What brought the presidents of Turkey and Russia into an alliance with no name? Their geo-political opportunism was part of it, but mainly it was the inherent ideological hatred of Western civilization that eventually made the Turkish president a useful instrument in the Russian president’s reckless campaign to harm the interests of the West.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spent $2.5 billion of Turkish taxpayers’ money to buy the Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missiles, only to keep them unpacked at some unknown military warehouse, for fear, if he activated the system, of furthering U.S. sanctions in addition to Washington’s move to kick Turkey out of the multinational F-35 fighter jet program. Since Turkey’s economy is undergoing an unprecedented dive, Erdogan needs European loans and investors.
Unidentified object off US coast: A 17th-century submersible?
Erdogan seems to have a lot of wants. He wants to renegotiate Turkey’s customs union accord with the European Union (EU). He wants the EU to remove visa requirements on Turkish nationals, a painful process including businessmen, academics and professionals intending to travel to Europe. And now that Turkey has been deprived of the F-35s and its air force is losing much of its firepower, he wants the US Congress to endorse the sale of F-16 Block 70 aircraft to Turkey.
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