Is Turkey PM Erdogan Really Ready For Prime Time?

Turkey Prime Minister Erdogan is not only strutting his stuff by making the rounds in the Middle East--he is also making threats as well, an not just to Israel: Turkey Warns Cyprus Against Offshore Gas Drilling

Turkey warned Cyprus against proceeding with offshore oil and gas drilling activities, saying Thursday it would finalize an agreement with Turkish Cypriots to mark out undersea borders to facilitate future oil and gas exploration.

The undersea boundary has been among the most contentious issues in Greek-Turkish relations, with each country trying to mark out where on the continental shelf it can exploit seabed oil and mineral deposits in the Aegean Sea.

A move by Turkey to declare such a border would aggravate relations with Greece and Cyprus, which is divided into an EU-member Greek south and a breakaway Turkish north.

Oh, and by the way, it seems such a move would aggravate relations with Russia as well!

After all, now it is being reported that Russia Sends Nuclear Subs to Patrol Cyprus Waters:

Russia has sent two nuclear-powered submarines to patrol Eastern Mediterranean waters around Cyprus and enforce the island's right to explore for undersea oil and gas in its territorial seas, according to information from Defencenet.gr (Greece), citing a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman.

Alexander Lukashevich said that Russia supports Cyprus and guarantees its security if it is threatened.

The Russian move is being interpreted as a clear warning to Turkey to stay away from Noble Energy's drilling sites.

That would appear to be an excellent interpretation.

In this context, read Omri Ceren's Note to Erdogan: Nobody Likes the Turks:

In 1822, the Ottomans dispatched 40,000 Turkish troops to the Greek island of Chios with orders to kill all infants under three-years-old, all males over 12-years-old, and all females over 40-years-old, except those willing to convert to Islam. Some 20,000 Greeks were killed and the island was depopulated, eradicating a 2,000 year culture. Two years later, Ottoman soldiers burned the island of Kasos to the ground and killed 7,000 of its inhabitants. Eventually, Europeans navies dispatched by Britain and France, and a navy dispatched by Russia, intervened to stop the atrocities. 

In 1876, 8,000 Turkish troops were dispatched to the Bulgarian town of Batak where, after promising to withdraw in exchange for the Bulgarians disarming, they beheaded or burned alive 5,000 of the city’s now-unprotected civilians. The massacre was part of a broader Turkish campaign in which 15,000 Bulgarians were eventually murdered, and which a British investigator described as “perhaps the most heinous crime” of the 1800s. Eventually, the Russians intervened to stop the atrocities. 

I only bring these up because Israel and Greece just signed a military cooperation pact, and Israel and Bulgaria just signed a military cooperation pact, and European Union officials are slamming Turkey for sabre-rattling, and the Russians today committed to patrolling Eastern Mediterranean waters in response to borderline explicit Turkish military threats against Cyprus’s gas drilling.

Erdogan and his neo-Ottoman ilk seem to have forgotten a fairly straightforward regional reality:nobody likes them.

I suppose that might explain the generous offer in the Turkish paper Hurriyet:Dear Arab brothers: Yes, you may borrow our prime minister!

After all, we are brothers! Our prime minister is your prime minister. So, please do not hesitate to borrow him – and please do not feel obliged to return him any time soon. After all, Muslims are never greedy and know well to share their jewels.

I know you have been longing for a Gamal Abdel Nasser 2.0. I know it’s been four unlucky decades. But luckily, here is a better one: Our prime minister is even “more Muslim” than the late Mr. Nasser. He may not be an Arab, but he is trying so hard to be one.

And the good news is that we have a special offer for you, brothers: If you borrow our prime minister, we’ll lend you our foreign minister too – and that special offer is only for you! I know, that’s what brothers are for.

So, bottom line, is it really in Erdogan's interest to stir things up?

Hmmm, maybe I went a bit too far?

Technorati Tag: Turkey and Erdogan.