Oct. 11, 2019 at 5:10 p.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/11/its-clear-trump-doesnt-want-be-president-anymore/
Category: News
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U.S. forces say Turkey was deliberately ‘bracketing’ American troops with artillery fire in Syria
This picture taken Saturday near the Syrian border town of Kobane shows a U.S. observation post where the Pentagon said U.S. troops came under Turkish artillery fire on Friday. (OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images)Turkish forces who launched multiple artillery rounds near a U.S. Special Operations outpost in northeastern Syria on Friday have known for months that Americans were there, according to four current and former U.S. officials, raising questions whether Turkey is trying to push American troops farther from the border.
The incident occurred on a hilltop base overlooking the town of Kobane as Turkey continues an operation launched Tuesday against Syrian Kurds, some of whom the United States has partnered with for years in its campaign against the Islamic State. The incursion has focused on an area 60 miles to the west of Kobane, but U.S. officials believe Turkey has long-term aspirations to control a much larger swath of Syria.
The rounds landed about 9 p.m. within a few hundred yards of the base on Mistenur Hill, U.S. officials said. Navy Capt. Brook DeWalt, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that the U.S. troops “came under artillery fire” but were unharmed and that there was an explosion.
“The U.S. demands that Turkey avoid actions that could result in immediate defensive action,” DeWalt said.
In a statement issued Friday, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said its troops had not fired on the Americans and were acting “in self-defense” after one of their border posts was attacked.
But the situation, first reported by Newsweek, was more serious than characterized Friday, several officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Before U.S. troops pulled out of northern Syria, clearing the way for a Turkish invasion, The Post went there and met Kurds who feared the looming assault. (Joyce Lee/The Washington Post)One Army officer who has deployed to northeastern Syria and has knowledge of the situation said that multiple rounds of 155mm fire were launched from Turkey’s side of the border and that they had a “bracketing effect” in which shells landed on both sides of the U.S. outpost.
“That’s an area weapon,” the officer said, noting its explosive effects. “That’s not something we ever would have done to a partner force.”
The officer said Turkey knew there were Americans on the hill and that it had to be deliberate. The service members vacated the outpost after the incident but returned Saturday, according to a U.S. official and images circulating on social media.
“We had been there for months, and it is the most clearly defined position in that entire area,” the officer said.
Brett McGurk, a former special envoy for both the Obama and Trump administrations in the campaign against the Islamic State, raised concerns about the incident Friday, saying on Twitter that the United States had declared the position to Turkey.
“This was not a mistake,” he said.
McGurk, who often collaborated with the U.S. military in Syria before resigning his position in December, emphasized the increasing risks to Americans throughout Syria in an email Saturday.
“Turkey wants us off the entire border region to a depth of 30 kilometers,” or about 20 miles, he said. “Based on all the facts available, these were warning fires on a known location, not inadvertent rounds.”
Turkey launched its operation into Syria on Tuesday, two days after President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the issue in a phone call and the White House announced that the United States would not stand in Turkey’s way. Trump, explaining his decision, said Monday that he wants to end “endless wars” in the Middle East.
The move immediately raised concerns that the United States was abandoning Syrian Kurds, who have been the closest U.S. partner in counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State. The Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, has formed the backbone of U.S. efforts in northeastern Syria and collaborated with U.S. troops, but Turkey considers the group to be part of a Kurdish movement, the PKK, that it deems a terrorist organization.
Turkey said in its statement that it opened fire after Kurdish forces launched rounds at them but stopped when the United States warned that the rounds were too close. U.S. officials confirmed Saturday that the firing ended after U.S. forces contacted the Turks, but some questioned whether the Kurdish were involved at all.
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Friday they would not abandon the Kurds but acknowledged the Pentagon has withdrawn forces from Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn in response to Turkey’s incursion between the two border towns.
Turkey appears to have aspirations to push the United States away from Kobane, as well, several officials said. The Army officer with knowledge of Syria said Turkish forces previously have launched artillery over the border near U.S. forces.
Milley, speaking Friday at the Pentagon shortly before the incident outside Kobane, said the Turkish military “is fully aware, down to explicit grid coordinate detail,” of the location of U.S. troops in Syria. He said senior U.S. military officials are coordinating with the Turks “to make sure that they know exactly where American forces are.”
