a lightweight discussion of WW2 aerial ops and the like

Not to sidetrack the narrative, but...

Going back a few posts, how does Turkey effectively maintain neutrality during the Cold War without being dominated by either camp or drawn into a fight with xyz neighbor at some point?

Click to expand...

well , ı am expected to provide longwinded arguments on any subject , which generally throws off people as it did in past years . Please allow me some time to come up with some unprovable anectodes and stuff , and thanks for the interest in content .

AnthonyBoscia said:

Not to sidetrack the narrative, but...

Going back a few posts, how does Turkey effectively maintain neutrality during the Cold War without being dominated by either camp or drawn into a fight with xyz neighbor at some point?

Click to expand...

And what would be their incentive do so when they wanted/needed closer economic and political ties to Europe?

In the cold war, that meant either snuggling up to the warsaw pact or nato, not being neutral.

Well, they wouldn't have been the only European power on the block that was not part of either Treaty Organization and maintained some degree of neutrality. But I'm more interested in how r16 thinks Turkey could have pulled it off moreso than the why. Since he already stated pretty plainly that he thinks the country would have as well if not better off during that time as a neutral.

Thanks, r16, take your time and will look for the post when ready.

(not complete , ı am yet to write more than 15KB a day , will edit as necessary )

ı have mentioned somewhere in this thread that as the post count increases it becomes harder to keep track of what you have written over the time and as some of them require some effort to get them out , ı have come up with the idea to add them here , ı would like to remain consistent if nothing else . Though there is also a real desire to avoid the full r16 style . Back in the day ı have been on a bad patch and sincerely appreciate the understanding shown that ı couldn't physically defend myself . Not a reference to the past for purposes of any kind of bargaining and much not need today . Not because of anything ı wrote , but of things that didn't happen . Every post in this thread strives to be discussable in a historical sense , debateable one way or the other . Can be edited or deleted alltogether if shown to be non-real or dubious . This thread should be fit to remain in WH of CFC .

but a discussion of any topic like "Could a neutral Turkey "thrive" in the 20th Century ?" requires things ı can't pontificate on without stuff . ı had planned to use the italics and later colour fonts to seperate the full r16 from reality but ı think that would make this even more unreadable . So here is the small print : There are no guarantess that ı am not making up all the stuff in this series of posts # to # . Do not bet anything on them .

firstly the levity section . ı have been severely reprimanded for not taking credit for shooting down that sonicky testy thingy under that B-52 - again... As such , this poster fully approves the additional ventilation / air conditioning inlets on Dempsey's ride . We want more ...

now for the discussion we will have to have a point of departure as the Officialese goes . Let's go right to the beginning . ı have declared Mustafa Kemal to be my favourite dictator . Was he a drunkard - in practical terms ? Absolutely and obviously . Was he a womanizer ? Possibly , but not excessively as far as heads of state go . Was he a pedophile ? Absolutely no , unlike a few of his more recent critics . Was he an usurper ? Lots of people are saying so , he is "obviously" a closet Jew who stole the country . The latest ı heard was the War of Liberation was the idea of Kazım Karabekir , the commander of the army in the East . At that time Kemal was in Istanbul , he wouldn't even get to Anatolia had the British not granted him a travel visa . This permit only happened because he was a Jew who lost Syria in a month in 1918 . Just like he had lost Palestine in 1917 . Gallipoli 1915 , he is the usurper of course ; it was Islamic saints who rose from the grave to kick some Tommy Atkins backside . To be fair most of the commentators don't go that far , they limit it to then living commanders above and below him in rank . Most of the commentators need credibility in the eyes of Joe Public of Turkish streets and coffeehouses ; and none of the commentators ever feel a need for a full examination of what made Kazım Karabekir salute Kemal and kept him saluting .

maybe Karabekir thought Kemal would fight for the country and crown and Islam and when proven this was not the case he would turn against the dictator , the Deccal ( antichrist in the Islamic setting ). The current narrative follows it exactly , though it was more with the 1970s' Islamists that the Deccal stuff was employed . In any case , it is mainstream of 2010s that Vahdettin sent Mustafa Kemal to countryside to start a make believe rebellion , a proxy war to save the country from invasion . The old stories that Istanbul was 100% treason and Ankara was 100% righteous indignation , give me freedom or give me dead are so not true ; people stress this is groundbreaking , for God's sake it was the Padişah who sent his former aide-de-camp to do something for the country . Bah , ı had figured a suspicion of it by the time ı was 25 , and wholly on my own too ... The newly elites are yet to clear the name of Damat Ferit , the Prime Minister in Istanbul who royally messed up the entire thing ; and no more repeats of how Kemal cried at the news of the pauper death of Vahdettin , now exiled . The last Sultan's body was kept by court order in Nice , France (?) because unpaid bills to a grocer . Useful in the past to establish a link between the Throne and the soldier sent to fight for the Throne , today it could make Mustafa Kemal look unnecessarily somewhat human .

abolishing the Sultanate still left the Caliphate in place . Might have been a source of strength , a seed for multiparty , multietnicity democracy instead of a constitutional monarchy with working multiparty elections as originally started for . Certain army bigwigs convinced the Halife that he would have support . Turned into a slow running Ittihadist coup attempt . When in exile the last Caliphate overheard his granddaughter singing a ditty against Kemal , she would remember the chewing she got for the rest of her life . It was the Ittihadists who got the entire family exiled and looked the other way when Kemal abolished the last vestiges of the Empire . The members of the Ottoman Family have never taken part in rebellions and avoided politics . Except one who died in a hotel room in New York 1940 after forsaking Ankara's attention for Japanese offers of ruling Mongolia , ı think . Will not claim the exiles had it easy . Though the only one to be specifically targeted with all properties confiscated was the "Princess" - used here as daughters of Sultans are also called Sultans- who spurned Kemal , refusing his marriage proposals twice . Dictator's revenge ? You bet ...

though her husband , a cousin of hers , had been seconded to a Sturmtruppen battalion on the West Front during the war and he had ongoing communications with Ludendorff , the kinda inept politician who was already antagonistic to von Seeckt , the Chief of Staff of Ottoman armies sometime in 1918 and one of the few Germans Kemal was on speaking terms with . Considering the Anglo-French would be downright hostile for the duration , Italians already had Il Duce , Americans of the period were simply proxy-British unless there was some profit not to be and the Russians would come with a trainload of Communist baggage , Kemal needed German tech , expertise and whatever to modernize . Yeah , who is Ludendorff anyways ? Never heard of him ...

the training centers von Seeckt had established in the Soviets ? Anatolia of mid1920s was equally desolate but for the sake of continuety ı must move some 30 years ahead . When the coup of 1952 took place in Cairo , Menderes Goverment burning to be the Muslim overlord of the Middle East on behalf of America hurried to save the daughters of the Princess ; all 3 had married into Royalty . Turkish diplomats rushed to the Foreign Ministry Offices only to learn they were late , the Egyptians had already had a meeting on the subject .

achso , we were just two years into the young Turkish Rebuplic , weren't we ? Here come the Kurds , a portion rising in rebellion to save Islam . Much talk of a brotherhood of a thousand years , how they joined Ankara to save the country from invasion instead of asking for a seperate state . The very same leaders of the political wing of the seperatist movement talk of the autonomy that "was" in the 1924 Constitution , never mentioning how their "grandfathers" , also feodal overlords -just like their "grandkids"- had voted to be Turkish in the first place , on how the British appeared to be ready to return everything plundered from Armenians to rightful owners . Had this thing been real and not invented just now , ı would have guessed the travelling road show , the officers and the -large- military escort to be all Irish , from up North , somehow . Back then much respect for British gold , but small parties at risk of ambushes and theft of the said gold from the dead . Today even MI5 or 6 ( ı always confuse them ) works in US Dollars .

