Turkish President Recep Erdogan is the figurative head of the Muslim Brotherhood. As the gatekeeper between the Middle East and Europe, Turkey sits at the center of multiple issues, and Recep Erdogan uses his position as gate guard to his favor. If Europe tries to pressure him, he opens the gates. Europe has stopped trying to pressure Erdogan.
A rather curious NATO membership underpins the strategic influence of Erdogan and Turkey. While simultaneously Turkey maintains positive relationships with Russia and is not a member of the sanction regime against Vladimir Putin. The careful strategy has resulted in massive economic gains for Turkey, and Istanbul now stands as the gateway hub between East and West.
President Erdogan is a strong and ruthless leader openly supporting the political arm of Islam known as the Muslim Brotherhood. Erdogan also maintains close ties with Qatar. Turkey knows how to play all sides to their best interest. Erdogan also reads and speaks fluent English, though you’d never know it when the cameras turn on. WATCH:
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The poster child for playing all sides.
Now that Syria is essentially non-existent, Israel and Turkey are bound to collide – an interesting development.
Erdogans last speech at the UN was “colorful”
Agree, Erdogan well known for playing all sides.
🐍🐍🤬
As usual…a lot more to the story/ issue about
the F-35s.
Turkey has developed the KAAN , after it was sanctioned
in 2019 for buying the Russian S-400.
Turkey has reportedly signed a 10 Billion dollar export
deal to Indonesia for 48 KAAN fighter jets…….
September 3, 2025
NATO Ally Issues Update on New Rival to US F-35 Stealth Jet – Newsweek
This is the….😳😳
March 2025
https://defensearchives.com/news/five-years-after-their-suspension-from-the-f-35-program-turkiye-is-still-in-possession-of-sensitive-production-equipment-for-the-aircraft/
Not a reliable ally.
he is friend with …..NO ONE..opportunist to the hilt…..
Turkey can go pluck itself 🙂
I hope Trump roasted him and gave him a good dressing down.
Which kind of stuffing did he use?
I’d rather Turkey just molt away
Wasn’t Erodgen best buddies with the kenyan? PDT is smart enough not to trust a thing he says
And Ilhan Omar, polygamist.
God, please forgive me, the C word comes to mind.
Communist!
You’ve got it.
who is, these days?
America was not a reliable ally to Col. Muammar Ghadddafi.
“ally”?? I think you and I have different definitions of that word.
His “translator” looks like a character from A Handmaid’s Tale.
Just sayin’
That’s Omar’s soul sistah.
I thought a Cone Head was just a Saturday Night Live skit from back when it was decent comedy.
Erdogan facilitated the take over of Syria by the Isis dude so he could take out the Kurds. He built a huge mosque in MD thanks to Obama (in the style of those usually built on conquered land). He is now advocating for Hamas. He also imprisons any opposition to his party. Apparently, he also convinced President Trump to remove the sanctions on Syria.
At one time, he held our nukes stored at Incirlik hostage.
He has a huge population of MB members in Germany.
WHY the HE** we are now selling the tyrant F-35’s is beyond me. WHY he hasn’t been kicked out of NATO is beyond me.
Sometimes, I just shake my head.
Agreed! But first we should kick ourselves out of NATO.
And the feckless UN!!!
He said “maybe” but I’m hoping that means no!
One of the reasons is he knows the only way to the Black Sea for NATO naval assets is though the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey.
Agree!
And it is important to remember what
else he has control of… another gate he controls….
💥💥Approximately 3.4 million refugees in Turkey.💥💥
Erdogan has received Billions from EU to keep
those refugees in Turkey.
That is one heck of a bit of leverage Erdogan has.
December 2024….this was just latest installment of
10 Billion so far 😉😉and she promised more to come
Von der Leyen announces €1 billion in EU aid for refugees in Turkey
Well Britain pays/paid France millions to keep the “refugees” in France . So far only 1 and a half million have come.
Apparently you didn’t read the above article Sundance wrote.
Of course I read it.
I think they figure that it’s better to have him in NATO, distasteful as that is, where they can influence him, than to let him go unfettered toward Russia.
You breezed over the operative word… we SOLD. Aerospace has one helluva lobby.
I believe our country facilitated all of it.
“the take over of Syria by the Isis dude”
Yeah…I am shaking my head too.
For probably the 20th time I have
posted for months on CTH..complete
with link below.
🤦♀️🤦♀️
Al-Jolani…(the Isis dude) is a puppet trained and installed
by US and UK.
