The agenda
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be visiting Turkey this Saturday for several hours. Why is she coming? Will she be delivering new instructions to the co-chairman of the Greater Middle East and North Africa Project? Or will she prefer to talk business?
Will she be discussing ways and means of boosting intelligence sharing and anti-terrorism cooperation between the Turkish and American states? Would it mean anything at all if she realizes, in view of the fact that when Americans were the occupation power in Iraq all through the past decade, our sons were continually killed in cross-border attacks from Iraq by terrorists who were hiding there?
Will she discuss, perhaps, the sale of some intelligent weapons systems that could penetrate into the cave-dens of terrorists in the Kandil Mountains of northern Iraq and demonstrate the might of Turkey and its allies to the heinous terrorists? Well, everybody must have an answer to this. The American administration and Congress don’t trust Turks and they would never ever sell such weapons to Turks. Turks are neither Israelis nor are Kurdish terrorists the Palestinians of occupied territories.
Why is she coming to Turkey then? To shop for some handicrafts and presumably valuable carpets at the flea market at the Scoundrel Bazaar? Turkish carpets make good money back in Washington, but Persian ones might fetch far better prices. What about Syrian rugs?
Will she indeed discuss anything other than Syria and Iran in Ankara? Iran? Yes, indeed. The Iranians warned Ankara the other day that after Syria, it might be Turkey’s turn to go through the so-called “spring.” Because of the heat of summer, perhaps our friends in Tehran are apparently underestimating the prospects of a spring in Tehran. What’s unfolding is a concerted program that started back in the times of the white Bush and continuing with the black Bush, Barrack Obama. Withdrawing from Lebanon brought the war to Damascus, withdrawing from Damascus will bring it to Tehran. Then, perhaps it will continue on to somewhere else, probably Ankara, most probably down to heartland Arabia or further down to the Gulf.
Anyhow, the subject she will be discussing in Ankara will not be a pleasing one at all. It is a nasty issue. She will either discuss, as it appears, the creation of a buffer zone in Syria along the Turkish border or Turkey’s striking of selective targets in Syria to speed up the collapse of the Basher al-Assad regime. Regardless, she will be discussing here how Turkey will be pulled into the Syrian mess as if it was not already in that mess up to its nose through legitimate refugee-sheltering programs, supporting and abetting Syrian rebel forces, as well as engaging in alleged clandestine terrorist-brewing efforts in secret camps.
The prime minister was adamant the other day. He declared that like what Turkey has been doing with the terrorist presence in Iraq, Turkey would not refrain from engaging in hot pursuit operations on terrorist hideouts in Syria if cross-border terrorist activities continued. With tears in our eyes grieving for the loss of eight sons this week, our reaction is of course emotional. Yet, who are the terrorists? Those that kill our sons; those who vandalize Syrian towns with Turkish and other Western assistance, or the Syrian government who, for the sake of its survival, is killing its own people?