(after the rebellion surprassed , mostly by the time honoured autonomy for each chieftain over his 2 to 3 or more , far more villages method , there was to be one more round of rebellion starting over the construction of a road . Kemalists claim local chieftains didn't want it , for from the roads come the tax collector , the military commission to collect conscripts who get truly beaten up in service but see the "world" and learn stuff , leading them to suspect the feodal authority and the teacher who poison the kids against the same leadership right from the start . The newly elites contend the state was trying to assimilate the locals by making them Turkish , Sunni , secular and the troops were raping the women in the villages anyhow . )

achso , just 3 years into the young Republic . Oh yeah , it is now the Ittihadists and the Army . A plot to assassinate Kemal who answers by executions and removal of the heroes of the War of the Liberation , those who hadn't already plotted against him more than once , as far as he knew ... Anatolia was not the place for secret German Panzer research for it wouldn't remain a secret in the first place . Industrialization of the country in fits and starts , lots of reforms that seriously strenghten the one man rule , for Kemal can slip in the bathroom one day , just saying you know opening the top post for followers , pride in some , teeth gnawing in others . With Kemal seizing the day , if that is the correct thing to say . It seriously becomes unnerving to discover you have very few friends . As already said , much respect for the British gold back in the day ; one would have expected the leading Turkish officials to be negative against Britain , considering the decade of open / covert war between , but then what do we know ?

kemal was back in form later in the game , had survived that far with excessive reformist zeal . He knew the that all the languages of the world was not based on archaic Turkish , because it was him who made that up . He was a run of the mill wannabe who wanted to be followed as if he was the personification of a god , in the eyes of who thought such stuff was good for business in a day when either tin pot dictator or religious zealot was the norm .

it wasn't plain sailing all the way . When it was a weekly occurrance in Rome for the Black Shirts to organize a rally in front of the Turkish Embassy with a throng of people demanding surrender of Southwestern Turkey and the Ambrassador getting on the balcony to shout back that "It is there, go and take it!" , there were some Italian naval exercises just of the coast . Kemal arrived in Izmir , drank himself to the usual stupor and rose up in the middle of the night , only to declare now it was sailing time . People froze , the deal with Il Duce was a car accident , not by ramming of an Italian light cruiser . There they were , everybody in the hotel room , without any change of clothes , packed like sardines into the tiny ship , Kemal enjoying the morning weather . He tended to sleep by the first light ... The captain of the escorting destroyer had the guns loaded , he expected the headlong rush into the Italian formation would cause trouble and though he would surely be sunk , for posterity he had to fire a couple of shots . The Italians stopped , fell into parade formation and one way went Kemal , hat in hand returning the salutes of sailors going the other way . Nothing works in isolation in the world , sometimes time is just not right .

it was Mustafa Kemal who told MacArthur that America would win the next world war , though the mark of superior leadership would be doing it without any bloodshed . After the coup of '80 it was widely repeated that had Atatürk lived another decade , Turkey would have been much better . No doubt about it , the young Republic would have seen the rise of a new generation , officers and officials loyal to the Revolution rising to operational commands and equivalents , instead of Ittihad ve Terakki members who agreed to Mustafa Kemal's primacy among equals only because they couldn't agree on the name that would replace him . As it is , the coming of the next war got Kemal , he was no use to the prospective sides . He wouldn't sell the country , you know , he already owned it ...

( lots of empty words in the next 3 posts )

dictatorships are bad , ı hear people say . Of course . They "lack" the mechanisms that check and balance , especially in their beginnings . They can hurt people pretty bad physically and create an environment where lack of trust can cause nationwide mental issues and so on . They are even dangerous for their supporters , nobody wins forever and ballot can be much safer than bullets when it comes to a change of the guard .

but , as usual there is always a but .

things always settle in the end . Stability forms and one can actually hope that years of toil will mean food for dinner and a home to retire , with grandkids in it to raise . People in dictatorships are as human as those in fully developed democracies , aren't they ?

will see whether it rankles the average American to hear that , just as an example , the average North Korean is as honourable as he / she is . The ones living up North of DMZ are certainly no fools , practically everybody knows the succession was decided by a ticket to Disney's . It doesn't stop them to toil for , you know , food for dinner and that home with grandkids in it . Maybe they are deficient for not struggling for the "greatest need of man" , are lesser people when compared to the denizens of democratic countries for they don't strive for freedom ?

we have been hearing the imminent immediate demise of a tyranny right on our doorstep for years now . In the largest city of that dictatorship or whatever , the bustling commercial capital of the country , land of the rich and the merchant and the politically oppressed due to sectarian difference , the famed Halep the struggle for Freedom has now been going on for two months or more , and what do the people of the city do ? They watch the war fought in the name of their "liberation" as spectators ; in at least one case locals have been warned not to cheer as the Ukranian scores a hit . All the brave men who fight for the rights of the next man are from the rural areas , bouyed with Saudi cash , Qatari TV and an expectation that the Turk would shoulder the burden in boots and the American in flight suit .

journalists are still around reporting massive loss of life and systematic human rights abuses . The last recordings of a Japanese journalist before she was killed showed people reportedly running from bombardment and shelling . People carrying their kids and nothing else , all in their best clothes , without any sign of alarm , all on the street to visit their relatives ; it is the festivities in the end of Ramadan . It would have been most inhuman for the Japanese journalist to stop a family escaping from certain death to elicit a response from the kid with the pacifier in mouth . You must surely have been in such a situation . While the father holds his kid in his arms , beaming with pride , the guest will try anything to get a smile , a short sentence with misplaced words , even single misspellt words . A kid with shyness , most probably trying to figure out why she and the guy holding something that looks like a bigger "photograph machine" do not look like all the people he has been seeing since the day he was born ; not a kid in mortal danger .

she would be aware of that too , but people do have to earn a living - even in democratic countries . One TV debate here in Turkey had it that all the major news agencies have reporters in Damascus , but all the reported news are from the borders of Syria , as it is too "risky" to be inside the country unless you are with the Irresuction reporting the liberation of the same street for the 10th time in the last month ; "demand" shaping the "supply"... Say the opposite and you will be politely offered the tin hat .

carrying the passport of a rich and influential but neutral county , aged 45 , veteran of reporting from long wars , survivor of an American cencorship with 120mm tank fire , on a guided tour to the latest atrocity of the "regime thugs" , did she have it coming or her only crime was just one "Cute baby, let's film this"

at a prearranged corner or local initiative on the spur of the moment ?

her colleagues from other places naturally carried on with the job at hand . One channel ı wouldn't have hesitated to call Al Crusading had this post been in the Tavern , had a reporter in full reporter regalia , helmet and flak vest . Sitting in a car , she couldn't show us the Syrian checkpoints they had to cross as it was so dangerous to film , regime thugs shoot journalists . ı think ı remember her reporting from the Lebanese border when Damascus banned her Channel from working in Syria for inciting rebellion , nearly two years ago . But than all supporters of tyranny have short attention spans . The Turkish State TV has the Star Wars movies on ; ı can just imagine she and her crew passing every check point with a wave of the hand and "These are not the Journos you are looking for ." If you think this is stoopid , the newspaper ı buy for the classified job ads had a cartoon showing Darth Vader and Yoda making rounds in the Syrian streets , both with red sabers . Full r16 blossoms with a retention of anything Star Warsy . Why , am 40 and single , too ...

by the way , every kitted up journalist ı have seen tends to have this dark coloured helmet , which ı would have called dark blue , many times accompanied with a jacket or sweater in the same colour . Am asking 'cause last night ı saw one guy attired that way , firing a sniper scoped rifle on semi-auto behind a barricade , on the news without any comments ... There are rounds out there that will make such a pock mark on your helmet that you won't be able to show your hit helmet to the world to prove that regime thugs fire on the journalists ...

but then maybe it is the love of Liberty and Freedom that sets the man apart from the slave . Even leading the man to fight and even lay his life for the other man or even the slave . The 300 [Spartans] can be seen at least twice every year on Turkish TVs , Mel Gibson's Braveheart lost some luster after the seperatists started to use it for their propaganda . Will love to see their faces when it comes to the discussion of why the Jandarma Komando beret is a light blue . With such an entry , it shouldn't come as a surprise that ı am surprised why the democratic countries are not intervening to save lives in Syria . Declaration of a no-fly zone is not it - for such an action requires an area of the country under the control of opposition . If Syrians can establish an area free of Syrian Army , obviously they can also save themselves from tyranny , no need for the West .

or maybe it is just a propaganda trick , an easy way of war , a new wave that soothes Western public with tales of limited responsibility : give 'em aircover and they'll do it and anyhow they are so poor that they can't afford bodybags so no bodybags on Prime Time TV ... As the time for the West to insert Turkey into battle comes , there is more and more talk of refugee crisis and No Fly Zones . The French apparently are ready to support an operation between the Turkish border and Halep . Not over the whole of Syria , because that would mean war against Damascus , said a French Goverment Minister . Really , a portion is peace then ? Would he mind , make faces and say things between curses if ı declared a No Fly Zone below the 46th Parallel , along the line of Rochefort-Limoges-Lyon ?