Here is short clip of Ex US Ambassador Ford…
telling how it was done…he was part of the team.
It was done under Biden🤢
Ex-Amb. Ford: UK, US trained ex-ISIS al-Jolani for political integration. – YouTube
I never liked that guy
Handmaid’s Tale in the background behind Erdogan. I wonder if we’ll hear about that in the State Media.
Also – did he take over for Obama as head of the muslim brotherhood?
Is he the Anti-Christ perhaps?
So much competition for that title!
haha… well played.
In the running, and in the right area of the planet, but going against him is the anti-Christ’s ethnicity being “Assyrian”. Turkish is not exactly thought of as Assyrian. But the timing appears to be right and Turkey is right next door to Syria, so it’s possible.
And historical “magog, and “tubal” were all located in modern day Turkey.
He also could be in the running for the end times “the king of the north”
Remember, east was at the top of the map until a few centuries ago. North was anything to the left of Israel.
He diffidently fits the MO and was born in the right place…
We are not told. What we are told:
Isaiah 14:24-27
The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying,
“Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass,
And as I have purposed, so it shall stand:
That I will break the Assyrian in My land,
And on My mountains tread him underfoot.
Then his yoke shall be removed from them,
And his burden removed from their shoulders.
This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth,
And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
For the Lord of hosts has purposed,
And who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
And who will turn it back?”
Has not happened yet, and I am certain Isaiah was in fact not a false prophet, so it must be in the future.
Antichrist will be a Syrian Jew.
Say what you will, but I’ll always think of him as ‘Yip Yap’.
Yippie the Dog Man
Recep Taqqiya. A dangerous man.
Like having a scorpion visit the Whitehouse
Most definitely!
I am sure everyone remembers how Erdogan
even threw Russia under the bus when Erdogan
released the Ukraine Maripoul Azov Nazi prisoners
they were holding for Russia.
😳😳
Erdogan is always about Turkey and Erdogan..always.
He has quite the history of being a snake.🐍
😁😁catching up with him though…he was at last SCO summit,
and reports are that he was basically treated as a pariah. Everyone
was respectful and polite…but he was not invited to some of the
inner circle discussions and meetings. 👏👏
October 2023
Putin left furious at Turkey ‘betrayal’ after Ukrainian war prisoners freed
He is typical muzzies from turkey…..the type of which Germany has imported by the millions over the last 50 years. No wonder Germany sux so bad now
What is overlooked here is that inflation in Turkey is very high and Turkey is economically struggling. Erdogan plays the demagogue button to change the subject and cling to power. Yes, he also knows about rigging elections.
It is time to stop the invasion of Europe.
That is one of the “gates” that Erdogan controls.
Releasing the 3.4 million ME refugees into Europe
that Turkey has.
So far, the EU has paid him 10 Billion to keep them there.
December 2024…this was an additional installment.
Von der Leyen announces €1 billion in EU aid for refugees in Turkey
Like it or not, Istanbul (formerly Constantinople under Christian control) has been the crossroads between Asia and Europe for millennia. The Ottomans are no friends to Western Civilization and never have been. They backed the Barbary pirates for centuries as they raided and enslaved more white Europeans than any amount of black slaves America brought over.
Keep your head on a swivel around this guy. That said, MAGA shouldn’t be surprised or appalled at a foreign leader who puts his country first. Our problem is that, historically, our leaders have not.
Our problem is that, historically, our leaders have not.
I believe Erdogan gave an interview to Fox I believe yesterday where he called out President Trump for ‘Blowing his Horn’ about supposedly stopping 7 Wars an ‘Not’ ending the Ukraine & Russia War….I took it like he was calling President Trump a BS artist……Knowing this I wonder how meeting will or won’t go……There’s no way President Trump will let that fly….We will see….
He may get F-16’s but F-35’s should be a big NO.
I’m sure President Trump knows this guy is a butcher and his dream of recasting the ME as part of a new Ottoman Empire…He won’t even acknowledge that the Armenian genocide ever happened not to mention what he’s done to the Kurds and his own people. Turkey’s Syrian diplomacy must be very interesting considering they’re part of NATO but despise Israel….
Erdogan has explicitly stated that “Turkey is the only country that can lead the Muslim World”.
And we all know of Mohammad’s command to Muslims that they and Islam rule the world, and by the sword if that’s wat it takes..
Obama loves this fence-walking despot.
Even helped him repel a rebellion of patriots attempting to overthrow him over a decade ago.
