Turkey's aggression against both its rivals and allies poses a threat to regional stability, and yet no one is ready to act. opinion article the British newspaper Guardian, calling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "bully" and a "threat" (article title).
Read the Guardian article HERE
The paper compares Europe 's harsh criticism of Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko with its reluctance to openly denounce the recent "aggressive machinations" in the eastern Mediterranean by another "elected dictatorship" - as he calls it - Er. "Turkey is a member of NATO, a key trading partner of the EU, a border guard and an important player in Syria and the Middle East. Unlike Belarus, it is of real strategic importance. This may explain the strange silence of many governments, including the United Kingdom. But it does not justify it ", the article continues, excluding from this European" rule "the President of France Emanuel Macron.
Tensions between Greece and Turkey are not new, the newspaper notes, but this sudden, provocative pressure has forced Turkish journalist and commentator Yavuz Baydar to wonder what the Turkish president is trying to achieve. His answer: the insecure Erdogan, surrounded by economic, monetary and pandemic crises, wants to boost the reputation of a powerful leader by consolidating Turkey's position in the world. "He needs to reproduce his arrogant image every day," he wrote.
Erdogan also hopes to secure Turkey's position in the Aegean, the eastern Mediterranean, Syria and Libya before a change of government in the United States. After briefly reviewing Turkey's relations with neighboring countries and its involvement in regional conflicts (Syria, Iraq, Libya, Israel), as well as its threat to open its borders to refugees, the daily concludes: "Europeans ostrich leaders must understand that it is impossible to ignore, avoid or downplay Erdogan's problem indefinitely, in the hope that in the end it will go away. Turning Turkey into a criminal is a very real, immediate and dangerous prospect. No one seems to have a plan to contain Erdogan. And such a plan is becoming more and more necessary ".
Source: RES-EAP