak. (Photo: Today’s Zaman, Mehmet Demirci)

Documents from an excerpt of a recently published book have revealed that the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took most of the shares of a lucrative oil deal signed between Ankara and Arbil in 2011 and laid the framework for the transfer of Kurdish oil via Turkish territory.

This revelation is the newest in a long list of corruption allegations involving the president. Erdoğan is himself locked in a battle to ward off corruption charges that first came into the public spotlight after the commencement of a sweeping graft investigation two years ago.

The Hürriyet daily’s Washington correspondent, Tolga Tanış, delves into the details in his book “Potus ve Beyefendi” (Potus and Beyefendi), which pinpoints the background of a deal struck between then-Prime Minister Erdoğan’s government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) shortly after the June 2011 elections that propelled Erdoğan to power for the third time.

The book also categorizes Erdoğan as a “politically exposed person [PEP],” which is a term used in financial regulation describing someone who has been entrusted with a prominent public function or a close associate of that person. Due to their position and influence, it is recognized that many PEPs are in positions that can potentially be abused for the purpose of committing money laundering (ML) offenses and related predicate offenses, including corruption and bribery, according to a definition by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The issue of transportation of Kurdish oil through Turkish territory generated a diplomatic rift with Baghdad, which accused Ankara of breaching relevant articles of Iraq’s constitution that regulate the oil trade, including redistribution of oil income through the central government and selling oil to third parties after obtaining permission from Baghdad.

Baghdad’s warnings went unheeded as Ankara inked a lucrative deal with the Kurdish administration, constructing new oil pipelines in an attempt to increase the daily oil flow from northern Iraq. For Baghdad, it was a clear violation of its sovereignty and constitution, and the move would encourage separatist feeling in Arbil. For Erdoğan’s government, however, it was just a business deal.

After he meticulously worked on details to build a coherent account in his book, Tanış reveals an underreported aspect of the story, in which Erdoğan appears as a central actor behind the oil deal. In his book, Tanış claims that it was Erdoğan’s son-in-law who was in charge of the Turkish company that controversially won the tender to distribute the Kurdish oil. Tanış painstakingly untangles the complicated web of relations and affairs that obscure the real ownership of the company, Powertrans, and argues that Berat Albayrak, who is married to Erdoğan’s daughter, Esra Albayrak, runs the operations of the firm that was granted the distribution rights for the Kurdish oil.

The company managed its operations by setting up new sub-companies abroad. Grand Fortune Ventures and Lucky Ventures are two companies that sprang into existence in Singapore. The companies own Powertrans. Albayrak at age 26 became CEO of the Çalık Business Group, owned by the Çalık family, which is close to Erdoğan. His lightning ascent to the pinnacle of power in the business world, Tanış argues, owes much to Erdoğan, who became personally involved in high-profile tenders and business deals to grant favorable shares to his family network.

Albayrak ran Powertrans’ oil operations while he was CEO of the Çalık Business Group. The company has so far earned nearly $700 million from its financial operations in Turkey. The book points to an emerging pattern suggesting that dozens of companies have recently sprung up after getting approval from the Cabinet, whose functions have been reduced to clear the way for establishing new firms in a short time. Patronage lay at the heart of this pattern, revealing politicians’ close connections to the business world, the journalist asserts in his book.

Tanış’s detailed account also reveals the network of business relations between the Erdoğan and KRG President Massoud Barzani’s family and other relatives, which helped overcome political disputes that once threatened to end in open confrontation between Turkey and the KRG in the 2000s. What opened the way for blossoming economic ties, the book claims, was the US-sponsored detente between Turkey and the KRG in 2007, leading to the establishment of the Turkish Consulate in Arbil in 2010. Erdoğan’s visit to the Kurdish region further cemented flourishing diplomatic ties, forging a new alliance between Arbil and Ankara to the envy of the central government in Baghdad.

Source:Zaman

Turkish Opposition MP Set to Reveal Evidence Linking Erdogan to (ISIS) Daesh Oil & “Erbil connection”

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1030064195Eren Erdem, a lawmaker from the Republican People’s Party, Turkey’s largest opposition party, says that he may have found the evidence linking President Recep Erdogan’s son-in-law to the dirty oil trade with Daesh.

