How Much Do You Know About Erdogan's Turkey? (I Know Quite A Bit: It Ain't Good, Folks!))

By Tarek Ragheb

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

Russian President Vladimir Putin [insists] the Russian jet had been in Syrian airspace at the time and had never threatened Turkey’s territory.

“Today’s loss is linked to a stab in the back delivered to us by accomplices of terrorists,” Putin said.

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

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

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

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

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

Turkey is not simply protecting the terrorists, but it is strategically pitting the United States to collide with Russia.

We must be clear: This is in no way a concern for NATO. We must urge the United States to understand what can only be seen as an act of hostility and aggression. Turkey must bear the full responsibility of these actions without dragging the United States or NATO into its den. This crisis is of Turkey’s sole doing, and it has to shoulder the full consequences of its actions on its own.

We must stay focused. The real enemy of the modern world is Islamic State and those who aspire to the supremacy of Islam over the modern world. That includes Turkey’s President Erdoğan.