Analyses

Even If Turkey Gets Modernized F-16s, Greece Will Still Have A Technological Edge In Airpower – Forbes

July 2, 2022 / By

Either way, Turkey will still have difficulty overcoming the substantial technological edge the HAF will likely attain by 2030.

Even if Turkey fields 120 Block 70/72 F-16s (40 brand new and 80 upgraded), they will be up against 84 HAF Block 72 Vipers (all in service no later than the second half of 2027), 20-40 F-35s, and, at the very least, 24 Rafales. In other words, no fewer than 128 HAF fighters with equal or superior capabilities to Turkey’s very best jets.

And even if Turkey buys a squadron or two of advanced Eurofighters in addition to its modernized F-16s, the HAF will most likely retain this technological edge.

As NATO Capitulates Before Turkey, Western Hypocrisy on Human Rights Enters New Low – News18

July 2, 2022 / By

Seen as a rogue outlier in Nato, Turkey found and acted upon the opportunity to get the West to support its military operation in northern Syria. Turkish forces and alleged mercenaries occupy parts of this region. A vast array of human rights abuses was reported during the peak of its military intervention and Ankara faced condemnation from the Western world. All major NATO members including Germany, France, UK and Canada have refused arms sales to Erdogan’s Turkey. Tensions further escalated when Turkey stepped up its belligerence towards fellow Nato member Greece in the eastern Mediterranean and the West largely backed Athens through this tussle. The list of Turkey’s excesses can go on, but the West has decided to overlook all that now. US President Biden’s own stance on Turkey used to be one of admonishment. Today, that seems to change with Ankara’s new leverage in the game.

Two-faced Turkey demands a terrible price for NATO expansion – Haaretz.com

July 2, 2022 / By

Mr Erdogan will now expect Sweden and Finland to adhere to the spirit, and not just the (notably vague) letter, of the agreement. This means he will demand they back a future Turkish operation in Syria to combat the YPG, who happen to be the West’s main allies against Islamic State, support Ankara’s plans to expel and forcibly resettle over one million Syrian refugees in northern Syria, take concrete steps to extradite alleged members of the PKK and Gulen movement to face trial, unlikely to be fair, in Turkey, and keep schtum about Turkey’s poor human rights records and abuses of fundamental democratic freedoms.


Turkey will seize on any hemming and hawing on these issues as evidence of bad faith, if not betrayal, and a just cause to reignite a crisis in Turkey’s relations with the West. Turkey under Erdogan is a fundamentally untrustworthy ally. The NATO deal has triggered a countdown to the next noisy but inevitable conflagration.

Turkey: Jihad against Cyprus :: Gatestone Institute

July 8, 2022 / By

Turkey is now using the distraction of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a cover to increase its likelihood of officially annexing Cyprus’s north. On April 14, a protocol was signed between Turkey and the illegal Turkish de facto regime that has been ruling occupied northern Cyprus. Although Turkey has already forcibly altered the demography of Cyprus through the ethnic cleansing campaign, the new protocol gives Turkish nationals even easier access to the region.

The protocol also stipulates the strengthening of the Religious Affairs Department in the area, as well as building religious complexes, such as mosques, and restoring Turkish-Islamic heritage sites. The protocol makes no secret of Turkey’s intention to annex the north. The introduction states, “the island of Cyprus has been a part of Anatolia politically and culturally since 1571.” 1571 is when the Ottoman Empire began occupying Cyprus.

Von der Leyen: Turkey ‘further away’ from EU | eKathimerini.com

June 21, 2022 / By

Turkey is now further away from the EU compared to what was happening a quarter of a century ago, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in an interview given to a small number of European newspapers, including Kathimerini.

Commenting on the choice by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to apply European sanctions against Russia, von der Leyen noted that alignment is important in the accession process, adding that Ankara’s reluctance shows a lot about its willingness to join the European Union.

Building in Africa: Turkey’s “Third Way” in China’s Shadow | Middle East Institute

June 21, 2022 / By

Government patronage has been a crucial factor in aiding the internationalization of Turkish construction service corporations.[23] Construction firms, especially those aligned closely with the AK Party, have been among the main beneficiaries of easy access to credit in the international market, tax incentives and exemptions, and relaxed public procurement practices.[24] Erdoğan has personally presided over the building and functioning of this patronage system, actively directing investment in the housing, energy, and infrastructure sectors across Turkey. The key role that the state has played — with Erdoğan at the helm — in favoring the construction sector by rewarding companies at home has been complemented by efforts to promote overseas construction within the context of Turkey’s assertive and expansive foreign policy.

China & 3 EU nations still helping finance Putin’s Ukraine war. Finnish study explains how – ThePrint

June 19, 2022 / By

While Russia has become India’s “second-biggest” oil source since the start of the war in Ukraine, following its $25 per barrel discount to India and supply chain disruptions since the war, data collected by the Finnish think tank, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), also shows that India has been Russia’s eighth largest importer of fossil fuels, at 3.4 billion euros worth of imports since the beginning of the war.

Meanwhile, China and Germany rank as Russia’s primary importers of fossil fuels, at 12.6 billion and 12.1 billion euros, respectively, according to the CREA data. Italy and Netherlands come next, with 7.8 billion euros worth of imports each, with Turkey not too far behind at 6.7 billion. As a whole, 61 per cent of Russia’s fossil fuel exports between 24 February and 3 June went to the European Union, the CREA report added.