Another U.S. defense official, also speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the Pentagon “obviously” told Turkey where U.S. troops are and “they certainly [went] closer than we would have liked” in the incident outside Kobane.
“Whether that’s intentional or reckless, either way it’s troubling,” the official said.
Liz Sly contributed to this report.
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The Fatal Flaw in Trump’s ISIS Plan
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Subscribe NowA Kurdish fighter from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) gestures at a convoy of U.S military vehicles driving in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish border, Syria, on April 28, 2017. Rodi Said / Reuters When Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visits Washington next week, he and President Donald Trump will no doubt spend considerable time discussing the future of the Syrian-Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), America’s favored contingent in the war against the Islamic State. With U.S. assistance over the past two and a half years, the YPG-dominated anti-ISIS forces have recaptured some 7,400 square kilometers of northeastern Syria from the terrorist group. From Erdogan’s perspective, this strategy, embraced by the Obama administration and now Trump, is helping a Kurdish terrorist group that threatens Turkey’s security and territorial integrity—security and territorial integrity that NATO is supposed to help defend. Erdogan’s likely response: more pressure on America’s Syrian-Kurdish allies, even if that pressure undermines Washington’s goal of reducing the Arab-extremist threat in eastern Syria Recent events show how complicated this will be for the Trump administration. After Turkey’s bombing of YPG positions in northern Iraq and Syria on April 25, a U.S. military officer met with a known commander of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), an insurgent group that has long been a thorn in Turkey’s side, and has held a spot on the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list since 1997. The meeting provoked outrage in Turkey and drew a sharp rebuke from Erdogan. The announcement on Wednesday that the United States would arm the YPG demonstrated that Erdogan has failed to convince the Americans to reverse course with the PYD-YPG, despite intense lobbying. His visit to Washington promises to be a difficult one for both governments. As autocratic and intemperate as he is, Erdogan isn’t actually wrong about the commingling of various Kurdish outfits. In a 2013 interview with Osman Ocalan, the brother of imprisoned PKK leader Abdallah Ocalan, Osman claimed that he and other PKK figures founded the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the YPG’s political arm, in 2003 in Iraq’s Qandil Mountains, the headquarters of the PKK. The PYD is also a member of the Kurdish Communities Union, established in 2005 in Qandil by the Kurdish People’s Congress, a PKK organization that the State Department added to the FTO in January 2004. The co-chairperson of the executive council of the Kurdish Communities Union is Cemil Baylik, the acting leader of the PKK. In addition, hardened PKK activists, fighters, and commanders fill the ranks of the PYD and YPG. A YPG fighter told The Wall Street Journal that he had been with the PKK before, and that fighters regularly rotated between PKK armed entities. Iraqi Kurdish Region President Masud Barzani, a close ally of the United States against ISIS, said in March 2016 that the PYD and the PKK are basically the same entity. Yet, the Trump administration (and Obama’s before him) keep contending, as recently as March 8, that the PYD-YPG and PKK are separate entities. But this has no basis in observable fact. And given the organic links between the YPG and the PKK, the PYD-YPG autonomous zone in northeastern Syria will likely provide strategic depth for the PKK’s ongoing and future fight against Turkey—something Erdogan knows and fears. There are reports out of Turkey already that Kurdish militants aligned with the PKK and PYD organized and trained in YPG-held northeastern Syria for attacks conducted in Istanbul, Ankara, and Bursa, in 2016.
By relying on the YPG in the fight against ISIS, the United States is helping one terror group fight against another. That’s despite its longstanding policy of not working with any organization on the FTO, as it is doing with the YPG, which is effectively synonymous with the PKK. Of course, some argue that the PKK should not be on the U.S. FTO list. An in-depth discussion on the conditions for the PKK’s removal would require months. In the meantime, however, blatantly ignoring the FTO strictures on official U.S. conduct with a listed organization like the PKK and its subsidiaries reflects utter policy incoherence, diminishing America’s credibility on fighting terrorism.
