Turkish Forum

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  • Turkey’s strategy reveals Erdogan has built a house of cards, not an Empire

    Turkey’s strategy reveals Erdogan has built a house of cards, not an Empire

    Erdogan
    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives for the G20 of World Leaders Summit on October 30, 2021 at the convention center “La Nuvola” in the EUR district of Rome. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)

    The year of 2023 might become perhaps the worst time for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his political career. Being harshly criticized for his foreign policy due to balancing between the West and Russia, making accuses towards the U.S. (the Turkey’s main strategic partner) and sticking to the NATO at the same time, Erdogan’s internal policy is also close to ruins.

    The Erdogan’s failure to response to the earthquake that hit the Turkish northern territories and killed more than 35 000 people is on the top of the presidential election campaign agenda. The Turkish leader is accused by opposition for hailing some of the housing projects that crumbled, killing thousands of people. According to some construction experts, contractors were allowed to skip crucial safety regulations, increasing their profits but putting residents at risk. The video, taken during a campaign stop ahead of Turkey’s March 2019 local elections, Erdogan mentioned new housing for the city of Kahramanmaras (also called as Maras), near the epicenter February’s quake, as one of his main achievements.

    “We solved the problem of 144,156 citizens of Maras with zoning amnesty,” Erdogan said, using his term for the construction amnesties handed out to allow contractors to ignore the safety codes.

    The earthquake-damaged territories mostly inhabited by Kurds, have always been an epicenter for Turkey’s internal policy. Having been oppressed by the Turkish ruling party for years for the activity of the local PKK party (Kurdish Working Party, considered as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government), these territories faced a revealed connivance of authorities towards housing construction that adds even more oil to the flame that’s discrediting Erdogan’s policy among locals.

    But in his foreign policy Erdogan has been even more uncompromising for several years. Having demonstrated his Ottoman Empire’s ambitions, the Turkish leader has managed to make enemies almost from all his partners and near-located countries. Harsh and uncensored accusations towards the West, an aggressive imperial policy towards some Middle East and Northern African countries, unstable position towards the Ukraine’s crisis have earned Erdogan a reputation of one of the most untrusted leaders.

    As one Turkish saying goes, “One can trust a Turk after 40 days of his death”, Erdogan seems to having done everything to prove this. Sadly, there seems to be almost no time to recover from it before the May,14 presidential elections. Unless the people’s trust will again be bought.

  • PUTIN IS DEAD MEAT

    PUTIN IS DEAD MEAT

     Vladimir Putin’s days as Russia’s leader are very few.

    Russia is in deep trouble because of him. He dates back to Josef Stalin.

    For almost a decade in the 1930s, Stalin had his despised purges that plundered the freedom-thinking population into zombies. Anyone left died during WW II.

    Communism has little regard for human life.

    After the war, it got even worse with his Secret Service which Vladimir was the star performer.

    Instead of taking Russia forward into the 21st century, he has leapfrogged backward into the 1930s.

    Today Russia is just a gas station. Alcoholism is rampant, and women are highly suspected when entering a foreign country because of many diseases.

    President Trump treated him as a Second Lieutenant in the arm services, and he obeyed. “Don’t embarrass me, I won’t you- Understand?” He agreed, and we had peace- except our Congress kept putting the lid on him.

    When Trump was president, that was the time to expand peaceful business enterprises that employed the citizens’ endeavors.

    I have taken a “cab ride” across Russia by railroad on the internet. Russia is a beautiful country with all sorts of potential, from mining to exploring lakefront villages for vacations. Imagine ski resorts and lakeshore areas with all kinds of family fun.

    All the government has to do is stand back and watch as its economy expands and provides miscellaneous income.

    Under Obama, Putin annexed Crimean without one nation objecting. No one objected when Hitler “took back” the Rhineland with 22,000 troops in violation of the Versailles Treaty. If one soldier had fired just one shot, the German High command would dispose of Hitler. Instead, the Generals accepted Hitler as their leader since there were no causalities. Germany was expanding without casualties.

    When Biden capitulated in Afghanistan, leaving tons of secret military hardware against us in future engagements, Putin saw his opportunity for further expansion with little effort.

    UKRAINE!

    Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

    Ukraine is a freedom-loving democracy with all kinds of politicians.

    They fought back, and thanks to Trump’s policies concerning NATO, they had backers that would support Ukraine.

