Erdoğan swayed from one end to the other in 12 days

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, while in Iran, offered to become a mediator in Syria and in Yemen. He said, “Iraq is a place we are shedding tears at. More than 100,000 people have died there up to now. History was destroyed. Similarly, 300,000 people have died in Syria. I am not interested in the Shiite or Sunni in here. I am interested in the Muslims. Human beings are the most honorable of beings.” 

It was only two weeks ago, in a joint press conference with Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, when Erdoğan had said, “What the Houthi forces are doing in Yemen is only sectarian fights. This has tuned into Shiite-Sunni clashes. We can never view this kind of a thing as positive. Iran is trying to dominate the region. Could this be allowed? This has started to bother us, the Gulf States and many countries in the region. It is really not possible to tolerate this. Look at Iraq. They are struggling with Daesh [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] and with the Revolutionary Guards Iran sent there at the same time. Iran has to withdraw its forces from Yemen, Syria and Iraq… It has to respect the territorial integrity of these countries…”

What has changed in 12 days, where we have come from calling Iran to withdraw from the region to the point of joint mediation? 

It is difficult to know; obviously the president speaks depending on which side of the bed he has woken up on in the morning. If it’s the reverse side, he scolds, and if it is the correct side, then he calls for mediation. 
Yes, 300,000 people have died in Syria. The number of people who have lost their houses, been displaced and became immigrants is no less than 6 million; about 2 million of them are living in Turkey now. 
When upheavals started in Syria, it was Erdoğan who led those pouring benzene on the fire, calculating that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would be toppled “in a couple of weeks.” 

And now, he is onto saying, “It is humanity that interests me…”

He has ambitions to be a mediator now but it was he who turned his back when he had the influence and prestige on al-Assad to accomplish this.  

They embarked on an adventure with the prime minister of today, then after four years, we are left with a border that has turned into a war and 2 million immigrants who are on the streets of Turkey begging because we could not take care of them. 

Poor woman tells the truth 

Two young men have been detained in the Black Sea province of Trabzon in connection with the attack on the Fenerbahçe football team bus earlier this week. The head of the Trabzonspor football club paid a visit to the police headquarters in Trabzon. 

We do not know the reason of the visit. It could be connected to an “ongoing investigation” or it could be only a courtesy visit. 

But while the president was heading out of the police department on his way to his car, friends and relatives of the two suspects surrounded him. The mother of one of the suspects told him, “My kids were taken inside because of you. Get out of the car and go get them.” 
You can imagine how sad a mother would be in such a situation. But she is pointing out a reality among all this sadness.

If this was, as the police claim, the work of two fanatics, then one must stop and wonder who agitated them into this state of mind. 

This incident is the cost of pumping Fenerbahçe hostility to the city to cover up for sportive failure. And the person sitting at the side of the pump is no one else but the head of the club. 

Let us hope that this incident, which thankfully was a narrow escape, will be a lesson for those who turn football into a feud between clubs.