85941 - Transcription: Turkish difficulties

N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek by Athina Kehagias

We see that things are evolving very quickly in the Middle East, we understand that even Turkey wants to play a role, and this role is very dangerous, we know that, but we see that the American Secretary of State is dealing with it very well. What’s the idea? Straight after the visit he made to Israel, he also paid a visit to the West Bank, which many did not expect, whereas he had to do it because it is one way to stabilize the region and not by relying exclusively upon Gaza.Now we see that Turkey is coming next down the queue. Why is Turkey coming? Because there are two issues with America, there is the Kurdish issue, there are also the F-16s, but the one of most importance for Turkey is to at least show that it can play an important role in the region. She wants to highlight the Ottoman past of Gaza, at the same time she understands that the Arabs see this operation with suspicion and at the same time as we see with Erdogan’s statements, he wants to put across that he is against the West etc. It is interesting because, while he was against the West, he did everything he could for Blinken to visit Turkey, after Ramallah, in order to ensure at least the theoretical context of Turkey’s presence in all these negotiations. What is the point of all these? It is that the Americans will definitely go, they will definitely go without giving anything at all, because quite simply Blinken cannot give anything, nothing can be certain neither regarding the F-16 issue, nor about the Kurds, and on the other hand anyway, the promises he will make are not binding, so it will be purely a formality, to state that Turkey remains in NATO, it’s on our side and has not gone toward Russia. The point is that the Americans also understand that, if we have an opening on a certain front, because they already have it with the Ukrainian case and now with the Israeli one, it shouldn’t concern them too much, because they also have a dominant enemy which is China. China is ready to play its role, as she is doing in the Ukrainian case with Russia, but what is of importance is that a situation is being formed, which does not give Turkey much potential, and this irritates the Turk, but whatever the Turk may do, the Americans cannot accept to do just whatever, with the statements he makes against America, against Europe and against the West. Consequently, we see that it is a game of maneuvering, there will be no combination, no sacrifice, there will just be a presence that has no substance necessarily for now, but afterward we will move onto the next stage, in which Turkey will not be able to play much at all.