America’s infatuation with the PYD-YPG also allows it to ignore some uncomfortable realities that will haunt it long after ISIS is ousted from Raqqa. While the PYD-YPG organization is secular, it is not democratic. It has repressed political competitors, detained other Kurdish political activists, and detained and harassed independent journalists. What’s more, its emphasis on gender equality, and its insistence on imposing its political agenda, will cause problems for the future governance of Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIS, and other Arab-majority towns the United States is now helping it seize from a weakened ISIS.
Consider the case of Layla Mohammed, a PYD member and women’s rights activist from the town of Tel Abayad on the Turkey-Syria border. In a conversation, a senior U.S. official spoke with admiration of her dedication and commitment to the cause of women in Syria. Over objections from some Arab community leaders in Raqqa, the PYD- and YPG-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (an entity that serves, basically, as a fig leaf by Washington to cover the U.S.-backed YPG campaign against ISIS) named Ms. Mohammed co-chair of a new Raqqa administrative council that will rule Raqqa after ISIS is gone. But Raqqa, more than Damascus, Homs, or Aleppo, is known among Syrians as a conservative Arab city, where many communities retain links to tribal networks extending along the Euphrates and eastwards into the Syrian desert towards Iraq. Traditional norms, including those governing the roles of women, prevail. Many Americans find the constraints placed on Arab women objectionable, and would applaud Ms. Mohammed’s activism. But as the Iraq war should have taught Washington, it cannot impose, either directly or through local proxies, its own social and political norms on conservative Middle Eastern communities without potentially provoking a counter-reaction.
Arab opinions polls from recent years make this tension plain. An unofficial survey of ISIS fighters from 2014 conducted by a Lebanese communications firm showed that defending Sunni communities under attack was the top reason recruits from other Muslim countries joined ISIS. The 2016 ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey highlighted how disputes over how best to interpret Islam and perceptions that western culture is being imposed on Arab societies feeds extremist recruitment. The longstanding Arab-Kurdish ethnic competition and the PYD’s ideological agenda, such as suddenly imposing gender equality, stand to boost extremist recruitment once ISIS shifts to insurgency mode after the fall of Raqqa.
Most worrisome: evidence that Sunni-Arab extremists learn and adapt from their own mistakes. In Idlib province in northwest Syria, al-Qaeda shifted away from the brutal tactics it honed in Iraq from 2004 to 2009. Instead, by transitioning into something of an “al-Qaeda, Version 3.0,” it has reduced violence against local populations, provided infrastructure-service delivery through local administrators, and integrated more with local communities. If the Arab communities of eastern Syria perceive that the PYD-YPG seeks to dominate them, wiser al-Qaeda and ISIS leaders in Syria may be poised to pick up more recruits and embed in communities, making the coming Arab insurgency harder to contain.
For now, ISIS is still in Raqqa and hasn’t yet shifted into wide-scale insurgency mode. But it won’t be long until Washington will have to decide who will control and govern Raqqa and eastern Syria, and who will pay for it. As Colin Powell told George W. Bush in 2003, if Bush toppled Saddam, America would “own” Iraq and have to take responsibility for it. America may soon have 1,000 more troops on the ground in eastern Syria, and its proxies are seizing new territory from ISIS every week with U.S. support, including a Marine artillery battalion and regular airstrikes. There are even U.S. peacekeepers deployed in Manbij and near Tel Abayad to keep Turkish, Syrian-Arab, and Syrian-Kurdish fighters from shooting at each other. America now effectively owns eastern Syria.