    General Douglas MacArthur Paraphrased- was correct when he said democracy will always outlast a dictatorship in battles once the field commanders are removed or killed in action because no one wants to assume command. In a democracy, a command is a token of respect and achievement – not a death warrant.

    Russian soldiers were poorly trained and did not know how to drive a tank, as one could see them crashing into each other during battle. They are useless against drones who bomb a turret almost to perfection.

    No supply lines left tanks open to attack from drones. Living in a tank without proper food or water for days can be demoralizing.

    Please forget about the media about China. China would love to take back Vladivostok, which they lost over 100 years ago. Ha Ha.

    Estonia just held an election. Estonia borders Russia and Ukraine. Guess what?

    A Lady Tiger, Kaja Kallas, was elected Prime Minister, and with her coalition, she now controls 70 seats in a 101-seat parliament. She has been a constant critic of Putin.

    Mysteriously Russian supply depots are catching on fire.

    Riots in mass in many cities with the police are just watching. Riots are a severe threat and flaw to any dictatorship.

    A few years ago, through a Deutsche Bank branch in Moscow and London, V. Putin sold one million shares of Gazprom in Russia and at the same time bought one million shares on the London Stock Exchange at the same equivalent price. He converted his Russian Ruble into the English Pound at total commissions. It cost Deutsche bank dearly as its stock sold for over 100 Euros; today, it is 11.91 USD.

    Imagine what Vladimir did with these funds. If he opened a Swiss bank account, what would happen?

    The Swiss are contemplating or have frozen all Russian bank accounts. OMG!!!!

    The Russians need more supplies for long-term battles: tanks, ammunition, food, and, most important, men. Russians are immigrating to other countries by the thousands, and it already has a declining population.

    Putin has been playing musical chairs, and he now finds out that when the music stops, there are no chairs!

    Cheerio !!!

    IN GOD WE TRUST

    Richard C De Graff

  • Israel’s Massive Supply of Sophisticated Weapons to Azerbaijan

    Israel’s Massive Supply of Sophisticated Weapons to Azerbaijan

    The Israeli Haaretz newspaper published on March 5, an astounding article titled: “92 Flights from Israeli Base Reveal Arms Exports to Azerbaijan.”

    The article reported that on March 2, Azerbaijan’s Silk Way Airlines’ cargo plane landed in Israel’s Ovda military airport, and two hours later returned to Baku via Turkey and the Georgian Republic. In the last seven years, this is the 92nd cargo flight from Baku to Ovda, the only airfield in Israel that is allowed to export explosives. These military shipments increased substantially during Azerbaijan’s attacks on Armenia/Artsakh in 2016, 2020, 2021 and 2022. Pres. Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan has described Israel’s covert relations with Azerbaijan as being like an iceberg, nine-tenths of it is below the surface.

    Israel supplies almost 70% of Azerbaijan’s weapons and in return receives about half of its imported oil. Haaretz quoted foreign media sources disclosing that: “Azerbaijan has allowed the Mossad [Israel’s intelligence agency] to set up a forward branch [in Azerbaijan] to monitor what is happening in Iran, Azerbaijan’s neighbor to the south, and has even prepared an airfield intended to aid Israel in case it decides to attack Iranian nuclear sites. Reports from two years ago stated that the Mossad agents who stole the Iranian nuclear archive smuggled it to Israel via Azerbaijan. According to official reports from Azerbaijan, over the years Israel has sold it the most advanced weapons systems, including ballistic missiles, air defense and electronic warfare systems, kamikaze drones and more.”

    Haaretz revealed that Azerbaijan’s Silk Way Airlines “operates three weekly flights between Baku and [Israel’s] Ben-Gurion International Airport with Boeing 747 cargo freighters.” In addition, some Eastern European countries circumvent the ban on the sale of weapons to Azerbaijan by shipping them via Israel.

    The restriction of the sale of weapons by Europe and the United States to Armenia and Azerbaijan created an opportunity for Israel to earn billions of dollars in weapons’ sales to Azerbaijan.

    Haaretz reported that “Israel has exported a very wide range of weapons to the country [Azerbaijan] — starting with Tavor assault rifles all the way to the most sophisticated systems such as radar, air defense, antitank missiles, ballistic missiles, ships and a wide range of drones, both for intelligence and attack purposes. Israeli companies have also supplied advanced spy tech, such as communications monitoring systems from Verint and the Pegasus spyware from the NSO Group — tools that were used against journalists, the LGBT community and human rights activists in Azerbaijan, too.”

