The many faces of Erdogan

Dr. Jassim Taqui

DG Al-Bab Institute for Strategic Studies

Islamabad, August 5, 2021: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in the news again.

 Erdogan surprised everyone when he agreed to be a member of the NATO tripartite committee established to secure Kabul Airport and main roads leading to it. Other members are Pakistan and Hungry both of whom remain completely tight-lipped on the nature of their military role.

Earlier, Erdogan threatened to withdraw from NATO if Turkey was not admitted to the EU. Nothing happened.

On military role in Afghanistan, Erdogan maintained that Afghans would accept his role even as Ankara was an active member of the ISAF. He claimed that the Turkish troops were doing nothing but training the Afghan army. If this is true, how come the Afghans would bless the military presence of troops that were involved in the war operations for 20 long years?

Erdogan is also mum over the role of his troops in Libya, which has worsened the civil war. It seems that the forces of evil have landed in Libya with eyes on its huge oil reserve. Yet, Erdogan speaks of reviving the Ottoman Empire in 2023.

Ironically, Erdogan strongly opposed the US program to resettle thousands of Afghans in the United States and sanctioned $100 million for it. According to Erdogan, the program might trigger a new wave of Afghan immigration to Turkey.

In the Syrian Arab Republic, Erdogan's involvement in the civil war caused the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Even Israel has not caused such colossal death and destruction. The overriding concern of the Turkish leader is to dismember Syria so as Aleppo would be declared the capital of the would-be New Ottoman Empire by 2023.

Already, Erdogan has started interference into the internal affairs of the Arabs; complimenting a similar role by Iran.

While the banners of Islam are raised, Erdogan used Ataturk dams to deprive the people of Iraq and Syria of their legitimate share of water. He even started asking Baghdad and Damascus to “buy” water from him. Such are the virtues of coming to Khalifa of the Muslims.