Editor,
One Turkey that left me with an upset stomach this year is the president of Turkey, Recep Erdogan. This man has dangerously escalated the situation between the U.S. and Russia by recently shooting down a Russian jet that was carrying out airstrikes against al Qaeda-affiliated rebels in Syria.
Fortunately, the Russian president Vladimir Putin is a much more level-headed individual and has refrained from any military retaliation against Turkey who is a U.S. ally. It is no secret among Middle Eastern journalists that ISIS has been selling its stolen oil from Syria to the government of Turkey, and in order to save his shady oil business president Erdogan had the Russian jet shot down. It is not too uncommon for politicians to speak with a forked tongue, and the politicians in the Middle East are no exception.
On the one hand U.S. ally Erdogan has claimed to be fighting the terrorists of ISIS, but in reality he has allowed would-be terrorists to freely enter Syria through Turkey’s border, and he has been buying ISIS’s oil, which was stolen from Syria. With friends like president Erdogan, the American people don’t need enemies. The U.S. and Turkish governments have been wrong in their attempts to force regime change in Syria through the use of psychopathic extremists like ISIS. As much as Erdogan’s actions make me queasy, I find it hard to believe that Erdogan was not given the green light from Washington before taking such a provocative action. At some point, one would hope that the mafioso, political leadership in the U.S. and Turkey would end their support for ISIS, but then again, like many addicts can attest to, bad habits are hard to quit.
Muhajir Romero