and much talk of chemical weapons . Damascus knows the Irresuction has just about reached the limit of tribes Saudi cash can buy and one way out is intervention by Ankara , that's why they declared their ownership of such . Despite the seperatist led media campaign the chief of goverment generals has led the use of said against poor villagers , that makes an impression . Two months pass and everybody forgets , the chems are now a brilliant way for the West to enter the fray ; if Damascus uses them , America and the British will bomb . Ankara believes that , ı don't - ı still remember and remind there wasn't "much" success in Iraq to prove . Am not going anyways , neither we are .

russians play the Iraqi angle from a different perspective , they claim it will be a re-run of 2003 -an invasion justified by chemical scare - and the Syrian Goverment gave them guarantees that they would not use them in any case , hence Russia the peace angel . Actually not , Moscow is getting bored by the continued resilience of Esad . Fearing Western displeasure and Saudi production capacity , they are whispering each other to remind the oilman's bragg that it was 13 dollars a barrel in the middle of 80s that bankrupted the Soviet Union , hence the backstabbing ... America has gone one better , when the war to liberate the country is over and Esad is "gone" -not before- they will help the Syrians secure the most dangeorus weapons around . Wonder how will that happen when the KX is firing on them .

as such , at least when it comes to honesty , one dictatorship is truer than many democracies on the planet that the thing is not a struggle for rights but a campaign to destroy Syria . It shames the nationalist in me that we have been part and parcel of this campaign and angers the Machievallian in me that we will shortly follow Syria to our doom ; particularly galling that nearly 30 years of our history has been one way or the other has been guided to produce the country that is currently us . Wouldn't have a right to object had it been the unrefutable desire of a majority : While the votes increase in every election , it is more like that there is no alternative , with either feeble or seperatist opposition .

as such this year 5 and a half year olds will go to school instead of kindergartens so that when they are in the 5th grade , the first year of the second level of education , -it has been suggested - the girls will start seeing periods and will become "women" and their heads will be covered with scarves -yet to be made compulsory . People are still claiming God ordained the hiding of female hair , knowing God's Laws better than God , but as often said am an half-essed Muslim . Just fresh off the press , a MP says they should make every single school in Turkey an Imam-Hatip , a vocational high school supposed to prepare a "limited" number of religious officials . This way when every kid reads the Kuran and learns the life of the Prophet , there will be no more diplomats who don't defend the rights of this country abroad and presumably no more soldiers who lose Syria in a month . Am a huge fan of Lutfi Akkad's Message , after nearly 30 years ı have practically memorized the battle of Uhud , where Muslim rearguard left their positions to plunder the dead and captives . Yeah , right in the time of Muhammad , people disregarding His specific command for earthly gain and leading to a serious defeat , though Halid Bin Velid would later pay his debt to Islam by being a spectacular conqueror . Have no doubts that present day people would take a thirsty Halid to a stream and bring him back still thirsty without a single drop drunk , being so smart ...

the current narrative is that we were a dictatorship until the 21st Century and smart people defeated the evil military , though there appears to be not much else . At a recent funeral of a young soldier killed in the Southeast , the Goverment Minister for Culture stopped the military band from playing the funeral march , he with a couple days' of growth of beard on his face , for anyone who wants to impress the Islamist "majority" of this country wears a beard these days , speedily to be shaved when foreigners are to be met . The leader of the German Greens visited a Syrian refugee camp here in Turkey and saw all those Middle Easterners with beards and she was like "Oh mein Gott, they are all Al Queda" . A misunderstanding where the band is not informed ı understand , TV cameras rolling , with him shouting to defend the rights of people who want to repeat the Name and Greatness of the God as they follow the dead , ı also understand . What am ı , an infidel ? What ı don't understand is what will the politicians do when they run out of stuffs and tricks they do to trump the soldiers . Seems still a long way to go . The guy whom ı call the expert who shames all the experts was with a full trimmed beard declaring only 50% of the dictatorial traitors were jailed or otherwise neutralized and it was the work of Germany that we had failed -so far- to bring freedom to Middle East . Will be fun to watch him seeking asylum in Germany as the USA and UK get an inkling that it would be real good for them to ignore the request . One of these days as civil war breaks out in the country ; we must have people out establishing political leadership just like Syrians talk and talk in cushy Istanbul hotels .

oh , it's not all gloom and doom . As heard on Friday prayers August 30 is next week , and the sermon quoted Mustafa Kemal on the martyrs of Çanakkale . And by evening some journalist had a long winded diatribe on how childish it is to have opinions on that the civilians took the Armed Forces Day from the Armed Forces , on the grounds that they could . Must have been informed of the undercurrent that there is nothing to celebrate . Praying to Allah that the president remains in hospital until the 31st . Who , me ? What am ı , an infidel ?

so , a seriously circuitous , even torturous way of saying we being a dictatorship under Kemal was not perfect but then not necessarily a bad thing . Had we been a democracy , he would lived longer ...

ı have failed in proof reading , in a post somewhere above , failing to add quotation marks to the sentence that reads Kemal was a wannabe who wanted to be treated like a living god . Now that ı don't ever remember claiming he was a saint , this possibly gives me a chance to correct it .

as this difference between the Kemalists that were and might have been is somewhat important in the discussion of whether a neutral Turkey could have thrived , ı hope ı might be forgiven for the word salad that follows .

it is so common to have the proverbial fire in the belly when young . The Young can immediately see there is a wide gulf between what people preach and do ; the parental advice , request and pleading that urges the person to be honest , do something for people , be good is fresh inside the heart . Meanwhile the head observes the galling fact the person is quite possibly the only one on the whole planet that actually cares . Such experience will initially sharpen the will ; in time lack of progress will dull the ardour . Life brings on situations where your desire to act , to be what you should be , will backfire and do more damage than good .

the environment the person lives in has lots of influence over the character formation . Say , for a young Turk living in the 1890s within the borders of the Sick Man of Europe , the conditions can be heart breaking . Contrary to Love Thy Neighbour and its equivalents in the Kuran there is mutual dislike between the peoples of the Ottoman Empire and it can't be helped . The young Turk can posture as much as he likes , but foreign Nationals are collecting the taxes in his country as if they own the place and the fact is in a way they do ; for the economy stinks . The said foreign Nationals can even push him in the street - for fun- and he can't dare answer ; for if it escalates , the Turkish Police will kick the hell out of him ; for if it escalates this is the era when European Nations send a battleship to foreign shores , to intimidate weaker nations , to bombard towns -for fun- to their hearts' content . And such bullying is a prime reason why the economy stinks . It's a vicious circle no sane person can find a way out .

then it's 1896 and one such Turkish youth , aged 15 and known by the name of Mustafa is in the military school , not particularly because he wants to carve foreign Nationals to spill their guts out and wash the streets with their blood , but the Army offers a stable job from which one can retire if he survives the constant rebellions of the subjects of the Ottoman Empire . There is also the Civil Service but job prospects are comparatively fickle and military school attendants get to wear uniforms and girls like uniforms , some seriously important consideration ... Important enough to tell lies to one's mother who saw the military service as an instant death warrant as the Gazi Paşa would remember decades later .

ı think ı once used those sentiments , perhaps some of the exact sentences to fallaciously prove the Turkish Barbarians are merely human beings just like the great majority of the Homo Sapiens population of Sol 3 , ı think the response was that it was fascist / militarist apologism . Will take the chance anyhow .

then comes the war with Greece . To be an useful soldier one must be taught the notion that he is a better guy , for the job might require laying down his one-single-only life for the common good . For a person with the fire in the belly and yet untamed convictions to correct the wrongs of the world , such indoctrination might be indelilable , serious enough to get him / her accept and keep the teaching . For the rest of the life allotted . Might not last long , the Ottomans of the time can only be like the cat cornered with hair and claws out , the state can at best hope to scare enemies by bulk . The tendency is to lose and lose big .

the surprise of 1896 is Turks win . Certainly a rare occurrance for the time . The narrative of the secular Republic was that the young cadet was at the train station to watch the troop trains arrive and sent to front and there were also similarly inclined city folk with some volunteers to boot . And Dervishes and pious Muslims were taking part in this social activity for one reason or the other ; he despised their presence and the way they looked : so out of date - even primitive and barbaric in a train station , the height of the 19th Century Science , Reason and Human Endevour . It was regularly told it was some sort of a promise he made - when he took over he would fight to remove every vestige of Islam , the Backwardness , from the country . He must himself said it so , somewhere in some speech . What he actually recounted to people who would actually think like him , one way or the other , was the pride that Turks could win , that they could be after being despised for years for being a Turk . Such stuff can be quite electric for those who are oppressed or similarly diminished ...

