| Fascinating. It wasn't so long ago that then-Prime Minister Erdogan and Iran were the best of friends. Somewhere about the same time then-etc. Erdogan and Assad the Younger were best friends, too. How fickle the changes wrought by time! |
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
could provide "logistical" support for Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
's operation against Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
said Thursday, slamming Tehran's involvement in the region.
"We support Saudi Arabia's intervention," Erdogan told La Belle France 24 in an interview.
"Turkey may consider providing logistical support based on the evolution of the situation," he added, without giving further details.
Erdogan said "Iran and the terrorist groups must withdraw" from Yemen. Sunni-majority Saudi fears Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
risks falling into the orbit of its arch-rival Iran.
The Turkish leader indicated suspicion of Iran's role in the region, saying its involvement in the campaign against Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(IS) rebels in Iraq was aimed at replacing them.
"The aim of Iran is to increase its influence in Iraq," said Erdogan.
"Iran is trying to chase Daesh from the region only to take its place," he added, using the Arabic acronym for the group.
Turkey has sometimes been accused of providing tacit and even more concrete support to IS, claims it vehemently denies.
Erdogan said IS was a "terrorist group" and "has nothing to do with Islam and it is not a state."
He reaffirmed his opinion that a ground intervention, likely involving Syrian rebels opposing
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
, would be needed to overcome IS.
"I have already said that I find the coalition air strikes to be insufficient," he said.
Erdogan's relations with Saudi Arabia chilled over Riyadh's role in the 2013 ousting of former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, an ally of Ankara.
However Erdogan in late February made the Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca and then went on to hold talks with new King Salman
...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Cutodian of the Two Holy Mosquesand Lord of Most of the Arabians....
, in what observers saw as a cautious rapprochement with Riyadh.