PDJT should declare MB an Islamic terrorist organization to his face, right there in the Oval.
My guess? He will be the Anti-Christ in the great tribulation.
Turkey has been an important (and at times difficult) NATO ally for a long time and the recipient of massive amounts of US foreign military aid. They occupy a strategic location geographically. Their great leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, brought Turkey into the 20th Century by industrializing and secularizing the country. He saw the advantage of participating in the western economy. However, the country has struggled to fully westernize since his passing. The US cannot afford to alienate Pres. Erdogan; nor can Pres. Erdogan afford to alienate the US. Pres. Erdogan’s sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood is concerning, although he’s most likely motivated by improving Turkey’s economy more than Islamic ideology. I trust that Pres. Trump has the moxie to forge a trade agreement that will strengthen our relationship with this strategic country to achieve stability and peace in the region. I pray that Pres. Erdogan has the wisdom to “look to the West.” Playing all sides is becoming very risky.
“although he’s most likely motivated by improving Turkey’s economy more than Islamic ideology.“
Mmmm…. No.
NICE TRY…
i’LL KINDLY DISAGREE
and
Present THIS View – ( by a Think Tank in Switzerland in 2023 during the Period of Coerced Migration of Europe )
https://www.thediplomaticaffairs.com/2023/07/13/the-resurgence-of-ottomanism-president-erdogans-vision-for-turkey/
Agree.
Erdogan always looks out for Turkey…and Erdogan.
He has leverage over EU with threat of releasing 3.4 Million
ME refugees he has in his country into Europe.
EU has already paid 10 Billion for Turkey to hold the refugees
there.
This was additional installment in December 2024.
Von der Leyen announces €1 billion in EU aid for refugees in Turkey
He has no problem with back stabbing and not keeping promises.
🤷♀️ His release of the Ukraine NAzi Azov leaders captured by Russia
in Maripoul ….he was holding for Russia….😳😳
October 2023
Putin left furious at Turkey ‘betrayal’ after Ukrainian war prisoners freed
Erdogan is a snake…and not to be trusted…I believe the rest of the world
know what he is about…everyone has to deal with him 🤷♀️
From reports, he did attend last SCO summit, he was cordially received,
but many noticed that he was not invited to participate in many meetings.
Great article, thank you, Sundance
Unfortunately, President Trump the Statesman and deal maker, knows how to deal with leaders like him who play both sides. It is interesting, and ironic, among other things, that he has a woman “translator” speaking for him.
Dealing with the devil.
Sitting with Satan.
Painful to watch him playing the illiterate.
The first thing I think of when I see Erdogan or Turkey in general is the magnificent Hagia Sophia, once a church and now a mosque. Emblematic of Islamic conquest and supremacy, which has always been the one goal of the murderous cult of Islam.
This is what Islamists do in every country which they infiltrate. Buy churches and “repurpose them into mosques. See the first Western Sharia nation, the United Kingdom, as an example. Or they torch churches, hundreds of them. I am convinced it was an Islamist(s) who set fire to Notre Dame.
(Apropos of nothing in particular regarding Erdogan’s visit today (although I would bet that while he was in the WH, he was thinking longingly of a time when a caliphate would be in residence), I remember my mother telling me a story which my Army Captain surgeon father who served in the Korean War (MASH unit) in front of the front lines told her… that one time recently operated upon Turkish and Chinese soldiers were placed next to one another. The next morning they found the throat of the Chinese soldier slit.)
I understand vis a vis its geographical location that Turkey is important. But Erdogan is faithful only to Islam and its ultimate goal. No reliable NATO partner he. NATO’s interests are secondary (if that) to the “religion of peace “…per GWB.
And as I prefer reality to pretense, I conclude by stating that those in positions of power in the Christian world who do not understand this are as much a danger to Western civilization as he is.
OK shoot me, but given a choice between Turkey and Ukraine being a member of NATO, I would choose Ukraine every time, thank you.
Christians or Muslims, not even remotely close.
I understand, as when Christians behave like Nazi’s, they are not being Christians, yet when Islamists behave like Nazi’s, they are being Islamists.
It is ok to choose neither.
Ratface going after the Orthodox church in Ukraine is a good example of how Ukraine has been wrested away from Christianity, and thrust towards Globohomo.
This is why NATO needs to be defunded as Americans fund over 700 billion a year of a trillion dollar budget and allowing a terrorist who kills Americans into this country.
NATO is no different then the corrupt UN and both should be defunded and all member nations escorted to the nearest airport and confiscate entry passports.