    The Stockholm International Peace Institute wrote: “Israel’s defense exports to Azerbaijan began in 2005 with the sale of the Lynx multiple launch rocket systems by Israel Military Industries (IMI Systems), which has a range of 150 kilometers (92 miles). IMI, which was acquired by Elbit Systems in 2018, also supplied LAR-160 light artillery rockets with a range of 45 kilometers, which, according to a report from Human Rights Watch, were used by Azerbaijan to fire banned cluster munitions at residential areas in Nagorno-Karabakh,” even though Israel and 123 other countries have banned the use of cluster bombs.

    Haaretz reported that “In 2007, Azerbaijan signed a contract to buy four intelligence-gathering drones from Aeronautics Defense Systems. It was the first deal of many. In 2008 it purchased 10 Hermes 450 drones from Elbit Systems and 100 Spike antitank missiles produced by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and in 2010 it bought another 10 intelligence-gathering drones. Soltam Systems, owned by Elbit, sold it ATMOS self-propelled guns and 120-millimeter Cardom mortars, and in 2017 Azerbaijan’s arsenal was supplemented with the more advanced Hanit mortars. According to the telegram leaked in Wikileaks, a sale of advanced communications equipment from Tadiran was also signed in 2008.”

    According to Haaretz, “Israel and Azerbaijan took their relationship up a level in 2011 with a huge $1.6 billion deal that included a battery of Barak missiles for intercepting aircraft and missiles, as well as Searcher and Heron drones from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). It was reported that near the end of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, a Barak battery shot down an Iskander ballistic missile launched by Armenia. Aeronautics Defense Systems also began cooperating with the local arms industry in Azerbaijan, where some of the 100 Orbiter kamikaze (loitering munitions) drones were produced — drones that Azerbaijan’s defense minister called ‘a nightmare for the Armenian army.’”

    In 2021, “an indictment was filed against [Israel’s] Aeronautics Defense Systems for violating the law regulating defense exports in its dealing with one of its most prominent clients. A court-imposed gag order prevents the publication of further details. A project to modernize the Azerbaijani army’s tanks began in the early 2010s. Elbit Systems upgraded and equipped the old Soviet T-72 models with new protective gear to enhance the tanks’ and their crews’ survivability, as well as fast and precise target acquisition and fire control systems. The upgraded tanks, known as Aslan (Lion), starred in the 2013 military parade. Azerbaijan’s navy was reinforced in 2013 with six patrol ships based on the Israel Navy’s Sa’ar 4.5-class missile boats, produced by Israel Shipyards and carrying the naval version of the Spike missiles, along with six Shaldag MK V patrol boats with Rafael’s Typhoon gun mounts and Spike missile systems. Azerbaijan’s navy also bought 100 Lahat antitank guided missiles.”

    In 2014, “Azerbaijan ordered the first 100 Harop kamikaze drones from IAI, which were a critical tool in later rounds of fighting. Azerbaijan also purchased two advanced radar systems for aerial warning and defense from IAI subsidiary Elta that same year…. Two years later, Azerbaijan bought another 250 SkyStriker kamikaze drones from Elbit Systems. Many videos from the areas of fighting showed Israeli drones attacking Armenian forces…. In 2016, during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Baku, Aliyev revealed that contracts had already been signed between the two countries for the purchase of some $5 billion in ‘defensive equipment.’ In 2017, Azerbaijan purchased advanced Hermes 900 drones from Elbit Systems and LORA ballistic missiles from IAI, with a range 430 kilometers. In 2018, Aliyev inaugurated the base where the LORA missiles are deployed, at a distance of about 430 kilometers from Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. During the war in 2020, at least one LORA missile was launched, and according to reports it hit a bridge that Armenia used to supply arms and equipment to its forces in Nagorno-Karabakh. More advanced Spike missiles were sent in 2019 and 2020.”

    It is appalling that the descendants of the Holocaust are supplying such massive lethal weapons to Azerbaijan to kill the descendants of the Armenian Genocide.

  • Artsakh’s President Made a Huge Mistake By Dismissing Vardanyan at Aliyev’s Orders

    Artsakh’s President Made a Huge Mistake By Dismissing Vardanyan at Aliyev’s Orders

    Artsakh’s President Arayik Harutyunyan made a huge mistake last Thursday when he succumbed to the pressure of Pres. Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, dismissing State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire businessman who had made his fortune in Moscow. Last September, Vardanyan renounced his Russian citizenship and settled in Artsakh, saying he wants to be with his people at their greatest hour of need. Shortly after his move, Pres. Harutyunyan appointed him as State Minister of Artsakh.