am taking the opportunity of reaching out to "general public" under the guise of answering a question ; in addition to apologies that are in order for the delay , ı must also remind this rant is not aimed at any CFC member , it's only that ı feel comfortable writing it that way .

ever read the Little Prince by Saint-Exupery ? The astreoid he lives on is discovered by a Turkish astronomer , nobody pays attention for the scientist is wearing a fez . Sometime later some dictator comes and takes over and the astronomer gets to wear a hat and everybody pays attention . When ı read it in secondary education , aged maybe 13 , ı couldn't figure it out , there being no dictators in modern Turkish history . Later in my Thirties it was a "nation-wide" scandal when the Ministry of Education recommended the book as a classic . In 1984 or so the Military regime would like every kid in Turkey to learn the West started to respect us only after Atatürk banned the fez , the headgear of backwardness . In 2000s the Lefties got suspicious only when the Islamists recommended a Western book and it was right there , the Dictator ... Insulting Atatürk and increasing hatred against the Turkish Revolution and stuff .

actually happened . In the French Army manouvres of 1910 . Leadership qualities are manifestations of some skill and undetermined - possibly quite large - amounts of ego . Mustafa Kemal and his views were not taken seriously . And why would that be ? He was part of the Ottoman Military Commission invited to witness the glory of the French Army . All that was ever expected of him as a promising officer was to rise and when in high command do his best to avoid making Paris angry . It didn't fall to a member of a backwards army to have opinions on the modern military art , even his headgear was clear evidence of his status , wasn't he aware the majority of people around with a fez atop their heads were orderlies of French officers and they kept to polishing boots ? Lots of whispers are audible if whisperers intend to be overheard . The next day Kemal acquired a hat , of the "melon" kind ı believe . He was now a monkey , to be made fun of more , as he had proven himself to be "weak" .

it wasn't a total loss for Kemal , he got a plane ride as the first Turkish officer or something to fly . If not the first , then as the first staff officer and he got himself allies for he went on challenging people and the aviators were also an oppressed bunch at the time , constantly humiliated by higher ups . Filtered through normal Intelligence , Liman von Sanders would know he had to handle Kemal with a little extra care , before the two ever met . Being high in Ittihad ve Terakki no doubt helped and Kemal's political abilities to reach out to varied people are rarely dismissed in serious discussion ... Though his airmindedness would not find much opportunity to blossom in the Great War . It laid dormant until 1922 , where extra measures were taken for maskirovska and the Turkish Army stayed out of sight in daylight to avoid a few high flying RAF missions which in the end convinced the HQ in "Constantinople" that the Humint had either imbibed or was bribed . The lower Greek flights were met in numbers and anyhow they were Greeks , cannon fodder under British pay , they had to shut up when commanded ...

and why on green Earth that his first revolution after the Republic was the one of the hat , where the likes of fez was banned and Western headgear brought in ? Muslims of Kemal's era didn't wear hats ; were conditioned to consider the difference in styles implied the heads under different headgear were incompatible . One needed lots of upgrades in Turkey , mostly of Western origin , the shock value of hat over fez could help the "change of heads" , even decrease the numbers of heads to be cut off their necks due to resistance against the reforms . Leadership qualities might require selective amnesia , especially of the days when people were considering you as a pet monkey with a fez and a hat .

mustafa Kemal was the man to support .

then the turn of recent events doesn't surprise . It's official , Atatürk is coming back. It was started by a guy who is reportedly writing a book that "proves" he wasn't born in Selanik but Malatya ; and the state history is all wrong . The author will not be "officially" supported and the whole will be credited to typical sensationalism of a guy that wants easy attention , but it's big underneath .

for starters the guy had it confirmed by Ülkü Adatepe, the adopted daughter of Kemal who recently died in an auto accident . The real story was confirmed by her , only by her . Neatly moves the responsibility in her death to this Ergenekon / Deep State everybody talks about .

to explain let me harp a bit on the Close Jews . Now ı have no doubts that Wikipedia has enough on Sabetay Sevi , a self declared Messiah who sometime in the 17th Century caused problems for the Ottomans . In the end he would either choose death by execution or ignominity by conversion hence giving up claims to whatever delusions he had . He converted .

his followers are now supposed to number a million and a half , seemingly Turks and Muslims , infiltrating the state to be responsible for any misdeed and mischief in Turkey . While people in Russia were coming up with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion , the Closet Jews were already selling the Ottoman Empire bit by bit , starting wars and losing them , toppling Sultans , making people forget their religion . If you don't believe me , ask the average Islamist . Told ya , everything in Turkey is bigger and better - except the male reproductive organ .

the secular / godless Republic is the epitome of their success , the peak of their betrayal . The Closet Jews not only drink the blood of the innocents but also lead people away from eternal salvation . Just as an obvious example we must believe a woman not covering her head is neglecting God's Orders for decency , is on the illicit path . Those who show their hair today will spread their legs in the streets tomorrow , ready for full action with total strangers . Such increase of adultery will no doubt be punished by God and one really famous scene had this headscarved girl in tears , really worked up , in a demostration against the secularist ban against headscarves . In her hands she held a board that asked whether 7.3 was not enough . The number is the magnitude of the August '99 quake in Richter scale where half of the casulties were in the provinces that traditionally voted Right of Center , latterly Political Islam . Making it certainity that a quarter of all victims were women with headscarves . Such vindictiveness , destruction of all for the sins of the minority would make Allah an equivalent of Jehowah , but then what do we know ?

as such hijacking Atatürk , a bonafide warrior of the Ottoman Empire , a hero of Islam is exactly what the Closet Jews would do ! Removing his ancestry from Malatya of honest Anatolia to Selanik of evil Jews . He the true Turkish Islamic son of Çakıroğulları family made a dirty Ittihadist and more . And to stop this becoming known the Closet Jews naturally will kill an 80 years old woman .

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say what ? Actually it is just feasible . Çakır in Turkish is mostly used to define a person with blue eyes . And the reform , the democratization of Turkey has been a defeat of the Closet Jews at every step . It is truly irrelevant that they might not exist at all or their numbers is magnified by a thousand times or they are exactly what they are reported or they have motherships orbiting Jupiter . What's relevant is that every move by the newly elites has been explained as a necessity to curb the Jews and any success has been hailed to be as great as any victory against the pagans the Prophet himself might have won , any failure is attributed to lingering influence of Zionists and similar enemies of the Ottoman Empire that's rising phoenix like from the burned down wreckage of the Godless Republic .

really ? Of course not . The language is not that clearcut , though one gets the drift . The newly elites are getting away with what they do and this is enough . Actually there is not that kind of animosity against Israel and stuff , this country trades more with Tel Aviv especially after they boarded Mavi Marmara (and killed Turkish citizens on specific orders to avoid activists of other nations . ) This way we are showing we follow the Western Designs where a Moderate / toothless Islam is to be in charge , allowing the forming of a lasting peace in the Middle East .

and how this can ever be happening ? Easy , real easy . Regular Americans in uniform feel a need for the Turkish Army to ease the burden , to do the bidding and even the modified timetable in Syria has been delayed by some 6 months , if ı am not wrong in my feeble calculations . Esad should have fallen , hence pressure from the Regulars on various "Black Arts" departments in Washington , hence a brake on the Islamicization of Turkey for a while , hence temporary respect to the founding father of the Republic . But then Atatürk was a Pharoah , for God's sake he was born in Selanik . To claim Selanik origins for somebody can be a vicious insult in Turkey .

so here we are , a neat propaganda machinery coming up with fake evidence that everybody knows to be fake . He was a good guy but tricked by evil people . ı suppose this year there will be no discoveries of his pictures and speeches in garbage bins of state schools . For his one picture flanked by the National Anthem and some of his commands to the Turkish Youth hang in every classroom and this forms an undemocratic institution - if not an altar of straight idolatry . Leading to people in grass roots movements preparing to take action in order to save country from him , picture by picture , bust by bust .

all meant to increase the confidence level , to convince Turkish Barbarism that the West will allow it to live , if it too partakes in the reduction of Middle East ; this desire to reduce United States and cohorts , while funny , is so uncool .

which of course brings up the question : who is more foolish , the Fool or the one that responds to the Fool ?