The Obama administration knowingly launched America in this direction, but Trump, who denounced nation-building in his campaign, will pay the larger bills now coming due. America’s difficulties will be even worse if Turkey stokes further anti-PYD-YPG sentiment in this Arab-majority region. Thus, we will need to cut a deal with Erdogan.The saddest part of all this is that the Syrian Kurds, like so many Middle Easterners before them, think the Americans will protect them from their enemies. They have forgotten the bitter experience of Mustafa Barzani, the Iraqi-Kurdish leader whom the Americans backed in the 1970s against the Iraqi Baathist regime, only to sell them out in 1975 when the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran cut a deal with Baghdad. Henry Kissinger halted the U.S. arms supply to Barzani, and Iraqi forces overran Iraqi Kurdistan. Mustafa Barzani, father of President Masud Barzani, had to flee and died in exile in the U.S. Especially with presidents like Obama and Trump, the Syrian Kurds of today should expect no better of the Americans. We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com
Robert Ford is a teaching fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute. He is a former U.S. ambassador to Syria and deputy ambassador to Iraq. -
SYRIA ISSUE: LETTER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP AND FOX NEWS FROM TURKISH FORUM ADVISORY BOARD
SURIYE SORUNU…
BASKAN TRUMP VE FOX NEWS’A
TURKISH FORUM-DUNYA TURKLERI BIRLIGI
DANISMA KURULUNDAN BIR MESAJ
To: Fox News … October 10, 2019
To: President D.J. Trump, Pres. USA
From: Dr. Robert B. McKay, robtmckay @msn.comAdvisor to Turkish Forum & Dr. Kayaalp Buyukataman, Founder/ President of Turkish Forum.
Fox News:
FNWHD Hemmer/Smith constantly states “Turkey Attacking U.S. Ally”, However, it is Turkey who has been the longest and best ally of the USA, not the Kurds:
Turkey is our partner. The Kurdish PKK has been declared a terrorist organization
by the United Nations and has killed over 30,000 Turks. Kurds have done little to help
the USA compared to Turkey. Kurdish interests are self serving for territorial gain.
Turkish troops in Korea …. provided troops in the Korean conflict: The Turks stayed
behind and took the loses for our men to escape. Turkey was our greatest ally in the
Cold War against Russia; Submarine monitoring of Russia from the Black Sea, the
U-2 airplane kept at the Incirlik Air Base near Adana, our spy stations in Samsun our
nuclear capabilities for quick strikes against Russia and/or China and our air bases
in Turkey.
It is foolish, and irresponsible for Fox News not to recognize Turkey as our long
time friend. Furthermore, Turkey, like the USA has an OBLIGATION to protect its
national and territorial interests…which for many decades have been under Kurdish
attack!!!
Characterizing Turkey as an enemy (by omission of facts) can only make Turkey
seek other friends or, at the least create further friction in a part of the world where
more came is needed.
Recent guests on Fox News, who are intelligent people but who do not exhibit a
strong historical knowledge of Turkey’s role have included Niki Haley, General
Pittard and retired Major General Malcolm Frost.
Sarah Sanders has been the first person on Fox to correctly acknowledge the
difficulties when two of our friends are having a dispute between themselves.
We will see Turkey solve the problem of Kurdish terrorism, for the sole reason
of protecting itself from attack: as President Trump has correctly forecast.
Most importantly thousands of Kurds, even today live peacefully in Turkey. This
peace will continue when the nationalistic Kurds of Syria give up their attempt to
annex parts of Eastern Turkey to create a new expanded Kurdish State.
Since the time of Ataturk after WWI Turkey has never had territorial aspirations..
except to live in their own homes—in peace: nothing has changed-except Turkey is
housing three and one half million (3.5 m) refugees displaced by the U.S. war on ISIS.
Copy: Honorable Serdar Kilic: Turkish Ambassador to the USA: Serdar.Kilic @MFA.gov.tr
President D.J. Trump, Pres. USA: djtrump @Trumporg.com
Foxnews.com
Senator Lindsay Graham: Fax 202-224-5972
Dr. Kayaalp Buyukataman: Founder/President Turkish Forum: kbuyukataman @gmail.com
Mr. HikmetAslan,PresidentTurkishAmericanAssociation:SNETACA; aslanct @yahoo.com
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan receptayyip.erdogan @baskanlik.gov.tr
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan; cimer @cumhurbaskanligi.gov.tr
Dr. Robert B McKay is The Advisor to Turkish Forum in Armenian, Kurdish and Cyprus issues since 1993
Dr Robert B. McKay has spend many years in Turkey and Taught in Tarsus American College with His Wife Lorraine McKay , Their Three children were Born in Turkey.
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A note from TF-WTC President;
NATO Ally of the Republic of Turkey Battles Terrorist , Not Kurds.
