Erdogan dreams neo-Ottoman empire: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Manuel Ochsenreiter, the editor-in-chief of Zuerst magazine from Berlin, to discuss a warning by the Russian defense ministry saying that the Turkish military is recruiting militants in Syria for al-Nusra Front terrorist group.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: These revelations are nothing new. Let’s not forget Russia and even Syria have been talking about Turkey’s role when it comes to propping up those terrorist groups in Syria. So, how far do you think these recent allegations are going to go?

Ochsenreiter: I think these allegations hit the reality because as you very correctly said Turkey is one of the key nations and one of the key security threats in the whole region right now and until back then since the Syrian war started we have to say that there might not be a war in Syria, if Turkey would have closed its borders since 2011, If they wouldn’t have organized influx of the international terrorism via the Turkish territory into Syria.

Turkey was as well handling proxy terrorist groups in northern Syria well in a way we can say this was a sort of gain of territory for Turkey. Turkey has until today and it is enforcing its neo-Ottoman dream. Part of this neo-Ottoman dream is to gain control on territory around Turkey and that is not just Syria. This is also happening in the Balkans. There are also the wishes in the Turkish government to do this in Caucasus area. There are also Turkish wishes to get territories more with the north when we see that they are for example supporting Crimean, Tatarian terrorists as units to fight against the Russians.

So, what Turkey is basically doing in Syria right now, what the Russian allegations hits very realistic, is that they are trying to reinforce their terrorist proxies namely the al-Nusra Front but many of other proxy terrorist groups as well for example the so-called Turkmen militias which are also armed, financed and supported by Ankara itself.

Press TV: Right. But Mr. Ochsenreiter let’s look at it from the viewpoint of Turkey as well. What Turkey gain from doing all this, specifically when you take a look at the blowback that it is receiving, the terrorist bombings in Ankara or in different parts of Turkey and also the fact that it has to grapple with this huge refugee influx from Syria. It isn’t in that stable position that they used to be at one point in time. So, is it worth it?

Ochsenreiter: We have to see the situation out of the eyes of the Turkish government namely out of the perspective of Turkish President Erdogan. For him, it seems like that scarifies some victims. Some of his own people are within his calculation. So, this is the thing he takes into account for something bigger. For a huge project namely the new Ottoman dream.

Turkey feels also in a luxurious situation geopolitically because this new Ottoman dream coincides with the politics of NATO and the West. We shouldn’t forget that Turkey is a NATO country. If any other country outside NATO would behave like Turkey is doing today since the years, the NATO countries would have imposed long ago sanctions, they would have imposed embargoes against such a country. May be they would have even armed so-called oppositional forces as the NATO countries are used to do to this to other states outside the western hemisphere.

But Turkey is somehow the lapdog of the NATO. It always was. So, Erdogan feels that he can do whatever he wants and we shouldn’t confuse vocal protest of NATO countries with real action because vocal protests are of course coming here and there and Erdogan is putting journalists into prison and he is here waging a war against the Kurds but there is not a real political and economical and of course also security action against Turkey. In contradiction, the European Union was blessing Erdogan just some weeks ago with a great deal which gifts the Turks or Turkish citizens the opportunity to travel to Europe without visa, the so-called visa agreement. Erdogan will use this visa agreement to get rid of two groups he doesn’t like; group number one will be the Kurds; and group number two of course will be the poor and the opposition. He will simply export his internal problems to Europe or to other parts of the world.

So, for him, out of his eyes, he is conducting a successful politics and he is supporting groups the people for example in Anatolia, where the AKP Party has a lot of success. They appreciate this type of how they see it, its own leadership and also they appreciate Erdogan aggressive politics against all his neighbors.  

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