Comedy of errors
What was that Turkish folk song? “Confesses the truth at police station, errs at the court…” It describes people telling truth at first interrogation at police, but to avoid being sentenced deny at court what he confessed to at the police station. Well, there is another nasty aspect of the saying as well.
Some sort of satire, irony is also at work. Turkish police and Gendarmerie are of course very civilized institutions manned with capable personnel who never ever think of applying torture and forcing people under detention to confess and help resolve all pending investigations.
American Vice President Joe Biden was the subject of that song this weekend. Sure, it must not be an easy job at all to be the second fiddle. President Barrack Obama does not want to meet with some people; Biden takes on the nasty task of talking and mending ties with the abhorrent dictators and such… All for the vital interests of the United States. Not necessarily at the police station, sometimes well-placed people with power, authority, influence but an unsatisfied ego might outpour truth at a classroom at Harvard Kennedy School. As is said, two things must be made in utmost secret; sausages and politics. Something said in private must stay private. Furthermore, a confession in discreet does not necessarily mean admitting the fault in public.
So it happened. Were there anything not known by those following the Syria developments in what Biden said at Harvard Kennedy School on Oct. 2? Apart many other things he said “President Erdoğan told me, he is an old friend, said you were right, we let too many people through, now we are trying to seal the border”? Furthermore he defended that the US was not late to move against the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant but the “regional allies” of the US were determined to take down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, “poured hundreds of millions dollars, and tens thousands of tones of weapons into anyone who would fight against al-Assad, accepted the people who would be in supply for Al Nusra and Al Qaeda and extremist elements of jihadists coming from other parts of the world. … Our biggest problem is our allies. Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria. The Turks, we’re great friends and I have a great relationship with Erdoğan that I spent a lot of time with. The Saudis, The Emiratis etc... What were they doing? So now what is happening, all of sudden everybody is awakened…” More? Biden claimed that like Turkey admitted its mistakes, Saudi Arabia and Qatar stopped the funding of jihadists.
Was it wrong? Why Erdoğan burst in such anger and threatened to make Biden “history for me”? Don’t we remember the intelligence trucks captured in the border region heading towards Syria? What happened to those military personnel and policemen who stopped those trucks? They were all accused of treason, dropped from duty, disbanded, severely punished. Were they doing anything but the work they were paid for? But, they unveiled some dirty laundry of some top executives and deserved to be punished. Biden must thank God that he is the vice president of the US otherwise he would be imprisoned by now of talking of “state secrets” of Turkey. What state secrets? Dirty undertakings.
Getting rid of the Syrian dictator is in Turkey’s interest perhaps but that should be none of the business of Turkey. That’s something ought to be done by Syrians. Otherwise, if Islamist terrorists are nourished in hopes that they will take down the nasty dictator and help to enhance the “Sunni political Islam” in this geography, than those that nourished those beasts are equally responsible of the current mess in Syria and Iraq.
Was it not sad to see the video of the barbaric beheading of British hostage Alan Henning on the eve of the Muslim religious Sacrifice Holiday?
Biden apologized, and Turkish-US ties were patched up… So thinks some officious advisors and bureaucrats advising Turkey’s sole decision maker. The crisis is over. Biden stepped back and apologized.
Is it really over? Not at all… A sloppy web of affairs is ahead for Erdoğan and the American executive team…