English: Map showing the territories of the Ottoman Empire in 1914, including nominal and vassal territories. According to the information on the map in http://ottomanmilitary.devhub.com/ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Dr Alf says he struggles to find logic in Erdogan’s position and sees conflicting signals emerging from Washington’s position.
He is right on both counts.
President Erdogan of Turkey is trying to rebuild the Ottoman Empire, using Qatari and Kuwaiti money and assistance from Saudi Arabia, whilst pretending to be Washington’s ally.
At the same time, Turkey pretends to be a European country and willing NATO ally and wants to be part of the EU.
Washington would like to overthrow the regimes in Syria and Iran but knows that public opinion will not yet stand for another ground invasion after Afghanistan and Iraq.
ISIS and its financial backers want to build a global Caliphate but until they directly threaten American interests, Obama will do nothing, even though the Pentagon and the US military are ready for what comes next; they see the bigger danger and would act more robustly if they were allowed to do their job.
Turkey is allegedly secretly assisting ISIS and wants a no fly zone in Syria, which I suspect the Russians would take as as an act of war.
Dr Alf's Blog 