Commenting on the sensational allegations put forth by Russia on Wednesday that Turkish President Recep Erdogan and his family are directly connected to the trade of dirty oil, Erdem revealed that he is ready to publicize information next week linking Berat Albayrak, President Erdogan’s son-in-law and the Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, to the Daesh oil trade.

In the course of his press conference, covered by Sputnik Turkey, Erdem explained that on the basis of his investigation, which is still in progress, “I have been able to establish that there is a very high probability that Berat Albayrak is linked to the supply of oil by the Daesh terrorists.”

The lawmaker told media that “there is one company, headquartered in Erbil, which in 2012 acquired oil tankers, and which is currently being bombarded by Russian aircraft. I am now studying this company’s records. It has partners in Turkey, and I am checking them for links to Albayrak.”

Erdem noted that he will conclude his investigation next week, after which he will hold a press conference bringing the information before the public. “This investigation is aimed at trying to figure out which illegal operations are taking place in our country’s oil trade,” he emphasized.

Moreover, he noted that since he began discussing the possible linkage between Albayarak and Daesh oil, he has been subjected to an all-out informational attack by pro-government media.

“Today, the Takvim newspaper called me an American puppet, an Israeli agent, a supporter of the [Kurdish] PKK, and the instigator of a coup…all in the same sentence. I am inclined to view this attack on me as an attempt to belittle my significance, to attack my reputation in the eyes in the public, given that my investigation is a real threat to the government. Such a sharply negative reaction suggests that my assumptions are fair, and I am moving in the right direction to find the truth.”

Ultimately, the lawmaker noted that the state-connected media’s reaction “have only convinced me further on the need to carry this investigation through to the end.”

Source:sputniknews

Turkey’s leadership, including President Erdogan and his family, is involved in illegal oil trade with- Russia

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cought red handed(RT)Turkey’s leadership, including President Erdogan and his family, is involved in illegal oil trade with Islamic State militants, says the Russian Defense Ministry, stressing that Turkey is the final destination for oil smuggled from Syria and Iraq.

The Russian Defense Ministry held a major briefing on new findings concerning IS funding in Moscow on Wednesday.

According to Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, Russia is aware of three main oil smuggling routes to Turkey

Today, we are presenting only some of the facts that confirm that a whole team of bandits and Turkish elites stealing oil from their neighbors is operating in the region,” Antonov said, adding that this oil “in large quantities” enters the territory of Turkey via “live oil pipelines,” consisting of thousands of oil trucks.

Antonov added that Turkey is the main buyer of smuggled oil coming from Iraq and Syria.

“According to our data, the top political leadership of the country – President Erdogan and his family – is involved in this criminal business.”

However, since the start of Russia’s anti-terrorist operation in Syria on September 30, the income of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) militants from illegal oil smuggling has been significantly reduced, the ministry said.

https://youtu.be/nMA4B2ZnQ2o

“The income of this terrorist organization was about $3 million per day. After two months of Russian airstrikes their income was about $1.5 million a day,” Lieutenant-General Sergey Rudskoy said.

For the past two months, Russia’s airstrikes hit 32 oil complexes, 11 refineries, 23 oil pumping stations, Rudskoy said, adding that the Russian military had also destroyed 1,080 trucks carrying oil products.

“These [airstrikes] helped reduce the trade of the oil illegally extracted on the Syrian territory by almost 50 percent.”

Up to 2,000 fighters, 120 tons of ammunition and 250 vehicles have been delivered to Islamic State and Al-Nusra militants from Turkish territory, chief of National Centre for State Defense Control Lt.Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said.

“According to reliable intelligence reports, the Turkish side has been taking such actions for a long time and on a regular basis. And most importantly, it is not planning to stop them.”

“One thing is clear. The role that Turkey is playing in this area is in many ways destructive and it’s affecting the European security, it’s affecting its neighbors. Ultimately it’s affecting its own society,” Uzi Arad, former head of research at Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency told RT.

Responding to the Russian allegations, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that nobody had a right to “slander” Turkey by accusing it of buying oil from Islamic State.

Speaking at a university in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Wednesday, Erdogan once again claimed that he would resign if such accusations were proven to be true and stressed that he did not want Turkey’s relations with Russia to deteriorate further.

Erdogan Shot Himself in the Foot By Shooting Down the Russian Jet

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harut-sassounian-small2BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

Leaders around the world have been pandering to Recep Tayyip Erdogan for years, trying to win him over to their side. They flattered the Turkish President so much that the lavish compliments went to his head. As the self-appointed Grand Sultan of the neo-Ottoman Empire, Erdogan started meddling in the internal affairs of neighboring countries, and jailing scores of his own citizens who dared to point out that the Sultan is naked!