    The President of Artsakh should not have fired Vardanyan or should have at least waited for a while so it did not look like he was carrying out Aliyev’s orders so promptly. Unfortunately, Vardanyan was dismissed right after the International Court of Justice increased the pressure on Azerbaijan by ruling against it.

    Shamefully, Gurgen Arsenyan, a Member of Parliament from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s ruling party, made the following treacherous statement in Parliament in February: “there is no need to risk three million Armenians for the sake of Artsakh.” It is never a good idea when you and your enemy are on the same side!

    Recently, several Azeri journalists and even Pres. Aliyav denigrated Vardanyan by calling him “a Russian oligarch, criminal, and money launderer.”

    In Oct. 2022, Aliyev personally complained to Pres. Vladimir Putin of Russia about Vardanyan. Putin told Aliyev that he knew nothing about Vardanyan’s presence and activities in Artsakh.

    On Nov. 17, 2022, during a meeting with Dirk Schuebel, Special Envoy of the European Union for the Eastern Partnership, Aliyev said that he refuses to negotiate with Vardanyan, whom he called “Moscow’s emissary” in Karabakh. Aliyev continued: “We are ready to talk…with Armenians who live in Karabakh, not with those who have been sent from Moscow hiding in their pockets billions of dollars money stolen from Russian people, like the man called Vardanyan who was transferred from Moscow there with a very clear agenda.”

    On February 18, 2023, during a panel discussion in Munich, Germany, with Prime Minister Pashinyan, Aliyev said that he is ready to start practical communication with representatives of the Armenian community in the Karabakh region: “But, we can do it only when Russian citizen criminal oligarch, a person who was involved in money laundering in Europe, Vardanyan, is out of our territory.” Aliyev added: Vardanyan “was exported from Russia to have the leading position in Karabakh. Maybe exported is not the right word. I would probably prefer the word smuggled.”

    It is not up to Aliyev to decide who should represent Artsakh in negotiations. That’s the decision of Artsakh’s government. It would have been wiser for the President of Artsakh not to dismiss Vardanyan at all, just to show Aliyev who calls the shots in Artsakh.

    I suggest that Vardanyan file lawsuits for libel in the European Court of Human Rights against all those who told lies about him, forcing the scandalous Azeri journalists and Pres. Aliyev himself to pay a hefty penalty and publicly apologize to Vardanyan.

    Finally, it is not a good idea to succumb to pressures from your enemies which only encourage them to demand further concessions from you. The list of their demands is endless.

    Here are some current and potential Azeri demands from Artsakh and Armenia:

    — Azerbaijan to place its checkpoints on the Lachin Corridor;

    — The future ‘Zangezur Corridor’, linking Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan, to enjoy a status similar to the Lachin Corridor;

    — Seeking further concessions, even after the Lachin Corridor is opened, Azerbaijan will probably block it again;

    — After the fake Azeri environmentalists demanded to inspect the mines in Artsakh, its leaders unwisely shut down the mines, thus encouraging the Azeris to demand more concessions, instead of telling them: “that’s none of your business,” which led to the next Azeri demand that Armenians stop extracting metals from Artsakh mines;

    — Seeking further Armenian concessions, Azeri forces will probably occupy more territories of the Republic of Armenia.

    Similarly, Turkey will seek concessions demanding that Armenia:

    — Delete from its Declaration of Independence the reference to the Armenian Genocide in “Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia.” If not, Turkey would threaten to shut down the border with Armenia after opening it;

    — Stop campaigning for the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide;

    — Accept the existing borders with Turkey, giving up any future claims for the territories of Western Armenia;

    — Ban the burning of the Turkish flag on April 24;

    — Give up any demands for restitution from Turkey for the Genocide losses.

    The leaders of Armenia and Artsakh should understand that appeasing a bully leads to more bullying, not to peace.

    Regrettably, despite sacrificing Vardanyan at Aliyev’s request, expecting that Azerbaijan would then unblock the Lachin Corridor in return, the Corridor is still blocked as of Feb. 27. Even after a closed door meeting on Feb. 25 between the representatives of Artsakh and Azerbaijan, the Corridor remains closed.

