Erdogan Bares His Fangs on Europe.

by Eze Eluchie,

When the survival of an individual becomes the fulcrum of a country’s foreign policy, such country’s foreign policy and interests become tumultuous and oddities become the norm. The foregoing statement fully captures the situation of Turkey under Tayyip Erdogan.

At a time ‘the sovereign’ felt that Islamic State terrorists will help him decimate his sworn enemies (the Kurds), he conveniently turns the other way as ISIS descended on Kobani right on the Turkish border, at times chipping in some support to the terrorists in the form of free-passage of aspiring terrorists and provision of slush funds in the form of payment for ‘blood crude oil’; and when that ploy fails, he without any qualms, makes a 180 degree turn-around, develops a sudden phobia for ISIS, invades portions of Syria, under the guise of ensuring that ISIS is kept far away from Turkish borders.

Under different circumstances when ‘the sovereign’ again felt like drawing NATO into the Syrian war against Russian forces to ensure that whatsoever efforts being made to defeat ISIS and stabilize and sustain the Al Bashir regime failed, there was no hesitation in gunning down a Russian military jet, in the process killing some Russian airmen. The West saw through the scam and refused to be dragged into a conflict they were least prepared for. ‘The sovereign’ responded with some public grandstanding whilst in private reaching out to appease the Russians; On the converse, when it was clear that Western leaders tacitly hoped for the success of the 2016 coup in Turkey, there was no hesitation in ‘the sovereign’ grovelling back to Moscow, to create a semblance of rapprochement with the Russian leader, who certainly had not forgotten how 2 of his airmen were wasted whilst in Syrian airspace.

As ‘the sovereign’ now prepares to bamboozle his countrymen, via a referendum scheduled for April 2017, to hand over Turkish sovereignty to his personal whims and caprices, nothing is being spared, inclusive of vulgar abuses to Turkey’s allies in NATO, deprecating erstwhile friendly states in Europe, rubbishing any hopes of Turkey joining the European Union in the near future and infantile threats against equally endowed states in Europe (particularly The Netherlands and Germany).  It is clear that in the view of ‘the sovereign’, no cost is too great for Turkey to bear in the pursuit of ‘the sovereign’s’ self-aggrandizement.

Predictably, as he did with efforts at making peace with Russia after the murder of 2 Russian military pilots deliberately and provocatively shot down over Syrian airspace, it can be expected that Turkey’s sovereign, Tayyip Erdogan, will soon after he has succeeded in badgering his fellow Turks into surrendering their sovereignty to him (Erdogan) in the April referendum, embark upon ‘fence-mending’ visits to The Netherlands and other European countries, countries ‘the sovereign’ is currently taking personal delight in castigating – urging European countries, who appear to be eternally mesmerized by his Othoman-charm and a near-fatalistic desire to retain Turkeys within the NATO fold to have access to her strategic geographical position for military purposes.

Has anyone bothered to wonder why, of the 3 countries which denied Erdogan’s appointees access to address political rallies on their soil (Germany, Austria and The Netherlands), The Netherlands is the current recipient of ‘the sovereigns’ verbal assaults? Well, the Dutch are having election first, today, to be exact. What better way to influence the outcomes of Dutch elections and the Turkish referendum than to stir up a spat that will stoke up ethnic/nationalistic fervour. Focus will subsequently be shifted to other western Euroean countries as their respective elections draw near.

As they ponder ways to tackle their new nightmare, one thought that will continue to plague European leaders as they roll on their lonely beds in Presidential palaces, be it in Den Hague, Berlin, Paris or wheresoever, is  was there anything they could have done to differently on the 15^th July 2016? Is there something that can be done to prevent the descent of Turkey into a dictatorship with the capacity to threaten European peace and stability?

Clearly, the times have changed. Unlike in the past when it was the sole preserve of Western countries to influence and determine the outcomes of elections in other parts of the world, elections in the West, hitherto, was purely an internal affair of the individual country concerned, are now routinely influenced by external forces. The US elections were successfully influenced by Russia; the Dutch election holding today is being influenced by Turkeys sovereign. Who will influence the forthcoming French and German elections scheduled for later in the year?

Picture: Turkeys sovereign, Tayyip Erdogan.

Is Donald Trump a Mikhail Gorbachev?

by Eze Eluchie,

Young and bright, with a meteoric rise on the leadership ladder of the Communist Party of the former Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, spending a mere 6 years from when he became a member of the Politiburo (1979), to when he became the Party’s General Secretary (1985) the selection of Mikhail Gorbachev as the  Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviets (an election that had been predicted by some influential western media outlets over a decade ago) proved to be a monumental landmark in the history of the modern world.

After months of promoting ‘freedoms’ and ‘liberal’ approach to governance under ‘Glassnot’(openness) and ‘Perestroika’ (‘economic’ restructuring), to a people who  had known lifetimes of authoritarian rule and were used to strong central authority, it was clear to discerning observers that Mikhail Gorbachev had ideas which were very distant from those of the founding fathers and leadership (Politiburo) of the Soviet Union. As the consequences of Glassnot and Perestroika unravelled, the world watched in astonishment as the alternate ‘super-power’, the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics {USSR}, which has often times served as a counter-balancing factor in global affairs, disintegrated with stunning rapidity.

Within a period of 6 years, from his ascendance into office as President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev had incredulously achieved the destruction of what had taken previous occupants of the Presidency of the USSR over 70 years to accomplish – the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence in its place of 15 Republics, with more agitation for more divisions.

In all his exploits, Mikhail Gorbachev, who in his later life has severally regretted his ignoble role in the destruction of the Soviet Union, had maintained close friendship with then United States President, Ronald Reagan.

Fast-forward to Year 2017. A President emerges in the United States, who has little to no experience of the workings of the democratic structures and governance mechanisms, and who in his own words, has enormous ‘respect’ and affinity with the Russian leader. Like Gorbachev before him, new US President Donald Trump, with great haste, embarks on courses of action that go to challenge the very fundamentals of the American system,: attacking Free-Trade and Globalization with relish (withdrawing from mutually agreed international treaties and discountenancing rules of free trade); promoting discriminatory and divisive policies (exhibiting mannerisms which inspire increased racist and xenophobic sentiments); utter disregard for the Media and freedom of speech(constantly railing against the media for publishing ‘uncomfortable truths’); holding the Judiciary and Judges in disdain and odium (mocks Judges who arrive at decisions he finds inconvenient) and so on.

Already as a result of the policies and action of President Trump, talks of a split from the United States by some of its constituent States (particularly California) are already been insinuated. If the current trajectory is maintained, the future will certainly become murkier.  

The similarities in mannerisms, antecedents and activities of US President Donald Trump and former leader of the Soviet Union are so worrisomely close that one wonders if indeed the same outcomes are indeed the desired objectives.

With benefit of hindsight and the goings on across the Middle East, it can be successfully argued that the  overall utility of the disintegration of the Soviet Union to the international community is at the very least, questionable, and very likely unfortunate. A repeat of a collapse of a super power should at all costs be avoided.

Picture: Mikhail Gorbachev and Donald Trump