The first leader to be duped by Erdogan was Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad whose ill-considered honeymoon with Turkey turned into an endless nightmare, devastating his country. The next head of state to part ways with the Turkish dictator was President Al-Sisi of Egypt. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has still not fully learned his lesson, carrying on a baffling love-hate relationship with Turkey. Erdogan almost succeeded even in tricking Armenia’s leaders with the deceptive Armenia-Turkey Protocols. Ironically, Armenia’s interests were saved by none other than Erdogan’s junior partner, Pres. Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, who killed the deal with his persistent self-serving objections.

The latest world leader to discover Erdogan’s fiendish nature is Vladimir Putin, after losing a military jet and two Russian airmen to a Turkish attack under the guise that the plane had crossed Turkey’s airspace for 17 seconds!

Within days of this tragic incident, the Russian government took several retaliatory measures that would have a devastating effect on Turkey’s economy:

— Banned the import of Turkish products. Trade between the two countries amounts to a whopping $33 billion annually, making Russia Turkey’s second largest trading partner.

— Refused the entry of Turkish businessmen into Russia. Sixty of them were detained upon their arrival in Moscow last week and sent back to Turkey.

— Lifted the visa-free travel of Turkish citizens to Russia as of January 1.

— Forbade hiring new Turkish workers — currently 200,000 live with their families in Russia — and cancelled multi-billion dollar construction contracts with Turkish firms.

— Ordered Russian travel agencies not to send tourists to Turkey, depriving that country of billions of dollars in income. Since 4.5 million Russians visited Turkey last year, Russia is the second largest source of foreign tourists.

— Imposed higher customs duties on imports from and exports to Turkey.

— Under consideration is the cancellation of three major projects: 1) Selling natural gas to Turkey as Russia supplies over half of that country’s needs; 2) Building Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, worth over $22 billion; and 3) Constructing a multi-billion dollar natural gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey.

Pres. Putin has also taken several military steps since the downing of the Russian jet:

— Boosted the Russian military presence in Syria — on the ground, in the air, and off the Mediterranean coast.

— Bombed pro-Turkish terrorist groups in the region where the Russian jet was hit and two Russian airmen killed.

— Destroyed hundreds of Turkish trucks, some of which were transporting weapons to the rebels in Syria, and others carrying oil bought from ISIS and smuggled into Turkey.

Russia may take additional military measures against Turkey in the near future:

— Arming Kurdish militants in Iraq, Syria, and within Turkey.

— Shooting down Turkish planes and helicopters that cross Syria’s or Armenia’s airspace, in view of such incursions in the past.

On the diplomatic front:

— Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cancelled his pre-planned trip to Turkey last week.

— Putin refused to take Erdogan’s phone calls and rejected his request for a meeting during their Paris visit.

— The Russian President called off the planned Summit Meeting with Erdogan in St. Petersburg on Dec. 15.

— The Russian Duma (Parliament) is considering a law that would criminalize denial of the Armenian Genocide: 300,000-500,000 Ruble penalty and three-year imprisonment.

— Some Russian politicians have even called for the liberation of Western Armenia from Turkish occupation and the establishment of free Kurdistan with its capital in Diyarbekir!

It appears that Pres. Putin will not easily back down after the treacherous Turkish attack on the Russian jet. He has no choice but to react harshly to show the world that he won’t allow anyone to attack Russians with impunity. Putin described the Turkish action as a “stab in the back from the accomplices of terrorists” and sternly warned of “severe consequences.”

Erdogan has finally bitten more than he can chew! He is foolishly confronting a nuclear power with a leader determined to go to great lengths to teach the arrogant Turkish President a lesson he will not soon forget.

If indeed Sultan Erdogan is counting on NATO to defend his reckless adventure, he is sadly mistaken. He cannot misrepresent the shooting down of a Russian jet as an attack on Turkey, and then seek protection by hiding under NATO’s skirts!

Regrettably, Turkey has become a major liability for NATO. The Turkish President’s irresponsible behavior over a minor incursion risks dragging all NATO members into a larger conflagration. NATO should seriously question the wisdom of harboring a terrorist state in its midst that can trigger yet again a grave international incident with far reaching consequences for the entire world!