one single credible thing in the last two posts : the West is still maintaining an illusion from the days the Earth looked so big and so dangerous , not exactly our fault if they are still stuck in the days of Fatih and Kanuni . And even more funny that they invented it in the 20th Century . End of credibility as in [/credibility]

it definitely makes the West look "weak" . The Turkish Foreign Minister ( back in the days when it looked possible to stab in the US in the back to make the Neo-Ottoman Empire a reality and as such he was actually offering full co-operation to Teheran in violation of his US approved remit to erode Iran's influence in the Middle East ) had an appoinment with his opposite or maybe he would escort the PM to the Oval Office , ı can't remember now . The State TV had an half hour segment on the entire gamut of conspiracies Americans apparently believe in . Didn't work one bit for Ankara .

americans might be total losers and fools ; yet unfortunately for certain people , Americans know the people whom they might pawn for 5 dollars do not have flying saucers .

this is the sort of thing when ı talk of the negative impact of NATO on people , hopefully will be on it soon .

hopefully today's edition will finally delve somewhat into an imaginary instrument that might have helped a neutral Turkey influencing Eisenhower to do what he did about our NATO membership , though quite a bit of rant still awaits . In any case bear in mind that r16 is 110% fiction .

in real life ı have nothing to do and ı have grown a nice belly as a full time couch potato . Also an armchair strategist ı would naturally have an interest on a TV debate that promised to discuss the military operations of August 26-30, 1922 . ı have something against the seating arrangements of that programme . There are two guys of the newly elites and one female professor who tends to represent the people who might have liked keeping more of the Old Republic . Out of respect perhaps , she is seated in the center and a guy sits on each end of a large table like platform . Since it is the human way to look at the face of the person one adresses , she will look fickle as soon as argument springs up , never staying still a minute , not even 10 seconds , while the guys are rock solid , taking advantage of the fact the other two persons are in the same direction . After an hour or two you can't help thinking the newly elites are confident and strong and whatever . The two to one superiority in numbers assures they have the last word anyhow . How about moving the professor to one side and the two to the other ?

regarding the guys one is a journalist with literary output , he other must be an historian . Have never read their books , have been out of work for some 6 years now , can afford only web cafes . The Historian guy happens to be the one that says we must pay closer attention to Menzies' epoch making 1421 , and ( yeah , ı will say it right now ) 3 , 2 , 1 , Zheng He . Don't laugh , if you are laughing , he is good at his thing .

let's take the case of Çerkez Ethem . He was a ranking member of the initial opposition to the Greeks , reportedly having 40 000 men under his command . Possibly because of that he couldn't integrate with the new state evolving and went over to the Greeks . Not so , says the historian : it is a lie of the Secular Republic over the years . Present day masses need to learn more on secular whitewashing of history and absolutely nothing on guys who pray 5 times a day can join those who don't .

then the whole rationale of the discussion becomes clear . Ethem is attacking the Regular Army and a Greek reconnaissance foray arrives on the scene to see what's going on , to be repelled . There is shortly to be a conference ; to improve the diplomatic stance Kemal declares success , making a big victory out of a minor clash . The historian seems to repeat this every week , for Ismet Inönü the commander on the spot will become Kemal's right hand man , successor as the President and the leader of the Left , in a political career that lasted some 50 years . A symbol of sorts and accordingly vilified , of which he undoubtedly deserves quite a bit .

historian's success breeds a desire for more . This time it turns out Sakarya , too , is not a victory . True , Greeks stopped and went back and they weren't pursued , it took nearly a year for Ankara to make up for the losses suffered and attack on the morning of August 26 . Sakarya roughly matches Stalingrad of WW2 . A long running , brutal battle of attrition ; die where you are . There is even the mind numbing cold . As the Greek offensive spent itself and the Autumn was in nights were progressively colder . Typical summer uniforms drill , Greeks had not planned for this long a campaign - they were logistically unprepared . Bread to the soldiers were delivered in sacks and every night more of the sacks disappeared , people needed something for blankets . Greek troops went hungry , too . Loss of inititiative , digging and erecting wire , waiting for the British intervention or a rebellion to hang Mustafa Kemal and his cronies , but no , it can't be a victory ...

the Turkish Goverment approves . ı am positive that ı heard in the news that a Goverment Minister declared the Turkish War of Liberation started in August 26 , 1922 ; now that the Turkish Armed Forces Day is no more of the Military , but the Goverment . The venue was a dawn ceremony at the battle zone , the Anzac Prayers of anniversaries of their landing in Gallipoli are now copied more ; we already have a match on March 18 , in the first of new days for a new Republic .

we will all learn what we have known is all wrong .

starting from my university years ı had figured out that the compulsory lessons of History of Revolution were straight state propaganda , the TV show harshly critises them as if any political entity would not do the same , on the principle that one must justify itself one way or the other . The lessons to be removed and replaced with undisputable reality ; how bad the old was and how good the new is . It's propaganda when opposition does it , truth and nothing but the truth when it is done against the opposition .

can't say whatever the newly elites say is always wrong . They are kinda right when they say one of the greatest shams in Turkish history is the accusation of treason who asked for an American Mandate , for there is this tiny distinction . In 1919 everybody was for it , after 1923 the kinda Leftists took over and accused the kinda Right Wing as kinda traitors for talking well on the said foreign management of the country .

it has been said an American take over was never even discussed in Washington , while it was fashionable here . In the days it made lots of sense ; Wilson's 12th offered some territory to live on . A country for Turks , developed with American investment , protected from revenge of neighbours and grand designs of the European victors of the Great War , Liberals hoping straight copying of political institutions .

would have gone down like the proverbial lead ballon . Self determination for anybody would tear the country apart , just like the Treaty of Sevres was designed to do . As ı have said a couple of times Turkish opinion leaders were all against any more fighting until the Greeks landed in Izmir . Nothing racial and religious hatred , after the Greeks taking whatever they were likely to demand the rump would have been economically unviable ; apart from the little thing the Greeks were big in ethnic cleansing . With about a century of experience in the field ...

plus had a miracle happened and Americans accepted to keep people away , missionaries would sabotage anything . Call me a cycnic , but this whole conversion business works better if the target people see their material life will be much better with a new set of beliefs .

Considering the experience of Manila , ı doubt a Philippinnes in the Med would have made much difference from the country we were and are . Even if had been any mutual desire to make the mandate deal work . The only way that would work for the US would have been a straight colony .

but how did it start in the first place ? There were first the Anglophiles of the Ottoman Empire , ready to be saved by London's affection and care . So typically , the love affair was one sided , all London cared was anything and anybody but Turks .

america was the second best and a process of compensation developed . In 1919 , the Ottomans had been losing wars for centuries , there was nowhere else to go , no more homeland to retreat to ; that was it , the end . but America was new , it differed from the bloody imperialists so far seen , so unlike the Europeans . ı average 29 days of anti-Americanism a month , should suffice if ı merely say , yeah right ...

the Ottomans were not a bunch of monkeys on a tree , not a tribal state as the current saying goes . They had watched the world changing over the 6 centuries that they had existed ; while distant for travel , America was not a complete unknown . Like the thirsty man starts to see an oasis over the horizon and traves over boiling hot sand of the deserts to get there , America's past was examined , was better than assigning blame for the fall of the Empire .

examination was especially of the times when the Americans apparently started from the very basics , thinking everything anew . ı hear Jefferson once offered a state for Native Americans when they "grew up" , is a startling thing when every single stateof the period sees expansion as the norm that defines human life . This was much talked about in certain locations in Istanbul , the capital of a defeated power ; it proved Americans were not land hungry . One must accept Ottomans deserved ending if that is really what they thought . Jefferson's move was a guarantee to the Europeans that there would be a limit to territorial expansion and potential power of America .

we still take pride in the size of our archives . In such deposits of centuries of communications and reports one can find anything . Dusted off for the occasion was the first strategic partnership offer of the US , after the Continental Administration was evolved into a state , a secret deal to build warships and deliver arms to the Ottoman Empire in return for natural sources and trade . Rejected by Congress / Senate at the time , the hopeless waiting in Istanbul made that piece of paper something to while away the time daydreaming , that American Isolationalism was meant to oppose European Powers , not to stop co-operation with other states .

