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Show a clear advantage: Chancellor Sebastian Kurz does this with Turkish autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdoğan whenever possible. And there is more than enough criticism in Turkey under the autocrats, and not just since the failed coup attempt in July 2016 and the subsequent wave of persecution of all dissidents by Erdogan and his followers. One cannot speak of an independent judiciary in the country, which officially still has the status of a candidate country for the EU, nor of freedom of expression and protection of minorities.
Also, as always when an autocrat is weakened at the national level, there are foreign policy maneuvers. Erdogan wants to get involved politically and, in some cases, militarily in various countries in the Mediterranean region. From Cyprus to Syria to Libya. In the risky muscle game with the former enemy and neighbor Greece, the Turkish army launched a military exercise off Cyprus on Sunday. Descriptive name: “Mediterranean storm”.
Live ammunition maneuvers
In the eastern Mediterranean, the dispute between the two NATO countries over alleged deposits of natural gas under the seabed has raged for weeks. There is a military muscle play on both sides, just as both sides feel they are correct in reference to different agreements. The fact that the Turkish Defense Minister piloted a fighter jet with media coverage and that a possible war was openly talked about should sound alarms everywhere. To make matters worse, Russia is also involved: starting Tuesday, Moscow will have its navy near the island of Cyprus conduct target practice with live ammunition. And what is the United States doing? They announced the first arms deliveries to the Republic of Cyprus in years. NATO faces a big problem.
Closing ranks
In recent days, Chancellor Kurz has called on EU states to “show full solidarity with Greece” and to agree to protect the EU’s external borders. He also stressed that the EU must not allow Turkish President Erdogan to blackmail or threaten him. Keyword: refugee treatment. And he accused Erdogan of trying to instrumentalize Turks or people of Turkish origin living in Western Europe for his own purposes. All of this apparently made Turkey’s foreign minister blood pump: “The biggest real threat to the EU and its values is the distorted ideology that Kurz represents,” ranted Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
One wonders what world he lives in, given what is currently brewing in the Mediterranean, under the auspices of his head of state.