Turkey is not and has not been against the Kurdish people. Such smear campaigns have only become another weapon in the international platform to delegitimize Turkey. The fact of the matter is Turkey is against terrorist organization like the Marxist–Leninist communist PKK, YPG and ISIS who are walking around freely in Syria / Iraq with guns,missiles pointed at Turkey.
What would Israel do ? ,
What would US do ? ,
What would any government do? to protect it’s national interest and national security ?
I thank The State of Hungary and The State of Spain for not signing EU declaration against Turkish Actions to protect its citizens and national security and I hope many other nations will join them this week.
Dr. Kayaalp Buyukataman
…………………………………………………………………………………
COMMENTS ,, SEFER OZDEMIR ,,
“Good Kurds” (show original) 9:32 PM (1 hour ago)
Legitimizing Terrorists Whitewash the PKK / YPG as a “Good Kurds,”
How is it that any American can feel good about arming and training a Marxist Leninist communist terrorist organization with American Tax money ?
It is extremely disturbing to read an articles and ones who are sympathetic toward one of the world’s most infamous and deadly terrorist groups, the PKK /YPG . Articles have been floated to serve as a propaganda instrument for the PKK and YPG , which is declared a terrorist organization by not only by the United States but the European Union and others.
PKK / YPG terrorist , are portrayed in many articles as humane fighters in an epic struggle against ISIS , The truth is the group has has committed acts of brutal terror that have cost the lives of tens of thousands of Turkish citizens, Syrian Citizens and Araps , among them teachers, engineers, villagers, women and children.
Articles begin floated declaring Turkey in attacking Kurds in Syria, Do not speak the truth on was is taking place on the ground but are only Fake News with ones who have an alternative motives . There is now the tendency of depicting PKK/ YPG as if they represent the Kurds as glorious heroes, given how they have been portrayed in our media in the fight against ISIS, turning a blind eye to the Kurds own excesses, and as victims, given the negative image of the Turks in our media. Kurdish-Turks are often portrayed as suffering from discrimination or oppression, which seeks to explain or partly justify the PKK /YPG , when the reality is Turkey’s Kurds are equal under the Turkish Constitution and regional Kurds reject the PKK/ YPG . How is it that any American can feel good about arming and training a Marxist Leninist communist terrorist organization with American Tax money ?Articles may choose to whitewash the PKK / YPG as a “militant group,” but our country, Israel and others have designated the PKK /YPG as a terrorist group. Notice how our prior Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter confirmed not only the YPG’s ties to the PKK, but the PKK’s terrorist nature, 45 seconds into 2016’s “Graham: ‘Hope is not a strategy’”
Turkeys current cross border Operation peace spring Battles Terrorist , Not Kurds. Turkey has taken step to protect her National interest against a terrorist organization Marxist–Leninist communist PKK, YPG and ISIS who are walking around freely in Syria / Iraq with guns, missiles pointed at Turkey.
Kurdish PKK/ YPG finding shelter in Northern Syria or Northern Iraq and the ones who harbor or to continue to legitimizing Terrorists or whitewash the PKK / YPG as a “Good Kurds,” whether their support is active or passive is irrelevant, for there are no acceptable levels of support for terror. Nor is it responsible to undercut the security of a long-term NATO ally like Turkey. Until all terrorist are expelled from Turkeys broader the fight against terror will continue. As I always ask ?What would Israel do? What would any government do? to protect it’s national interest and national security?
…………………………………………………………………………..
COMMENTS: YURDAGUL ATUN
Member since 1/9/16yurdagulbeyoglu (yurdagulbeyoglu @hotmail.com)
Ynt: [Turkish Forum – eturkiyeyiz.biz] “Good Kurds” (show original) 2:26 AM (2 hours ago)
Merhaba değerli arkadaşlar. Harekatla ilgili olarak, daha önce yaşanan vahşet fotoğrafları dünyaya “Türk askeri yapmış gibi” servis ediliyor. Bizlerin de buna karşı elimizden geldiğince karşı atak yapmamız gerek. Propagandanın en eski savaş taktiği olduğundan hareketle yetkililere tavsiyem, teknolojik aletlere ve yabancı dillere hakim kişilerden oluşan bir sosyal medya grubu oluşturarak, bu algı operasyonunu çürütmeleri. Tabi bunu bizler de -küçük boyutta da olsa- yapabiliriz. Aşağıdaki yazıda olduğu gibi. Lütfen twiterden veya diğer sosyal medya mecralarından Türk askerini kötüleyen, PKK’yı masum gösteren tweetlere karşı sizler de birşey yazınız. Devede kulak da olsa mesajımızın yerine ulaşması çok önemli. “Biz nasıl olsa haklıyız” diyerek meydanı boş bıraktık, şimdi bunun cezasını çekiyoruz.