a basic theme in intelligence , if something gets repeated enough it becomes real . In the light of business interests asking for and getting a massive shipbuilding programme that would shortly move the USN above the RN , the long retinue of hearsay from Istanbul was proof that Washington was planning to challenge London , among other actions , by propping up a Turkish proxy against Britain's Arabs and soon , Greeks . Definitely explains the uncomprimising British attitude against Ankara .

feelers about the status of the "alliance" naturally made the Americans themselves curious ; once figuring out "we were holding hands" there was a reaction , more on that if my head doesn't explode with too much typing . Another intelligence thing . To see what the other side is interested in , you engage them falsifying things to bolster their curiosity , accepting lies and denying facts , making a fake world where everything fits , only for the other side to examine ; this being a two way street it also happens to you .

this is how we fighting for dear life became a global threat to those who had prevailed in the Great War , victors the like of which unseen anytime before in the World , but also bled white by terrible attrition .

anyone who is telling you that the Great Turkish Conspiracy does exist is lying , for ı made it up , and anyone who is telling you that the Great Turkish Conspiracy doesn't exist is lying , because it is the deadliest of all secrets .


was talking about a reaction . A part of it was the guy below ; everybody knows T.E. Lawrence was an American "media production". Nobody gets much from the Seven Pillars of Wisdom , though ı suspect it could sink any idea the evil Turks can come up with . And he was the physical embodiment of the Anglosaxon resolve , one man finding compatriots from empty wastes of desert to fight the evil but also lumbering empire . A living proof that nobody should pay much attention to the Turkish potential , for they can not stand up to any single good man . Hear that Pentagon , though you are yet to be built with something like 20 years to your opening ... Now that ı haven't even read the Wikipedia page fully , ı am confident his recent deconstruction is also related to us . A favourite of everybody , as the US rolls into Iraq , expecting the iron willed , Steel-Thorium hulled Turkish sea of armour to make an appearence , with rolling eyes and beaming smiles and nothing happens , as if it could . Then as Turkey is tamed , people start to trace his steps and figure out that he must have lied when claiming he crossed Sinai in that many hours ; was a documentary on Turkish channels recently . When the West inserts Turkey to the Middle East , we must not be that imposing , for we might do something out of it ...

The pic is stolen from Wikipedia , ı have no idea who are all those people , plus let me avoid the potential of any incident with Jordan , only Lawrence remains with the face and ı still see Peter O'Toole whenever the guy is mentioned . While at it from the Turkish Wiki and not the English one . For specific case of Turkey , it either shows he wasn't the giant he was supposed to be , kinda dwarfed by the rest or those Kalpak wearers might be some subliminal effort to reinforce Kemalists were English agents stealing the country from the grandfathers of the newly elites . Me ? The only thing imposing ı now see is the F2B in the background , it was some plane ...

any discussion of perception and its effects should start with the new motto for the Turkish Armed Forces , the victory belongs to the one who can say "The victory is mine." No doubts on that , considering the seperatists are claiming control over some 400 sq.km of land in the Southeast .

ı will be arguing perception plays a major part in power and there will be no contradictions whatsoever with what ı have preached so far . Turkey has no power , what people here see as capacity / capability of this country are accepted to be nothing of the sort by our neighbours and the rest of the planet , but thinking and actions remotely controlled by the USA . Frankly this is something people here accept as well , however involuntarily . American incapacity to be more active in the current re-orientation of the Middle East had formed a blithly assured self confidence in the newly elites , no doubt reinforced by their easy victories against the military . Tied to the lamppost by Uncle Sam , the military elites had to evolve into goverment generals , who applause the Mehteran , the music band of the Janissaries with the confidence that the State TV will pick them up instantly , sitting next to applauding goverment members . Mehter is fun , will remain when the goverment generals go , even if it is not the first military band in the world . As ı had once claimed before figuring it out otherwise after seeing an episode of Rome , the TV series .

the perception aspect also explains the fake quarrel between the Speaker of the Parliament and the Goverment . The former had a call for National unity , the latter immediately talked in terms of military coups . Only to reach out to the military , with the President in hospital . If there seems to be a fight between him and the Goverment , the military will immediately support the Speaker and stop grumbling on whatever it fancies at the moment ... Yeah , right . Especially after the event turned into a yet another "victory" for the newly elites . Russians have not forgotten the Napalm pattern on June 22 , and they have been "nice" to the President while visiting Central Asia - considering the former Ukranian President who made their Colour Revolution lost quite a bit in handsomeness ... As such the President was hospitalized and cancelled a reception , adding to the newly elites' crusade to democratise the country , people were all like "they are making us forget."

though between you and me , it was overheard in the street that the June 22 affair was done by the traitorous military who once were in uniform . If the hardliners have such stuff , why isn't the goverment in jail and hardliners are ? Somebody must have forgotten a little in the last 2 months ...

forgetting is what Turks do best . The goverment generals were among the harshest critics of the goverment , when it wasn't in the goverment . The actual "fear" of the newly elites is based on this . For some reason they think -or have been led to think- that only Obama stands for them and if Romney wins , the Israeli lobby with whom the newly elites were in mock battle , make believe altercation , undeclared double deal will make Washington change the tack and improve the lot of the hardliners and those jailed will come out and take revenge . Lots of advice from here to Obama to talk tough to the likes of Washington Post who by making negative points about the Turkish Goverment help Romney . Our newly elite smarties forgetting they marketed themselves to the Lobbies in Washington before taking over , now consider themselves the reason for Barack Hussein's election , 'cause you know they had taken one arm of the octupus that's the Zionist Conspiracy . They jailed a couple of Colonels in Turkey and a Black man won the White House .

all would change in Turkey if Romney wins ? Of course , not ! With Obama or not , we are headed for Civil War , foreign intervention , Sevres in the 21st Century and eventual destruction , possibly in concentration camps 'cause the Arabs would fail to tackle Israel and some traitors would have be handled roughly to save the day , this being the Middle East ; you can expect Merkel to have the crematorium plans somewhere . Obama would look sad in the Adress to the Nation to declare the authorisation of the bombing against a "former" NATO ally , Romney would be smiling . That's not a difference for me .

says the Starfleet Admiral .

forgetting takes a little time and some manipulation . Then full manipulation starts . We now hear it was the Syrians who found the intact helmets and boots of the crew that went down with the RF-4E in June . Just a little slightly perceptiple contrast with the days when heads were heavy with the lust of conquest , a reason for revenge , a solution for unity . Narrative from the US ship that recovered bodies of the pilots suggest it will still be the Syrians who executed and dumped the kids . People can use only 10% of their brain capacity , it is often said , people need to discard the old to have enough RAM for the new . People forgetting that it was no go ? No , not the case but rather the fact the elections are in November and the expectation that the US will steamroll over any conceivable and unconceivable opposition in 2013 , KX or no KX ... People promised the sky for a kingdom , the kingdom might be a goner if the promised booty does not reach to those who were promised the sky .

seems why people here and outside are kinda out of tune . American Chief of Staff says a No Fly Zone over Syria is not practicable , not because Syrians are more capable than the Iraqis and Libyans in any time corrected extent but the region would have to be protected . From Iranian Tomcats and rockets and suicide teams , and possibly the whole might of the ( comparatively rotten ) Red Army , and it is beyond NATO . The spiritual leader of the itsy bitsies , the ranking element of the newly elites was on TV this morning , talking of Zülkarneyn . This person might be a prophet or might not be , but is mentioned in Kuran as the man who built a wall against evil people that could be Gog and Mog . Oh yeah , the newly elites promise to stop the rise of the Russians and their pseudo capitalistic imperialism , while the West thinks it is the rise of spiritual guy and his followers that unbalances Turkey and dislocates the speed of the Arabian Spring beside re-introducing Russia as an actual power on the World stage . Arabs will love the speech anyhow , their traditions suggest it was Alexander the Great who built the wall , and the origin of the thinking being in around 1000s , the Gog and Mog were the Turkish invaders of the Middle East and the End was nigh . Might anger the newly elites that they might have been compared to a bunch of pedophiles commanded by an homosexual , but it is not me who said it , right ?

or maybe they won't notice , there is trouble at home . Our Syrian guests are actively scouting the area . Now that they have been so "successful" in gaining control of their country , they have started making lists , bluntly asking the locals around their refugee camps about which sect they belong to . Fighting Alawites in Syria , they are asking the removal of the Alevis who work in the hospitals in Hatay , a province where 70% of the healthcare workforce isn't Sunni . Antakya is a place where Turkish propaganda machine would need as it is where people from differing ethnic and religious backgrounds "live in harmony" , Syrian "Freedom Fighters" are now "patrolling " the streets with AKs , refusing to pay bills of the meals they had in restaurants and roughing up people on occasion ; no doubts that they will remove this thorn on the way of anti-Turkish propaganda . A bit of exaggeration , but let's wait a couple of months ... Syrian web sites openly declared they were based in Hatay , with Turkish phone numbers . A bus about to travel to Hatay was recently fired upon in a nearby province , just like territory is marked in nature .