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main” is a famous quotation from John Donne’s 1624 prose work, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions.
The Turks are the inheritors of the Byzantine Greeks’ style of diplomacy, which is more than playing all sides: it is also the art of pretending NOT to be playing all sides!
It is also the regrettable art of signing treaties and NOT intending to follow them at all: the Russians picked up on that one fairly early. Only Stalin failed to realize that Hitler was playing the same game until it was too late.
The Turks are not to be trusted concerning agreements or treaties, like the Russians and the Arabs, including “our good allies” the Qataris and Saudis!
“I never disliked a Chinaman as I do these Turks and Arabs, and, when Russia is ready to war with them again, I hope England and France will not find it good breeding or good judgment to interfere”.
(Mark Twain in his travelogue The Innocents Abroad, based on his 1867 journey through the Middle East and Europe.
Attaturk put a system in place to rid Turkey of Islamists and caliphate revivors from power. The Turkish military had the power to remove them if elected. That worked until Obama. When the generals and senior officers got together to plan Erdogans removal, Obama monitored their signals, gave Erdogan their location. They were all arrested imprisoned or executed. Score another one for Obama and the Islamists revival.
Admitting Turkey into NATO was a massive error.
LEVERAGE AGAINST a Teetering COMMUNIST GREECE / ITALY and to GET the JUPITER MISSILES / US FORCES in Turkey
Gotta respect his skill set.
“He knows about rigged elections better than anybody.”
ROFL 🤣 🥊💨
“ Democracy is like a train: you get off once you have reached your destination”
Tayyip Erdogan
September 1922
The Burning of Smyrna
Greek Genocide Resource Center
http://www.greek-genocide.net
We are now reaping the result of over 40 years of US and European Hubris v/v Turkey.
From 1920 (Kemal Attaturk) up until the election of the Erdogan … Succeeding Secular Governments of Turkey begged to be allowed to be ECONOMICALLY and Politically to be admitted to the EEC and then EU. Those requests were met with deaf hears, cold shoulders and hypocritical arrogance.
Turkey was good enough to be admitted to NATO to provide LISTENING POSTS into the USSR.
Turkey was good enough place for the US to station Nuclear Weapons aimed at the USSR.
Turkey was good enough to supply a very effective Infantry Division Equivalent to Korean War.
The Germans welcomed Turkish workers with open arms to do the “dirty jobs”, with a guest worker program … those Turkish workers we not granted permanent residency as they had to return to Turkey after so many months of working in Germany.
I lived in, worked in and visited across Turkey as an expat during the years of the secular Government of President Everen and Prime Minister Ozul. The social aspects of Turkey had a definite SECULAR LOOK. That young women acting as Erdogan’s interpreter (in the photo above) would have been dressed in the latest WESTERN Woman’s Business Suit. I watched 3 attempts be contemptuously dismissed by the EEC and EU.
I watched European Governments recklessly support the PKK and other violent movements within Turkey.
I watched the rise in the popularity of the Islamic related political movements building off each denial for membership into the EU.
The US and Europe squandered opportunity after opportunity to work with a secular Turkish Government.
So now the “West” has to deal with an Islamic Turkish Government that fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood Umbrella Group. It will be a long, hard road to rewind the clock to secular days proceeding Erdogan because of all occurred up to the point he was elected and threw in his lot with the Islamists.
While Turkey certainly benefits from the protections of the NATO charter as well as technology access the alliance brings …. NATO actually still needs Turkey more than ever, which is the irony of the whole situation.
The INTEL Listening posts into RUSSIA and ex-Russian Republics still exist and now have to also look into Iran and Syria.
That US Airbase at Incerlick is still a critical staging point.
Then there are planned fuel pipelines to Europe.
These assets are over an above the being the flood gate to refugees, described by Sundance.
I am an Incirlik AB alumni. What I didn’t realize was that it seemed to be homosexual central of the US Air Force, back when it wasn’t OK to be gay. Glad it was only a. year.
I appreciate that you articulate the Turkish view so eloquently but your theory that Turkey only became islamist because of Europe’s rejection doesn’t hold water.
You can’t wipe out more then 600 years of Ottoman history that is only covered with a very thin crust of a few decades of Kemalist secularism.
The Ottoman empire ruled over many culturally diverse etnicities like Balkan people, Turkic people, Arab people, Assyrans and many others. The ONLY thing that kept these people together was the religion of Islam. In the case of the Christian people it was a small elite that converted to Islam that enjoyed the privileges of working for the Sultan.
