Erdogan slams EU, threatens to send refugees outside Turkey

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: AFP

Ankara (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday threatened to send the millions of refugees in Turkey to European Union member states, as he slammed the bloc's behaviour in the migrant crisis.

In a speech that stepped up his denunciations of Western policy in the refugee crisis, Erdogan confirmed he had threatened EU leaders at a summit meeting in November that Turkey could say "goodbye" to the refugees.

"We do not have the word 'idiot' written on our foreheads. We will be patient but we will do what we have to. Don't think that the planes and the buses are there for nothing. We will do the necessary," Erdogan told a business forum in Ankara.

Greek website euro2day.gr had earlier this week reported that at the G20 summit in Antalya in November Erdogan had angrily threatened to EU Commission president Jean Claude Juncker that Turkey could send the refugees to Europe.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/erdogan-threatens-send-refugees-outside-turkey-103343752.html

[sulphurdunn]

1. A rouge NATO member

can cause all kinds of mischief.

[nyabingi]

2. It's way past time for the US

to sit down with Erdogan and reel his crazy ass in - he's clearly lost it.

[Bad Dog]

3. Erdogan has the popular vote.

And you've got military bases in Turkey which you've been using to attack IS. Do you really want to push Turkey further East instead of West?

The US is no longer holding all the cards.

[bemildred]

4. It's not the USA that Erdogan needs to worry about.

Unless he wants us to protect him, of course.

[Bad Dog]

5. Erdogan has quietly been building up alliances with Arab states

There's a lot of tourism from the Gulf States. As for Russia, they've been at odds for years. The devil you know and all that. Putin's not going to think about attacking Turkey while he's got Syria and Ukraine on his plate.

You're not going to get far with Turkey while you maintain your imperialist attitude. It just gets peoples backs up. Erdogan would become a regional hero, a modern day Saladin, if he's seen to stand up to America.

[bemildred]

6. Putin won't attack Turkey unless Turkey attacks Syria first, he needs a pretext.

This is what the Russians say, which matches fairly well what a couple Turkish writers I was reading before say:

Ankara may decide to use force

Konstantin Sivkov, vice president of the Moscow-based Academy of Geopolitical Problems, believes that Turkey is capable, if nothing else, of providing air support for Assad's opponents. This would become a problem for Russia, which would then find it necessary to repel such strikes and unleash an attack on the Turkish air force.

"But the Turks are also very capable of starting a ground operation, which according to international law, will be considered an act of aggression against Syria," explained Sivkov.

In his words, this would result in a war with Russia, forcing NATO to decide whether or not to side with Turkey. Such a scenario will raise the question of NATO being involved in a direct military clash with Russia, which possesses a nuclear arsenal.

‘The official Syrian government will decide’

Retired Colonel Viktor Murakhovsky, a military expert and editor-in-chief of the military magazine Arsenal Otechestva, insists that any Turkish incursion into Syrian territory will be an act of aggression. Consequently, the UN Security Council will be forced to convene immediately, with Russia and China bound to take a firm stance against such a development.

"Concerning the Russian air force, we are not fighting with Turkey. It will be the official Syrian government to decide what to do in this case, how to counter such an act," said Murakhovsky.

http://rbth.com/international/2016/02/11/turkish-promise-to-defend-aleppo-may-lead-to-direct-conflict-with-russia_567011

[Bad Dog]

9. I can't fault that.

The big problem with Turkey isn't so much Russia but the fact that they see the Kurds as more of a problem than IS. And the Kurds are the West's biggest and most effective anti IS allies in the region.

And the biggest reason for all this is Britain and France carving up the Ottoman Empire post WW1 with no regard for ethnicity.

[bemildred]

10. Certainly they were clueless assholes.

That doesn't change anything now.

[bemildred]

8. Drone footage shows scale of refugee camp on Turkey-Syria border

Drone footage shows the Bab al-Salama refugee camp on the Syrian border where tens of thousands of men, women and children are camped out in the hope of crossing into Turkey.

Turkish aid group IHH and the Independent Doctors Association established the camp over a matter of days, when thousands of Syrians began fleeing northern Aleppo following a Russian-backed offensive by Bashar al-Assad's government forces.

The U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has described the worsening situation around Aleppo as "grotesque," and has warned that up to 300,000 people are at risk of being besieged.

Around 51,000 civilians are believed to have been displaced, where they are amassing at the Syrian-Turkish border.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12152446/Drone-footage-shows-scale-of-refugee-camp-on-Turkey-Syria-border.html

You have to understand why that asshole has that gate closed, he is using those women and children as bargaining chips to blackmail the EU.

[nyabingi]

11. He did win re-election

by promising security and playing upon people's fears (and a rather suspicious bomb attack on protesting Kurds - which he blamed on Kurds) and I thought that was unfortunate for Turkey.

The only reason the US hasn't distanced itself from or condemned Turkey's actions is because of its strategic use and the fact that Turkey wants to get rid of Assad just as bad as the US.

[Bad Dog]

13. Turkey is still a very conservative country.

He may not have a lot of support in Istanbul, but his power base has always been the hinterland. He would have to screw up big time to lose his religious support.

I agree with you about the dodgy nature of the bomb attack, but I think he would have got in anyway.

[pampango]

7. Waves of refugees benefit Erdogan, Assad and Putin. No one else.

While Turkey does host millions of refugees (give them credit for that), Erdogan can use them to extort money from Europe.

The refugees that flee Aleppo do not flee to the Assad-controlled part of Syria, where they would be a burden for the government. They flee to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey with some going on to Europe. No sweat of Assad's back.

The refugees that make it to Europe have caused major problems for the EU. The far-right, which universally supports Putin and hates the EU, is becoming stronger and stronger. Refugees going to Europe makes Mr. Putin smile.

[MosheFeingold]

12. SU-35

Russia has moved SU-35s into Syria. They are a single seat air-to-air fighter, rough equivalent of a modernized F-15, F-18, and only below the F-22. Big deal, in other words.

This is a direct threat to Turkey, that largely depends on the F-16 (which is a good plane and in the right hands, a match, in certain circumstances).

It also means Russia won't agree to a no fly zone.

All that said, Erogden's son is deeply in bed with ISIS. He's a bad guy. An Islamist for the money and power, not religion. So he can be dealt with. But still bad news.

Coupled with Kurds, our natural allies, are long-time-crossways with Turkey.

[6chars]

14. He's acting like they're already in the EU

trying to send the refugees in his country to the next one down the line.

[Nihil]

15. "We do not have the word 'idiot' written on our foreheads."

Maybe you should have - especially considering how you act?