Guy who was gonna be chief of the Turkish air force arrested instead

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Friday, June 10, 2011 - 11:03 AM

And another eight officers are being interrogated over a plan many years ago to cause disruptions, such as bombing mosques, that eventually would lead to a military coup.

Our military is boring by comparison. And that is a good thing. The closest we've come is President Truman's crack that, if being "a dumb son of a bitch ...[was] against the law for generals, ...half to three-quarters of them would be in jail."

(HT to NIMJ)

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COMMENTS (3)

EXPLORE:MILITARY, TURKEY

Turkey curtails Israeli military overflights, making an airstrike on Iran less likely

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - 10:46 AM

Turkey's post-flotilla decision to close its airspace to Israeli military flights seems to me to make it less likely that Israel could carry out an airstrike against Iran. I don't think they can fly the straight Jordan-Iraq-Iran route, which leaves going through either Saudi or Turkish airspace. As I understand the mechanics of the flight, the Turkish route would be the easier one -- you take off in Israel, top off on fuel a tanker orbiting over the Mediterranean, and then shoot east just north of the Turkish-Syrian border, then pop back out to refuel again before landing.

(HT to Juan Cole)

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COMMENTS (12)

EXPLORE:IRAN, TURKEY

Israel aims at Hamas, hits own foot

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - 10:57 AM

The ship raid just doesn't seem like a good idea, or in the interests of Israel. Pick a fight with Turkey, a member of NATO? Wasn't there any other way to handle this? I bet they're breaking out the non-alcoholic champagne at the foreign ministry in Tehran today. And probably in Pyongyang, too.

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COMMENTS (10)

EXPLORE:MIDDLE EAST, ISRAEL/PALESTINE, TURKEY

Listening to Turkey’s foreign minister: The Ottoman past looks like the future

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Monday, April 19, 2010 - 11:32 AM

By Daniel Kliman
Best Defense chief Turkish affairs correspondent

When Turkey's Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations one night last week, Iran dominated his remarks. He was emphatically opposed to more robust sanctions, arguing that instead what is needed is "diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy." Davutoglu also suggested that a glimmer of hope remains for negotiations with Iran, though he didn't provide any details. In the past, Turkey has served as a mediator between Iran and countries concerned about its nuclear program. Davutoglu played up Turkey's success in this role during his remarks. Could there be a Turkish initiative in the works? Stay tuned.

On Iraq, the FM was bullish. Calling Iraq a "mini-model of the Middle East," Davutoglu cast the recent elections there as a move away from sectarian politics. (Your mileage may vary, of course.)

Earlier this month, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Erdogan hammered Israel, labeling it "the principal threat to peace in the region today." Davutoglu avoided such language.

Omission can be telling. Davutoglu was silent on Turkey's prospects for EU membership. Combined with his ambitious vision for a transformed Middle East, it was clear that Turkey sees its destiny unfolding to the east and south, in lands once under Ottoman rule.

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COMMENTS (5)

EXPLORE:EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST, GUEST BLOGGER, IRAN, IRAQ, TURKEY

A Saudi-Turkish alliance against Iran?

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Thursday, March 11, 2010 - 12:44 PM

Stand back and watch John McCreary analyze a minor news event and detect the deep historical trends underlying it:

Turkey-Saudi Arabia: On 9 March, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan received the King Faisal International Prize for Service to Islam in Saudi Arabia, according to Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency today.

The King Faisal International Prize is presented to scientists and others who make contributions to Islam and a positive difference in the world. At the award ceremony, Erdogan said Turkey has strived to establish peace, stability and security in the region and the world.

Comment: To recap the action, the Saudis gave the supposed leader of a secular state -- Turkey -- an award for his service to Islam. That would seem to clinch the argument in Turkey's constitutional court about Erdogan's service to Turkey's secular constitution and history. The Saudis openly encouraged Erdogan's erosion of the legacy of Ataturk.

STRATFOR's thesis is the Saudis are looking to Turkey to act as an ally in restraining Iranian pretensions to regional hegemony. The Turks have their own leadership aspirations which involve pursuing a neo-Ottoman strategy that joins Sunnis and Shias under enlightened, of course, Turkish leadership.

Even if the Turks do not cooperate much with the Saudis, the Turkish-Persian rivalry for regional dominance is rooted in thousands of years of history. The Arabs are clever enough to revive that old dispute while sitting on the sidelines. Erdogan and the Iranian Ayatollahs are arrogant enough to fall for the bait.