Back when Egypt and Libya suddenly erupted and Turkey broke its military cooperation with Israel, I wondered aloud if we were seeing the rise of a new Ottoman Empire.
Turkey is a member of NATO and receives significant military assistance from the United States, and NATO has nuclear weapons stored on the NATO base.
Unlike many other US allies, Turkey has a strong industrial base, including the ability to manufacture airplanes, tanks and ships without reliance on other countries.
The Ottoman Empire controlled modern day Turkey, Greece, Egypt, coastal Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Tunisia and much of Eastern Europe for 600 years. The most significant outcome of World War One was the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottomans are Turks, not Arabs. The Ottomans had filled the void created by the Great schism between the Roman Catholic Church and the Byzantine Greek Orthodox Church, which culminated in the sacking of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. With the conquest of Constantinople in 1430, that brought an end to the last vestitages of the Roman Empire. The fall of Constantinople and the trade routes to Asia coming under the control of the Ottomans would cause Western European countries to seek a path to Asia by heading West in 1492.
The Germans and Turkey agreed to a military alliance, worried about the threat from Russia.
Turkey today forced a Syrian passenger airliner to land on the basis that it was carrying supplies from Russia to Syria. The United States is sending military assets to Jordan.
Welcome to the resurrection of the new Ottoman Empire backed by the United States.
In unrelated news, Russia announced it will not renew the treaty that allows for mutual monitoring of the other country’s nuclear weapon stockpiles.
OK, lots of stuff in your interesting post on history to set anyone off on a wild, editorial rampage….but I will resist…..for now.
Turkey and Egypt Seek Alliance Amid Upheaval of Arab Spring
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/world/middleeast/turkey-and-egypt-look-to-team-up-amid-tumult.html
Puzzle pieces are being put into place at a rapid pace.
The Turkish army was placed on high readiness on 10/11/2012. Its military pledged stronger responses to Syria as war tensions rise.
Syrian President, Bashar Assad external supporters took significant military steps 10/17/2012 removing rockets and fighting units out of their South Lebanon positions opposite Israel and transferring them to the Homs front as back-up for Syrian forces.
Russia has moved their advanced S-400 interceptors over to its southern military region opposite Turkey, as Ankara’s clashes with Assad’s forces intensified.
Hizballah launched an Iranian stealth UAV into Israeli air space undetected. Iran’s leading imam, Khamenei gave Hizballah a $1 million prize for sending the spy drone and also rewarded the Iranian UAV designers with a Porsche car each.
The latest US intelligence confirms Iran will have enough enriched uranium for 4-6 bombs by March 2013 and Iran has finished transferring all of its uranium enrichment plant to Fordo, placing it in an “immune zone,” against bombardment.
US Congressional Research Dept. report, 09/28/2012 concludes Israel had sufficient air force and refueling capacities to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, including Fordo, alone. This puts some doubt on any proposed joint US-Israeli “October surprise.” Time is ticking away considering Prime Minister Netanyahu said in mid-September that the next 50 days would be critical for Israel’s destiny. But on the other hand, the current US POTUS wants to bring the ‘Hammer’ down on Benghazi terrorists, presumably before the election. If that involved a multi-nation US operation it would provide cover for any military build-up designed to carry out a joint strike against Iran.
I caught a few minutes of Beck talking about the US Ambassador who was killed was directly involved in arranging shipment of weapons to the Syrian rebels and that might have been the actual motive.
VP Biden assured us in the debate with Congressman Ryan that Iran having bomb-grade uranium is NOT a problem because Iran has no delivery system for nuclear weapons. So if the Iranian UAV designers each got a Porsche, I wonder what kind of car they’ll get for designing a working nuclear cruise missile? Or maybe they just ask for the 100 virgins, payable in advance.
A working nuclear cruise missile might be beyond the Iranians capability at this time. Perhaps they don’t need a sophisticated delivery system. Smuggle a device into Syria, put it on a UAV, fly in undetected and then call the right cell phone. That idea may be worth a Hummer full of virgins.