A welcome alliance

What must have shocked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the most about the coup attempt in Turkey is the realisation that the US and its Western allies, whose policies he followed in the Middle East, had colluded to overthrow him.

The putsch couldn’t have taken place without the tacit understanding of the US; the same applied to downing of the Russian Sukhoi Su-24M plane last year by Turkey’s air force.

However, President Vladimir Putin was the first leader to call President Erdogan to empathise with him, and to convey his good wishes in controlling the situation arising out of the failed coup. In fact, as reported by Al Jazeera, the Russian intelligence service played a crucial role in saving Erdogan’s life. Al Jazeera reported that Erdogan was able to leave the hotel he was staying in about half an hour before the coup makers arrived, ‘planning to either arrest or kill him’.

As Putin went on to convey his good gesture to Erdogan, US Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Brussels to meet EU foreign ministers to assess the likely damage the failed coup might cause to Turkey’s standing as a Nato ally. The French foreign minister even questioned Turkey’s trustworthiness as a Nato partner and criticised Erdogan for coming too hard on his opponents.

After the coup, Erdogan directly blamed General Joseph Votel of US Central Command for supporting the coup plotters in Turkey. Gen Votel in return termed the accusation “unfortunate and detrimental to US interests in the region and war against the ISIS.” In the war of words between President Erdogan and Gen Votel, whom does history support? There’s no guessing game involved if history of changing regimes of indefensible countries in the last half century is any witness.

Soon after the botched coup, Turkey arrested 358 of its generals for their suspected role in the coup. The US media quoted Gen Votel’s remark about rounding up so many generals and the impact it would have on American military cooperation with Turkey. When Votel said, “the US had lost crucial Turkish military interlocutors who are now in jail and accused of being behind the coup”, Erdogan angrily retorted, “Know your place!” By ‘interlocutors’, Votel obviously meant CIA plants in Turkey’s armed forces.

Nonetheless, Turkey’s new alliance with Russia is a welcome move. It’s likely to encourage vassal Muslim states in the Middle East to distance themselves from the predatory superpower, which has a history of changing regimes in the name of democracy and leaving the targeted countries in tatters.

Typically, before attacking a country, the US mainstream media for which Paul Craig Roberts, former US assistant secretary of treasury, coined the term ‘prestitute’, demonises the leader of that country. Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Gaddafi of Libya are two glaring examples of regime change.

As a result of the US occupation of Iraq, 1,455,590 Iraqis lost their lives, according to Informationclearinghouse.info, a credible independent website. Those who called Saddam and Gaddafi tyrants and ruthless dictators must answer a simple question. Were the people of these two countries happy when they lived under the dictators or are they happier now living under the US-appointed ‘democrats’ imposed upon them? The US-led invasions destroyed two reasonably developed countries but the world conscience didn’t stir.

President Erdogan’s visit to Russia to meet President Putin is a historic leap in the existing geopolitical milieu. It didn’t come suddenly. The overtures between Turkey and Russia had been taking place for some time, especially when Erdogan apologised for downing the Russian plane and Putin accepted the apology with grace and lifted restrictions on Russian tourism in Turkey. Could the shooting down of the Russian plane be without Erdogan’s approval, and hence the apology?

As it is, there was no dearth of rogue elements in Turkey’s armed forces. It’s believed the failed coup had been planned at Incirlik, the Nato air base in the southern part of Turkey. No wonder then the Turkish commander and associates at the base were arrested in the first phase of the purge. Operating from this base the US air force attacked Syria, Iraq, and Libya. Isn’t occupying a base in an ally country and conspiring against it at the same time tantamount to stabbing the host in the back?

The crucial milestone President Erdogan crossed by meeting President Putin will have far-reaching implications in Middle East politics. Turkey will stop acting as a staging ground for the thuggish fighters of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) to launch attacks in Syria. Nor will it provide any logistic support for such operations.

In fact, Turkey has already approached Iran to settle the Syrian conflict peacefully, an important diplomatic breakthrough and a clear departure from Obama’s policy to ‘get Assad’. The ‘regime-changers’ will now have to find new proxies to carry out their treacherous agenda.

However, President Putin by his deft handling of the Middle East situation has emerged as an astute world leader in the realm of international politics.

The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore. Email: pinecity@gmail.com