Thread by @ZenonasTziarras

#THREAD #RANT on #Turkey foreign policy

Another article (not surprisingly on Al Jazeera) trying to convince us that #Ankara is the victim and Turkish foreign policy is on the defence. The approach is superficial at best and ignores a number of facts >>

aljazeera.com/indepth/opinio…

That Turkey unofficially abandoned regime change in #Syria is not the point: same author, in 2013 Hinnebusch & Tur book wrote "Turkey saw an opportunity to bring abt regime change in Damascus at Iran's expense...it was a matter of geopolitical competition between Ankara & Tehran"

Regime change was an unprecedented policy for Ankara to adopt & a revisionist one; by the author's admission, for the purpose of regional power. 4 interventions later it's inaccurate to say that "Turkey's ability to influence the course of the conflict was reduced to a minimum"

Yes, Turkey prioritizes the #PKK/#YPG threat & it was obviously a factor that drove the interventions, but one needs to also account for the economic, political, demographic, & administrative transformation that these areas are undergoing (e.g. the Jarablus-Al Bab-#Afrin zone)

How exactly is Turkey attending to its "Internal stability and territorial integrity" by having troops in #Iraq's #Bashiqa (against #Baghdad's will), in #Qatar, #Somalia, #Libya, potentially #Niger. It should not escape anyone that hegemonic aspirations trigger reactions >>

#Turkey has been pursuing a hegemonic vision in the area at least since late 2000s. This eventually triggered the reactions of both domestic forces & external actors: Israel, Egypt, UAE, Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, France, Russia (some of which have their own aspirations): eg FR, RU

The author presents the #Turkey-#Tripoli #EEZ MoU as a reaction to #EMGF. Apologies, but this is a joke. Someone please read the geopolitical aspirations of the Milli Gorus movement out of which the #AKP emerged, and also TR Eurasianist visions for the area eg the #BlueHomeland

The #BlueHomeland was conceived in 2006 and the Tripoli-Turkey EEZ was already being planned in Ankara at least since 2011. It can be found in Cihat Yayci's papers drawn exactly as it was eventually agreed, re-stated many times in writing before the EMGF was even conceived.

Revisionist-expansionist strategies in the literature:
- territorial expansionism
- establishment of transnational dependencies (e.g Tripoli, Cyprus, Syria territories)
- Demographic alteration strategies
- control of admin/econ struct via proxies
- revision of boundaries, eg EEZ

It is known that if you have the power you can control the narrative. And if you can control the narrative, you can control the truth (and the lies). If you control the truth, you could even say that Black is actually White. That doesn't make it White. #THREAD_OVER

PS: Those who think this is a superficial, sophomoric, TFP 101, or rookie approach, feel free to read this (non-rookie), detailing the rise of #Turkey revisionist foreign policy until 2014. After 2014 things became much more obvious & easier to identify:

academia.edu/10200832/Turki…

My new book will hopefully come out in 2021 looking into Ankara's revisionism in #MidEast and #EastMed after 2016.