Opinion – The autumn of the patriarch? Turkey goes to the polls | Brookings Institution – John Gelmini

English: Map showing the territories of the Ot...

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 is right and the Brookings Institution lays out the various scenarios which could emerge from this Turkish election very well.

As it is, President Erdogan, with his new golden palace with more than 4,500 rooms, which is quadruple the size of Versailles, is hardly inspiring the confidence of his many much poorer countrymen nor the confidence of foreign inward investors.

The double, possibly triple game President Erdogan plays, in terms of supporting terrorists as they make inroads into Syria, appeasing the Emirs in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as they subsidize different groups of terrorists is very dangerous. It could easily trigger a regional war or possibly a larger conflict or unleash forces which President Erdogan or a possible future successor might find difficult to control.

Certainly the rest of the world does not want a recreated Ottoman Empire at the heart of the Middle East, following the British destruction of the last one in 1918, and the Austrians having put a stop to its earlier bloody advance on Europe at the gates of Vienna in 1683.

Whichever way you look at it, Turkey needs to concentrate on its economy and improving the prosperity of its people, rather than “Great Game” politics, which it lacks the money and home based political backing for.

John Gelmini

Greece’s creditors need a dose of reality – this is no time for European disunion | Business | Joseph Stiglitz – The Guardian

Cropped picture of Joseph Stiglitz, U.S. econo...

Cropped picture of Joseph Stiglitz, U.S. economist. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This article by Nobel prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, published in the Guardian, is a good read. Check it out!

via Greece’s creditors need a dose of reality – this is no time for European disunion | Business | The Guardian.

It looks like liberals are uniting, highlighting how shabbily Greece has been treated by the troika. Ultimately, it will be a take-it-or-leave-it decision for Greece. 

To be far, there have been mistakes on both sides, and the structural weakness of the Eurozone is to blame too.

Once again, it time for cool heads, rather than emotion and hasty decisions.

Thoughts?