    Vardanyan announced that despite his dismissal, he will continue to live in Artsakh. It is unknown what role is he able or willing to play without an official position.

    Only one mystery remains. What did Pres. Harutyunyan and State Minister Vardanyan do in Moscow earlier in February when both of them traveled separately to Moscow and returned to Artsakh within a few days? Why did they go to Moscow? Who did they meet with? What did they talk about? Neither one has said a word about that visit. Knowing the answers to these questions may shed additional light on Vardanyan’s dismissal.

  • Earthquake Damage and Corruption Are Intertwined in Erdogan’s Turkey

    Earthquake Damage and Corruption Are Intertwined in Erdogan’s Turkey

    With each passing day, the number of victims of the earthquake in Turkey is increasing. Our heart goes out to the nearly 50,000 dead and close to 200,000 injured as of now. The ancient city of Antioch (Antakya) with a population of 250,000 has been mostly reduced to rubble.

    As I wrote last week, Armenians should distinguish between the Turkish government that committed the Genocide and the Turkish people who played no role in this mass crime. Not one of today’s Turks was alive in 1915.

    In recent days, hundreds of articles have been written by journalists from around the world pointing out that Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s corrupt practices increased the toll of the disaster manifold. Erdogan who came to power in 2003 as a devout Muslim has turned into a corrupt dictator. As it is said, “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Many Turks blame Erdogan personally for the large number of deaths and the collapse or damage of over 100,000 buildings which were poorly-constructed by the President’s cronies. At least one million people have been left homeless in Turkey.

    Let’s start with the earthquake tax that the Turkish government established after the earthquake in 1999 which had caused the deaths of 17,000 people in Turkey. In 2021, by a presidential decree, the tax was increased from 7.5% to 10% on all private communication. The billions of dollars raised through this tax were used to fund construction, transport and agricultural projects, instead of the intended purposes of reinforcing buildings and disaster prevention.

    Reuters reported the anguished plea from a mother whose two sons were trapped alive for two days under the rubble in Antakya, begging for a crane to rescue her children. “Many in Turkey say more people could have survived the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the south of the country and neighboring Syria if the emergency response had been faster and better organized.” In the absence of an organized rescue effort, people were forced to dig through the rubble with their bare hands to save their family members.

    Turkish soldiers either did not show up to help in the rescue or were too slow to arrive, awaiting orders from Erdogan’s civilian officials. Interestingly, Erdogan had “risen to prominence more than two decades ago partly due to his critique of the response to a major 1999 earthquake,” Reuters reported. Instead, “he hollowed out state institutions, placed loyalists in key positions, wiped out most civil society organizations, and enriched his cronies to create a small circle of loyalists around him,” according to Foreignpolicy.com. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition party, said that even more damaging than the magnitude of last week’s quake was the “lack of coordination, lack of planning and incompetence.”

    Making the disaster worse, “in 2019, Pres. Erdogan of Turkey praised legislation that his political party had pushed through allowing property owners to have construction violations forgiven without bringing their buildings up to code,” according to The New York Times. Up to 75,000 buildings were given such amnesties in the earthquake zone alone. Ironically, just a few days before the earthquake, the government was about to issue another amnesty for construction violators. Now the Turkish government is arresting building contractors with ties to collapsed buildings. But the true culprits are the government officials who approved these shoddy buildings. Many of the owners of these buildings have close ties to Pres. Erdogan or his ruling political party.

    Rather than taking urgent measures to rescue the trapped citizens, Erdogan lashed back at his critics. One such critic, “a French journalist with long experience in Turkey, Guillaume Perrier, was detained at the Istanbul airport and deported back to France, with a five-year ban on his reentry into the country,” the Middle East Institute reported. Furthermore, the government temporarily closed down the social media in the midst of the earthquake to block criticism of the Turkish government’s incompetence.

    The Jerusalem Post published an article on Feb. 20, titled: “After the earthquake, Turkey’s Erdogan hunts for scapegoats.” The article stated that: “Erdogan’s house of cards has collapsed with the earthquake. There is already a rush to find scapegoats and as well as the arrests of looters…. Faced with the coming elections, what Erdogan will find equally hard to explain is a video circulating on social media, where he boasted he had approved a construction amnesty for buildings in the earthquake epicenter of Kahramanmarash, in 2019. This meant they were absolved from adhering to building and earthquake regulations. In the 10 earthquake provinces, almost 295,000 buildings were included.”

