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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Germans and Turkey agreed to a military alliance, worried about the threat from Russia.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Welcome to the resurrection of the new Ottoman Empire backed by the United States.<\/p>\n
In unrelated news, Russia announced it will not renew the treaty that allows for mutual monitoring of the other country’s nuclear weapon stockpiles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 … Continue reading