perception matters , they are proving to themselves that they are stronger , they own ...

had ı been a soldier and had fortune forced me abroad to live in a refugee camp , ı too would have liked my superiors to have military discipline and command inside the camp , for self respect if nothing else . Well , some Opposition figures were visiting Hatay and they wanted to barge their way into a location where high ranking military defectors stay , apparently a training facility and a command post for the operations , if not the very one with high amounts of Foreign intel operatives also present . The Turkish guards at the gate were barring the MPs without much trouble , after all it is the show of being denied entry the MPs were after . They must look like opposing to get votes in the coming elections . Then this uniformed Syrian rushes out , shouting he has 200 armed men inside and he will kill those MPs . Really ? So what , we have 200 000 in the area , but that's not the issue . Not even that Turkish hence Foreign MPs are trying to enter "Syrian" territory . But they claim to represent provinces in "his" country . Something not even Esad would use in propaganda , but then this is how the world works . Yep , one little thing the jerks who got us here do not consider . While people have been getting rections about ruling the Middle East , the Syrians are already ahead in the stake your claims game ...

anyhow it was enough to alarm our newly elites . In Turkey you learn stuff only when elites need you to relax . That's how we learned the number of Nusayris -the Alawite of the Syrian type- in country is 300 to 350 thousand . A small number compared to 15 million Alevis of Turkey , though Alevis themselves claim 25 . No risk of Civil War by this tiny number and certainly no reason to revoke the new education reforms where 5 to 5.5 year olds are to start formal education this year . They being small , the introduction programme include games aiming to teach various graphic forms , starting with the letters of the Kuran Alphabet - Arabic to the rest of the world . All for an united Sunni future , meanwhile parents are following debates whether they should buy a potty , to be carried to the school daily next to the lunch box . They still have the option of getting an "unsuitable for school" verdict with a health report from state hospitals that will mark their kids as ******ed for the rest of their lives , the drift got from official statements is in this direction ...

have been ranting on the subject in this thread and the MP who wanted all schools to be turned into Imam Hatips . Well , it turns out his son is a diplomat and his grandson goes to a French school , no doubt , run by Catholic Priests and stuff ; you know the kid shouldn't feel isolated when father's duty takes the family abroad .

am not against Arabs , Arabic , religious education / training and Islam . Respect to any Hafız out there who has memorized the whole Kuran . The process traditionally starts at the age of 6 and lasts 3 to 3.5 years and requires dedication from the kid's parents as much as the kid . Respect , as this ultranationalist is like totally sure he can recite about 80% of the National Anthem without any problems and it is awesomely long with exactly 8 lines . One day we will all die and answer for our sins . So , what are we going to say on the Judgement Day , when Allah asks how this brainwashing of the masses came to , while the elites had access to everything ?

the imbeciles who think in the think tanks came up with yet another brilliant idea , this time offering amnesty and protection to the Syrian Ergenekon ( the Sunnis who remain with Esad are to be insulted in terms that work here , just natural ) and to the Armenians of Halep . Uhm , yes , exactly . It turns out quite a crowd of Armenians live just on the border in a town called Keseb , and "Liberate Syria" crowd reported evil Esad was bombing civilians in that town . With reporting from kinda more balanced channels , it turns out Syrian aircraft were repelling an invasion ...

remember promising sky and stuff in the post above ? The timetable is off and Uncle Sam , master of all , might want to know why . The smarties of Turkey hate it but they have named an already jailed coup plotter for the exalted top position , the very #1 of the conspiracy . It , the threat of getting named as such , was hanging like the sword of Damocles over the head of every particularly high ranking Turkish official . Never named before in the 5 years of arrests and court cases aiming to supress an evil organization of evil mischief , a terrorist threat membership to which is generally decided when the police "finds" evidence when the Judiciary needs another wave of arrests to make it clear who runs the country . Perception is the king , one who can touch anybody else without return is the one to be most feared and readily kow-towed to .

perception matters ; this is why people work hard on it . It seems it was known in the West , until 1988 according to the printing date , that Greeks had deployed tanks in Anatolia until 1921 , before that the French had used the same epoch making FT-17 against us in 1920 . ı never came across any reference to it , the use of armour thing , in "Turkish" . What's more it appears the French had sold us some 15 tanks by 1922 with the thaw in relations , the Perfidious Albion thing has a looooong history . It seems somewhat legit with the mention that the third company of the 5th tank battalion of the French Army being turned over , likely to be the same vehicles that used to engage us in '920 . In 2012 , nothing on the web , on neither the Greek nor the Turkish tank formations of the War of Liberation . Might be because we took out theirs and ours might have looked cool assisting the Blitzkrieg on foot ; even if fighting through some 400 kilometres from the location of Front around Afyon to Izmir in two weeks is not that breathtaking a pace , eh ?

history says our first tanks were some FT-17s bought in 1928 for a unit formed under the command of Tahsin Yazıcı who was a General by 1950 , commanding the Turkish Brigade in Korea . He was decent chap , a swell guy , as related by a guy who knew a guy who knew him and equally petrified : Half of his command ran with the first wave of the Chinese assault on November 24th . His name was saved by the half who couldn't run and he saved anybody he could . Later a MP with the Right , there wasn't really that much a need to burnish his reputation with being the first Turk with a position like Patton or Guderian . Unless our Allies needed us to forget a little ; like we sent the Greek hulks to Russia to be rebuilt to their Krasny Sormovo standart , that the stuff never came back and the Soviets had to cover it up with the gift of some 10 tanks on the 10th Anniversary of the Republic ?

this requires an explanation ... ı should have used quotation marks or otherwise make it obvious that the things mentioned are observations on how people other than me feel , think and in comparatively rare cases , say .

ı have been in CFC since 2008 , my woes have been aired in more than enough cases , the "oldtimers" would have been totally familiar with them , my experience in life and position on things . Though ı have also been carried away and lost it that Civfanatics is an open forum , accessible for all ; anybody coming across the post without the proper "background" would have been justified more than enough to think it is indeed hate and maybe even more . CFC is a gaming forum , they have no obligation to provide for "free speech" - let alone nationalism based incitement or hate inspired political propaganda .

it's my own failing to stress that it wasn't me that would have said this or written that . To cut it short as far as possible and provide this "background" thing for anybody who chanced onto this thread ı was once employed as a museum guide ; ı look funny ; our job also entailed "protection" of exhibits and people would at least smile at me running around with don't touch this , don't break that . Soon a "wisdom" became the citywide fad , ı was some spy ; which made for double the laugh . ı must say am also somewhat responsible , running all day long ı would come out of work tired and was about a decade older than my colleguages . One evening this girl talking with friends found me old , not just odd . Distracted ı was nearly run over by a car ; and it was proof ı was of steel nerves , would walk onto coming cars hence a spy that somehow needed to stay submerged . The set of flirting skills acquired by 16 year olds doesn't involve the understanding a real spy wouldn't even hear 16 year olds . And yes , ı was doomed . If ı was "real" , kids of her age deduced , it would be even cooler to defy me , a proof for their bravery and manhood , while even primary school students starting from 8 were capable of mocking me ...

what made it doubly unfortunate for me was that the country was also being modified by this democratization stuff . Media would come up with half true half invented stories of mischief , everyweek would see the discovery of yet another wrongdoing by the military and the security establishment of the Old Republic . This was about the time kids would be providing the hints for my arrest . It was a race , the last one to do so -right before ı was taken in- would have gotten immediate bragging rights for years . Actually ı was once investigated - at some lean times when the police had not filled the qouta of traitors for that week . On charges of organizing million men marches against the goverment ; survived on the undeniable truth that ı couldn't even handle the basement of the museum where ı was working ... Made me real as hell . While Army generals and Navy admirals , loud talking politicians and foul writing journalists fell , ı stood . People forgot it was them who made me a spy , by each adding an invention to inventions of others before them . People needed an explanation and soon they had one ; ı had to be a Jew .