    One of the unexpected side effects of the disastrous earthquake is that Turkey will be preoccupied for several years with the reconstruction of over hundred thousand collapsed buildings. Turkey’s attention will be sidetracked from attacking Syria, Iraq, Cyprus, Greece, Armenia and Libya. These countries will breathe a sigh of relief for a while!

  • Aid from Armenia to Turkey Generates Heated Debate Among Armenians

    Aid from Armenia to Turkey Generates Heated Debate Among Armenians

    The Armenian government’s decision to send massive humanitarian aid and dozens of rescuers to Turkey following the powerful earthquake generated much controversy among Armenians.

    The Turkish government is not a friend of Armenia or Armenians. Turkey is a mortal enemy having committed the Armenian Genocide in 1915 and continuing its denials until today. More recently, the Turkish military and imported Islamic terrorists supported Azerbaijan during the 2020 Artsakh War, causing the deaths of thousands of Armenian soldiers. Last week, Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged that Azerbaijan was reciprocating for Turkey’s support during the 2020 war by sending several hundred rescuers to the earthquake zone. Erdogan then added his often repeated mantra, “Azerbaijan and Turkey are one nation, two states.” Furthermore, a week ago, while Armenia was providing humanitarian aid to Turkey, the Turkish government, in the midst of the disastrous earthquake, found the time to condemn the Mexican Senate for recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

    Armenia’s sending 27 rescuers and 100 tons of food, medicines and other relief supplies to Turkey was controversial because the aid was provided not only to an unrepentant enemy and on the heels of the Armenian losses inflicted by Turkey during the 2020 War, but during the current humanitarian crisis in Artsakh due to Azeri blockade of the Lachin Corridor, which is supported by Turkey. While 120,000 Armenians in Artsakh are slowly starving to death being deprived of food and medicines for over 60 days, Armenia’s Prime Minister, President and Speaker of the Parliament, ignoring Armenian sensitivities, announced sending aid to Turkey. They naively insisted that their humanitarian action will help bring peace between Armenia and Turkey.

    Naturally, when a major disaster happens anywhere in the world, most countries rush to the rescue of those afflicted. Armenia could not remain indifferent. However, Armenian leaders could have softened the public’s backlash if they had issued a more delicately-worded announcement regarding the aid to Turkey while acknowledging that they are mindful of the plight of Artsakh Armenians due to the blockade of the Lachin Corridor.

    It is important that Armenians distinguish between the Turkish government and Turkish people. Armenia and Armenians have a justified demand from the Turkish government for the Armenian losses suffered during the Genocide, but they should not antagonize individual Turks who played no part in the Genocide, since they were not even born at that time. However, if a Turk denies the Genocide and insults the memory of the Armenian martyrs, he or she should be condemned just as the denialist Turkish government.

    One of the consequences of the disastrous earthquake in Turkey is the collapse of Erdogan’s already low political rating. There are claims by the Turkish opposition that Erdogan has unfairly dispatched most of the Turkish rescuers to the earthquake regions inhabited by his supporters who had voted for him in the past. He has been subjected to harsh criticisms due to the Turkish government’s slow actions to rescue the large number of victims of the earthquake. Tens of thousands of Turkish citizens died due to the collapse of poorly constructed hundreds of high-rise apartment buildings, as a result of Erdogan government’s corrupt practices. Many buildings that were properly constructed did not collapse.

    The Presidential election in Turkey is scheduled for May 14, 2023, three months from now. Knowing that his chances of winning re-election fairly is low, Pres. Erdogan will probably delay the election, giving him time to come up with various schemes to boost his rating. Getting re-elected is a must for Erdogan because if he loses the election, he will not just lose the presidency. He risks ending up in jail for the rest of his life because of his and his family’s massive corruption.

    Therefore, Erdogan will do everything possible to remain in power. Even though he has no legal right to postpone the election, he will order the judiciary to rule that given the emergency situation in the country, delaying the election is legal and justified.

    Erdogan is already making lavish promises to his potential voters. He has promised to millions of homeless Turkish survivors of the earthquake that the government will give them free apartments in one year. Erdogan is forgetting that he has no right to make such a promise because a year from now he may not be the President of Turkey.

    Erdogan will also provide large amounts of money to the public to win over their votes. To rebuild the devastated areas of Turkey, foreign countries and international financial institutions will donate billions of dollars which Erdogan will distribute lavishly to the voters to get re-elected.