It's time for Erdogan to stop and reconsider

Many times other countries have tried, and not without success, to use Turkey to their advantage. And when they did not succeed, Turkey has always been a winner.

This happened, for example, during the Second World War, when, despite all the tricks of the Third Reich, Constantinople was on the sidelines of this terrible world massacre.

Now it seems that the moment of truth is coming or has already come for Ankara. Washington really wants to push Turkey against Russia. And of course, he himself wants to stand aside and watch as Turks and Russians destroy each other while on Syrian or Libyan soil.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan's hopes for Western allies, first and foremost NATO, are as ghostly as the light smile of the Sultan's concubine in the early morning.

Despite the well-entrenched misconception about Article 5 of the NATO Charter, it does not imply immediate intervention of the block's armies even in case of a direct attack by the enemy on one of its members.

In that case, only "each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognized in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Contracting Party or Contracting Parties attacked by such an attack by taking such individual or joint action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, with a view to restoring and subsequently maintaining security in the North Atlantic region".

In Germany, the percentage of citizens welcoming NATO activities has decreased from 74 to 57 per cent since 2009. These figures were published just recently by the authoritative Pew Research Center.

In the UK, which has just left the EU, only 55% of citizens expressed their support for the NATO strategy.

In other NATO countries, similar statistics are only worse.

In such a situation, the statement by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's advisor Mesut Haqqi that "Turkey has fought 16 times with Russia and is ready to enter the war again" looks like a frank and stupid profanation.

It was even more foolish for him to say that "25 million Muslims live in Russia and promise that "Russia will be dismembered from within" because there are no objective prerequisites for this, as evidenced by the position of Russian Muslims in relation to the Crimea. They fully supported President Putin's position on this sensitive issue.

But in this situation the most important for Turkey is the position of the U.S. as the main and main member of NATO. This seems to be the best situation for Ankara.

For example, during a meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Idlib, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN Kelly Kraft called on Russia to "immediately land combat aircraft" in Syria. But with the same success, it could also call on Moscow to stop using the help of aliens in the Syrian war ... The rest of Washington's steps are in fact only agitation and propaganda, aimed only at colliding Ankara and Moscow in Syria and Libya. If Erdogan does not know this, all that remains is to sympathize with him and the Turkish people.

This was once again confirmed by the NATO Council meetings on the Syrian issue. One would think that NATO capitals had no idea that Greece would block the alliance's statement of support to Turkey...

Of course, the cynical and deceitful phrases by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that "the North Atlantic military bloc will support Turkey in its fight against Bashar Assad's forces in the province of Idlib in northwest Syria by several different methods, including air defence" were not followed.

Stolteberg noted that "the allies extend their sympathies to Turkey in connection with the tragedy that occurred last night, which resulted in the loss of Turkey's military forces.

Stoltenberg stressed that members of the alliance condemned this attack, which was carried out by the military under the leadership of Bashar Assad. "We openly call on Russia and the regime to stop the attacks, we call on Syria to respect international law," he said. And he added that "NATO allies always think about what else they can do to better support Turkey.

And on the specific question of whether NATO can expect more concrete steps, this "bold" Jens noted that "NATO provides Turkey with strong political and practical support, the allies are closely monitoring the situation in the region. "NATO allies support a peaceful resolution of this issue under the auspices of the UN," he said, "and at this stage we call on Syria, Turkey and Russia to adhere to such a solution.

If, after what happened, the Turkish president does not understand the obvious fact that he is tritely deceived and provoked into a direct military conflict with Russia, it means that he simply does not fit his post.

I have been in direct and open opposition to Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a long time, because...