When the Ottoman empire fell the problem of how to keep together all these different ethnicities still remained because Turkey itself consisted of multiple ethnicities and cultures like Greeks, Armenians, Kurds etc.
The new secular Turkey replaced Islam with a new hyperaggressive and racist form of nationalism as the unifying force.
Yes, it is well-documented that Attaturk was an obsessive racist.
To create an ethnically homogenous state the Christians were simply wiped out through genocide.
That didn’t work with the Kurds because they were simply too many. Prior to the year 2000 the kurds were 20% of the Turkish population.
But all the Turkish prime ministers you mentioned continued the racist policies.
They denied that the Kurds even exist, called them “Mountain Turks” and waged a war of varying intensity against the Kurds.
The Turkish hyperaggressive nationalism created problems with its neighbours, especially with Greece.
In 1974 Turkey invaded Northern Cyprus, raped and ethnically cleansed the Greek population and illegally occupied Northern Cyprus ever since.
In 1996 Greece and Turkey almost went to war because Turkey claimed the formerly undisputed tiny Island of Imia as Turkish territory.
The Turkish provocations were simply too many to list them here.
Your depiction of the Turks as poor victims that were exploited and treated like excrement is only a projection of the typical victim culture.
Let me tell you. My parents came to Germany as guests workers and I lived almost all my life there.
Even we South Europeans were often treated badly and I have experienced xenophobia and racism but luckily I was not just physically very strong and could defend myself. The Germans have to learned (sometimes the hard way) to respect us and we have integrated while many of us still keep our cultural roots.
This was very different with the Turks. They refused to integrate and isolated themselves, creating parallel societies.
While their parents were secular the younger Turks wre much more religious. You know what that means…
To demand from Europe that it should integrate Turkey is like saying that the USA should accept Mexico as the 51st state but only 10 times worse.
So, Europe should integrate Turkey for the sake of saving Turkey’s secular experiment?
Would the US do it? Hell, no!
Tell me, why should Europe integrate a country with a much weaker economy when it cannot afford to subsidize it?
Tell me, why should Europe integrate a country with a radically different culture and a population that is unwilling to integrate?
Tell me, why should Europe integrate a country that still illegally occupies one of the EU’s member states?
Tell me, why should Europe integrate a country that still provokes one of EU’s members militarily on a regular basis?
Tell me, why should Europe import Turkey’s internal, sometimes violent, ethnic conflict with the kurds
You might say: “Give Turkey not full membership but some other kind of association”.
Well, Turkey refuses categorically anything less than FULL EU membership. It views anything less as a second class EU membership.
Full EU membership would mean that EVERY Turkish citizen would be allowed to live ANYWHERE in the EU.
So tell me again, why should Europe commit suicide?
No Sir, if the Turks love secularism, they must save it themselves.
You cannot expect Europe to accept what no MAGA and no America first person in their right mind and least of all, President Trump, would ever accept.
Reading through these comments, I’m glad to see that most here recognize the evil of this man. I hope Trump does too… I deployed to Turkey about fifteen years ago, and it’s a beautiful and interesting country with a great deal history, including Christian history. Many there love America, but sad that we’ve often helped Turkey subjugate probably the most pro-American demographic – the Kurds. We worked and interacted with some in the Turkish military, and I met some great people. I worry about what may have happened to them in the soft coup attempt (probably a orchestrated trap), maybe it was eight years ago.
As for how Turkey should be treated, ideally, that’s a tough question. As mentioned, they are a de facto state sponsor of terrorists. Also, as Sundance has mentioned, they have a strong hand in Syria today. Turkey under Erdogan gone from a fairly open society that basically an Islamist one. So we should be working to distance and disentangle ourselves from them wherever possible. On the face of it, I don’t like the look of this, but hopefully Trump is driving a hard bargain behind the scenes. Erdogan, no doubt, has visions of a new Ottoman empire, and he has something of an army in Europe and parts of the middle east thanks to mass Islamic migration and connections through the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood. It could happen, but we’d better be working hard to make sure it doesn’t – it would likely result in a century or more of darkness.
20 years? I hope Trump can do 20
He didn’t show up in sweat pants, so there is that in his favor.
“He knows about rigged elctions better than anyone else” Only Trump could get away with a comment like that! Erdogan played that one off well or it just went over his head. Funny none the less.
i hope they talked about Cyprus
Is that young lady with elongated head a Martian? Just asking
can’t trust that snake,
of course our president praise for courteous always,