Saygılarımla
Yurdagül Atun -
İçeride açılan şemsiye .. 17 yıldır bütün hesaplar Bağdat’tan dönüyor PULAT TACAR
Pulat Tacar [tacarps @gmail.com]
17 yıldır bütün hesaplar Bağdat’tan dönüyor ve biz yanlış ve hezimetlerden ders almamak hususunda inatla direniyoruz…
Turkey: Ergodan Has Badly Overplayed His Hand in the Khashoggi Affair
by Con Coughlin • October 5, 2019 at 5:00 am
§ Mr Erdogan, who has been the main driving force behind efforts to cause the Saudis maximum discomfort, now has an abundance of problems of his own, challenges which could spell the end of his 16-years in charge. After Mr Erdogan’s Islamist AKP party lost badly in last April’s mayoral election for control of Istanbul, the Turkish leader now finds himself trying desperately to salvage Turkey’s battered economy, where the currency is in free fall, foreign debts remain vast, and inflation and joblessness are alarmingly high.
§ Many Turks blame their country’s plight on Mr Erdogan’s obsession with pursuing his radical Islamist agenda, which includes supporting groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.
§ Many prefer him to concentrate instead on addressing their domestic concerns, a view the Turkish president would be well-advised to take on board if he intends to remain in power.
If Mr Erdogan’s aim throughout this process was to cause the Saudi Crown Prince maximum embarrassment, the ploy has failed miserably. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
A year after the brutal murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, attempts by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to exploit the controversy to boost his own political standing have back-fired.
Ever since Mr Khashoggi was murdered moments after entering the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in October last year to obtain documentation for his forthcoming marriage, Mr Erdogan has skilfully exploited the incident to cause maximum embarrassment to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom he regards as one of his major regional rivals.
Ankara has been at loggerheads with Riyadh ever since the Muslim Brotherhood, a key ally of Mr Erdogan, came to power in Egypt in 2012, a move bitterly resisted by the Saudis, who regard the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation.
Indeed, one of the reasons the Saudis targeted Mr Khashoggi in the first place was because of his close links with the Brotherhood, as well as his close relationship with Qatar, the Gulf state that is bitterly opposed to the Saudi royal family and is one of the Brotherhood’s most important backers.
Khashoggi’s gruesome fate was very much the consequence of this complex web of bitter regional rivalries between prominent Muslim leaders, so that when a team of Saudi assassins carried out their plot to silence Khashoggi’s high profile criticism of the Saudi regime — his columns regularly appeared in the Washington Post, among other prominent publications — Mr Erdogan responded by doing everything in his power to orchestrate an international campaign denouncing the Saudi crown prince.
Thus, in the immediate aftermath of the Khashoggi killing, the Turkish authorities oversaw a steady drip-feed of revelations about the murder that were acquired as a result of numerous bugging devices that had been placed in the Saudi consulate by Turkish intelligence. Turkish efforts to maintain their anti-Saudi public relations offensive have continued right up until the first anniversary of his death, which fell earlier this week, with new, even more graphic, details of how Mr Khashoggi met his end being made available to Western media organisations such as the BBC, which this week broadcast a programme claiming to have the “secret” tapes of Khashoggi’s last moments.
If Mr Erdogan’s aim throughout this process was to cause the Saudi Crown Prince maximum embarrassment, then, to judge by the way Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler is conducting himself, the ploy has failed miserably.
There was, of course, much speculation in the immediate aftermath of the affair that MbS, as the Saudi Crown Prince is universally known, might be removed from his position over claims that he was personally responsible for ordering the murder, which was very much the line being pushed by Mr Erdogan in the Western media.
