‘Allah took their sanity’ – Putin accuses Turkish leadership of aiding terror
The Erdogan family goes into the crosshairs, a lesson for others to observe
… from Russia Today, Moscow
Maybe this love of “selfies” is a good window into the family
[ Editor’s Note:
We have another plain language address from Putin to the Federal
Assembly, the Russian version of a joint session of Congress. Expect to
see only a footnote about it in the Western press, as the contrast
between Putin and Western leaders is too painful for them to bear. They
know the contrast will eventually be evident to Western populations.
The last line below has a zinger in it. “…this leadership will
not play any significant role in bilateral relations between Russia and
Turkey. We will not be able to have any ties with Turkey under this
leadership if it doesn’t change its attitude,” Konstantin Kosachev, the chair of the State Duma Committee for Foreign Relations advised.
This folks, is signaling to all the
Turkish opposition that they have a friend waiting in the wings. But
that said, Lavrov has already stated that any Turkish leadership issues
will have to be dealt with by the Turkish people, and this is consistent
with Russia’s Syrian line. Moscow is careful not to do what it accuses
the West of doing all the time, changing the rules of the game to suit
them in each situation.
I
expect to see more focus on Erdogan’s corruption, with revelations on
the family energy companies and the industrial scale of the corruption.
By hunting down where all the “profits from terrorism” are stashed, that
exposes them to being frozen in a court action, something that makes
mega-thieves most unhappy.
The Erdogan family has a major
Intelligence agency on their case, and Moscow can get a “two fer” out of
the effort, as NATO and Obama are now going to be exposed as
accessories in all the nasty revelations; everyone will know that they
knew all about this.
The destruction of over a 1000 tanker put a big hole in someone’s wallet
Usually countries’ Intelligence agencies
do not get involved in exposing leadership corruption directly, if at
all. So it seems that, as Putin says in the speech below, the light came
on for Russia to not wait until all the Russian terrorists returned
home to begin dealing with them. It made much better sense to kill them
“over there”.
He has now decided that continuing to
make nice with Erdogan to avoid some short- to mid-term business
reversals — losing the South Stream pipeline deal, for instance — did
not make long term sense. The US and Saudis are a much tougher target to
go after for their support of terrorism.
But after the SU-24 shoot down, Erdogan,
the US and NATO put themselves at the top of the list. Their credibility
– what they have left of it – is on thin ice, where sometimes all one
has to do is wait for the ice to melt a little bit more to solve the
problem… Jim W. Dean ]
_____________
– First published … December 03, 2015 –
Russian President
Vladimir Putin lashed out at “part of the leadership in Turkey” during
his annual address to the parliament, accusing Ankara of having trade
ties with terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq. He also promised more
sanctions for Turkey over downing of the Russian jet.
Putin said Russia still cannot comprehend why the downing of the plane happened.
“We were prepared to
cooperate with Turkey on most sensitive issues and go further than their
allies. Allah knows why they did it. Apparently Allah decided to punish
the ruling clique in Turkey by taking their sanity,” Putin said.
Putin stressed that Moscow’s anger over the incident is directed at particular individuals and not at the Turkish people.
“We have many friends in Turkey,” he said. “They
should know that we do not equate them and part of the current Turkish
leadership, which holds a direct responsibility for the deaths of our
troops in Syria,” he said.
He added that the killing of Russian officers would have long-term consequences for those responsible.
“We will not forget this aid
to terrorists. We have always considered betrayal the worst and most
shameful act. Let those in Turkey know it who shot our pilots in the
back, who hypocritically tries to justify themselves and their actions
and cover up the crimes of terrorists,” he said.
Putin said Russia would not resort to saber-rattling to respond to
the Turkish actions, but neither would it limit itself to the economic
sanctions it imposed since the incident.
Will the SU-24 end up taking the Erdogan family down in flames with it?
The downing of the bomber resulted in the deaths of two Russian troops, who were the first combat losses during the two month-long Syrian campaign.
The pilot of the downed plane was killed by a pro-Turkish militant group as he was parachuting to the ground. A marine was killed by militants when a helicopter dispatched to rescue the bomber crew came under fire from the ground.
Putin’s address started with a minute’s silence to commemorate the two troops. The widows of the dead Russians were present at the event.
Putin stressed that the Russian operation in Syria is aimed first and foremost at preventing fighters who went to the Middle East from Russia and its neighboring countries from returning home and bringing the threat of terrorist attacks to Russian soil.
Putin called on all nations that have pledged to fight terrorism to join forces and abandon the notion that terrorist groups can be used for country’s own goals. He stressed that the rise of terrorism in the Middle East over the last few years was caused to a large degree by foreign meddling.
“Some countries in the Middle
East and North Africa, which used to be stable and relatively
prosperous – Iraq, Libya, Syria – have turned into zones of chaos and
anarchy that pose a threat to entire world,” Putin said.
“We know why it happened. We
know who wanted to oust unwanted regimes, and rudely impose their own
rules. They triggered hostilities, destroyed statehoods, set people
against each other and simply washed their hands [of the situation] –
giving way to radicals, extremists and terrorists.”
Russia’s lost thousands of lives over two decades of terrorist
attacks and is still not safe from terrorist attacks, as evidenced by
the bombings in Volgograd in 2014 and the bombing of a Russian passenger
plane in Egypt in October, Putin reminded.
“Breaking the bandits’ back took us almost 10 years,” he said. “We
practically pushed the terrorists out of Russia, but we are still
engaged in a fierce fight against the remainder of the gangs. This evil
still comes back occasionally.”
Putin said the rise of jihadists in the Middle East in our time is
not unlike the rise of Nazism in the mid-20th century, and that the
world should learn from the mistakes of the past, when a failure to act
in time resulted in the loss of millions of lives.
“We are facing a destructive
barbaric ideology again and we have no right to allow those new
obscurants to achieve their goals. We have to abandon all differences,
create a single fist, a single anti-terrorist front, which would act in
accordance with the international law and under the aegis of the United
Nations,” he said.
Putin was speaking on Thursday before the Federal Assembly, a joint
session of the two chambers of the Russian parliament, plus regional
governors and the cabinet. The annual address is a traditional key
policy report of the executive, which focuses on domestic politics
rather than international relations.‘Business as usual’ with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now over, Sergey Ivanov, the head of Putin’s office, confirmed to RT after the Russian president’s address:
“Yes, it is definitely over. But fighting terrorism is ‘business as usual’, as the Russian president said,” Ivanov said.
The Turkish leadership “must acknowledge that a tragic mistake was committed and to beg for [forgiveness], or this leadership
will not play any significant role in bilateral relations between
Russia and Turkey. We will not be able to have any ties with Turkey
under this leadership if it doesn’t change its attitude,” Konstantin Kosachev, the chair of the State Duma Committee for Foreign Relations, told RT.