last week an ammunition dump went up , killing 25 . A day after , ı was on the street to buy bread and heard people cursing me from a distance . Turns one of the dead was a youth of 23 on short term (compulsory) military service who lived 6 or 7 streets away from mine . You know , Jews "control" everything , they sell faulty ammunition to make money , then sabotage the faulty ammunition to sell more , Jews live while people die . Or maybe -not that ı remember but- ı once gave him a stare sometime since February 2004 ; and to whom ı didn't ? This city has more than a million people , statistics suggest there can be about 10 000 souls who didn't laugh at me ... ı have no doubts ı would have been responsible for the cruxification of Jesus of Nazareth and still be alive as a [Jewish] vampire but for the fact that ı can walk in sunlight .

try my best to avoid the glorious holier than thou state , but injustice and unbalanced actions that can arise from hate speech are far from academic for me .

still the fact remains that ı should have been more careful , paid attention . Having this real apology to the site is necessary as well , for being in CFC is kinda a bragging point . Even if half my posts are banal nonsence and the rest far too gone to be commented upon , ı should have respected the venue , avoiding the formation of any kind of doubts about the place and made it clear that the sentiments of the post above is -in far too many minds- what "is" , not what ı am in life or fiction .

afterall , you haven't lived until you have to prove you didn't blow up the ammunition dump ...

try also much to avoid self defeating belief in personal righteousness or capability . As it has been shown over and over again , as if there was any doubts on it , ı don't amount to anything . Trablus didn't fall because ı was shut up , it was the fear of the sons of Kaddafi that they were surviving anything NATO was throwing at them -admittedly with American dereliction of the task- and Europeans could grow angry if delayed any longer ; they had already fulfilled the "manhood" requirements of the "Colonial / look like resisting" warfare . If aware , Mrs Rodham could confirm Russians can say no without r16 being around .

the thing is the fighting in Syria is straining the Turkish Military . Taking over the border with proxy fighting was easy , Halep is proving tougher . Water supply has been cut , both sides accuse eachother but by 2015 it will be "proven" beyond doubt that it was the Turkish commanders of those two brigades of that Free Syrian thingy that did it , considering the Armenian residents of the area . You know , only to prove that nothing has changed in the 100 years that passed ... Logistics are different from the accustomed internal security as well . Considering some 35 to 40% of all ammunition turned over to "Freedom Fighters" is bought by Gulf capital , to be stocked for the general seperatist uprising later on , Turkish troops must toil even harder to supply the liberation of the oppressed Syrian people . Goverment generals expect hell if they fail , can't say they have any clue what to expect if they win ...

going on with the logistics angle the expenditure down South require replacement and falsification of records . So confusing routines develop : closing of an ammunition dump elsewhere and the end of training exercises cause mountains of stuff to be loaded , unloaded , boxed and unboxed with paperwork allowed to lapse ; finally it leads to the nightfall and situation that the last batch of the 284 550 grenades sent over to the depot still in the out . A handling mistake and an explosion that rocks the nearby town is the result .

we have the regular stuff in the news , just naturally . The commander of the depot works the troops as slave labour as the inspection is just 10 days off - no , the noncom that commands the outfit volunteers to work at night to clear the jam since the property of the Nation can not be left out in the open - hey wait , he had the orders signed as it is against the"law" to work in depots in the dark . The fathers of the fallen have received detailed reports of what's inside each single building , kids telling them on the cellphones , for why ı wouldn't have any idea and that's how we know it was the grenades that went up and not something else . Even in a slight thread relevance it's the Americans to blame for they have gifted Turkey some grenades in mid-1930s , with fuses integral these relics are deadly and easy to get going ...

for all its worth when ı was in Ankara in July 2000 , for my 26 days of military life , the cans served for consumption in the meals would be stamped with a production date of August 1998 and a shelf life of two years . The unit being the Armoured Forces school ı asked about the 90mm armed M-47 / 48s and learned the few that remained would be retired when the last 90mm tank rounds were expended in training . Have heard lots of bad stuff about this military logic but can not somehow bring myself to accept that any 70 to 80 years old explosives would be left in the stocks ...

this "best before" aspect is something many of the retired officers who talked on TVs mentioned and not much surprise in the the PM himself accused every single one of them as traitors to the Turkish Army . Giving the population an idea of how things are done and the tantalising revelation that there are strict limits to what can be done when there are tons of ammunition around , these former professionals erode the capacity to whitewash . Considering the investigations are ongoing , it is not even clear that there is a need for whitewash ...

in contrast to days when it would be a conspiracy against the goverment , no officers have yet been named and their family relationships to those coup-plotters in jail have been declared , though 4 of them have been -finally- removed from their posts . Everybody has a crew these days it appears , just like in the sense Tony Soprano would have one . Touching somebody below could hurt a goverment general , only to cascade upwards . Those incarcerated in jail are openly clamouring for revenge ; including against those who "stabbed" them in the back ...

generals have it tough these days , the PR machinery that cleared the way for them now can even target them . The chief of the generals went to the explosion site and visited the Governor as it's the custom and the Governor gave the chief some presents , in the state custom . Including one marble chess set . Indeed the perfect setup to remark on the 25 pawns , and the gambits that could lead to checkmate . Seriously the chief had to declare that he didn't think the Governor gave the presents because of the explosion . That even ı couldn't come up with : "Here, General. Please accept our heartfelt gratitude for blowing up 25 soldiers at this location where the Kemalist Military of yesteryears had fabricated a Grand Offensive out of a minor action to steal the country!"

nobody really believes it was an accident . In some seriously weird incident , the goverment generals informed the leader of the opposition party that it was sabotage by a 99% certainity, taking advantage of the meeting for feelers to the "opposition party generals" . Naturally the politician ran to the public to kick the goverment , had no support and was forced to eat his words that it is the journos that misquoted him , he had meant "former" commanders ... A lot has happened in Turkey in the near past , such stuff makes sense . Though does that make the goverment generals , the governing party generals ?

and the tops goes to the expert who shames all experts , the guy the USA and the UK will not be allowed to grant asylum in the Civil War , since he said the transformation of the country was a justified fight against evil Germans and Germany his destination will be . Anyhow he talked of the existantial fight , the cycle of the century stuff , WW1 in 1914 - WW3 in 2014(?) . He warned this was tough times that required unity , those who didn't stand with the new Turkey could not explain themselves in the future . He said "We are all black cats in a dark room." implying that he too could be opposition or the opposition could be all newly elite double agents .

now there is this weird site where ı was allowed access after my "exploits" , an act of mercy if you will . A Capital Letter had seen me struggling in the museum and ı have always been a wannabe armchair strategist , and my life as some kind of James Bond / Mr. Bean combo can be really funny and ı can actually laugh at a few of them now . ı have enough scars to be around in entry level discussions ... So , a thread stickied for the moment in a place ı can frequent has a single post that starts "Have you ever seen Sabretooths? The cubs are real cute." Considering my coming command of the Starfleet , really nothing .

and we learn from the expert that there is light at the end of the tunnel . Ankara promises West that safe zones on the ground are easy if a No-Fly Zone is available from the Allies , as if we don't have have hundreds of combat jets of our own . Free Syrian thingies , miffed by this weirdness have come up with pictures of a destroyed Syrian Su-35 Flanker , which ı believe Damascus doesn't have and the plane might be or might not be a MiG-21 anyways . Yet the '35 is the top of the Flanker line by numbers , the yardstick of the West's as the top "enemy" plane and our cowardly airforce can find heart from pictures on the web . Enough heart to engage the Ukranian in his clunkerish L-39 . We are the laughing stock of whom we save ...

even this concentration on all things Jewish is a fact that will become the fact after the Civil War , the Gulf people will provide all the details to implicate local -Turkish- Islamists were all pawns of Israel and America in the first place , hence their blood is halal for any Muslim . An American historian , expert on Turkish history , has commented we are not ready for a sectarian war , why on earth should we be ? It is not a call for real anti-Semitism , but a warning from the fool that Turkey is still wet behind the ears when it comes to imperalist conspiring . If this sounds as Islamist bashing , well , ı have far too many views on Religion and a little-justified conviction that ı will do good enough on Judgement Day to get out of hell , eventually .

the light at the end of the tunnel is 4-8-4 chugging along with 8500 tons of general freight .

though any railroad enthusiast should now be posting it would rather be a Yellowstone 2-8-8-4 or Union Pasific's Big Boy . Steam only , we are primitives here ...

am ı the only one in Turkey to ever watch the Coyote in the Roadrunner cartoon ?