A number of administrative changes were indeed made to the running of the Saudi royal court. But as no conclusive evidence has been produced to link MbS directly to the killing, his position as the key figure in the Saudi regime appears undiminished. Moreover, his candid acceptance, in an interview with the PBS network aired this week, that ultimate responsibility for the Khashoggi killing rests with him because the murder happened on “my watch” appears to have drawn a line under the affair so far as most Western governments are concerned, with the US, as well as most European countries, slowly adopting a “business as usual” approach to their dealings with the Saudis.
By contrast, Mr Erdogan, who has been the main driving force behind efforts to cause the Saudis maximum discomfort, now has an abundance of problems of his own, challenges which could spell the end of his 16-years in charge. After Mr Erdogan’s Islamist AKP party lost badly in last April’s mayoral election for control of Istanbul, the Turkish leader now finds himself trying desperately to salvage Turkey’s battered economy, where the currency is in free fall, foreign debts remain vast, and inflation and joblessness are alarmingly high.
Many Turks blame their country’s plight on Mr Erdogan’s obsession with pursuing his radical Islamist agenda, which includes supporting groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.
Many prefer him to concentrate instead on addressing their domestic concerns, a view the Turkish president would be well-advised to take on board if he intends to remain in power.
Con Coughlin is the Telegraph‘s Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
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U.S. warns Turkey over offshore drilling near Cyprus
By David Brunnstrom and Renee Maltezou
ATHENS (Reuters) – There are rules in exploring energy resources in the Mediterranean Sea, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday, warning Turkey not to engage in drilling activity that is “illegal” and “unacceptable”.
“We’ve made clear that operations in international waters are governed by a set of rules. We’ve told the Turks that illegal drilling is unacceptable and we’ll continue to take diplomatic actions to … ensure that lawful activity takes place,” he said during a visit to Greece.
“No country can hold Europe hostage,” Pompeo told a press briefing.
Tensions between Cyprus and Turkey over offshore drilling have intensified after Ankara sent a drilling ship to an area already licensed by Nicosia to Italian and French energy companies.
Earlier on Saturday, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged the United States to use its clout to defuse tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, where Cyprus and Turkey are locked in a dispute over offshore rights.
Mitsotakis told Pompeo that Turkish moves south of the island in recent days were a “flagrant violation” of Cyprus’ sovereign rights.
Turkey and Greece are allies in NATO but long at loggerheads over Cyprus, which has been ethnically split between Greek and Turkish Cypriots since 1974.
“The United States have a particular interest in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Cyprus is only asking for the self-evident, the implementation of international law,” Mitsotakis told Pompeo, who is visiting Greece on the last leg of a trip to southern Europe.
Pompeo referred to the issue after meeting Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias. He said the United States would work to help the parties involved find mutually agreeable solutions and that it was eager to extend its partnership with Greece on energy issues.
Ankara says some of the areas where Cyprus is exploring are either on its own continental shelf or in zones where Turkish Cypriots have equal rights over any finds with Greek Cypriots.
A Turkish drill ship, the Yavuz, is currently 50 nautical miles off Cyprus. Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said on Saturday that drilling would start “as soon as possible”.
In his remarks, Pompeo also said that the relationship between Greece and the United States “has truly never been stronger” and that he was very confident that Greece can be a pillar for stability in this region.
But he also added that he was concerned about Chinese investments in infrastructure, an issue also raised during his visit to North Macedonia on Friday. Greece and the United States have traditionally close relations even though many blame Washington for its tacit support to a military junta that ruled Greece between 1967 and 1974. Protest marches to the U.S. Embassy are an annual event.
As Pompeo visited town, groups of protesters marching to the U.S. Embassy on Saturday clashed with police, who fired teargas to disperse them.
Earlier, several hundred demonstrators had gathered in Athens’s main Syntagma square, chanting “Americans, Murderers of Peoples” to protest against the amendment of a defense agreement between the two countries concerning U.S. military bases in Greece.
They held banners reading “Pompeo go home – No to the Greece-USA agreement”.
(Additional reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen and Alkis Konstantidis; Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Frances Kerry)