Washington wants Erdogan to have the most important role in the new “Turkish Spring” scenarios.
by Hosni Mahli
Source: Al-Mayadeen Net
Russia’s immediate intervention in Kazakhstan came due to Putin’s recollection of major conspiracies from his country’s enemies.
The common border between Kazakhstan and Russia is no less than seven thousand km, and a geographical depth extends over an area of two million and 725 thousand km2, and no country in the world can control its security and prevent infiltration and terrorism through it. This Muslim country, with a population of 19 million (20% of whom is of Russian origin), became independent after the fall of the Soviet Union, just like the other Islamic republics in Central Asia, namely Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Kazakhstan was, and still is, one of the most important countries in the region due to several reasons, including those I mentioned above. In addition to the huge natural wealth it possesses, valued at $12 trillion, the most important of which are uranium, chromium, lead, zinc, magnesium, copper, coal, gold, iron, diamonds, oil and gas. Most important of all, this country borders China, and they share a border of 1,500 km, as well as the rest of the Islamic republics in Central Asia, known as Russia’s back garden, along a border that extends about 3,800 km.
In other words, Kazakhstan is Russia’s gateway to these republics, and with it, Azerbaijan. They are all the dream of Turkish President Erdogan, and before him the late President Turgut Ozal, who in 1991 raised the slogan “One Turkish nation from the Adriatic (Bosnia) to the Great Dam of China.” Ozal, and after him other Turkish presidents, gathered the leaders of these countries more than once, the last of which was the summit of the Organization of Turkish States in Istanbul, on the 12th of last November.
The final statement of the summit included more than 120 items, talking about the prospects for coordination and cooperation between the member states of the Organization of Turkish States in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus, where Azerbaijan, and its common borders with Georgia, with which Turkey has distinguished relations, and with Armenia, with which Turkey is trying to turn a new page in its relations. With it, after its great victory in Azerbaijan, politically and militarily, during and after its war in Karabakh.
This victory and the efforts of Turkish openness to the Caucasus region, and before that cooperation in a number of areas with Ukraine, the Baltic states and the eastern Balkans, were among the most important causes of apathy and tension between Ankara and Moscow, whose relations with Turkey are experiencing greater tension due to the situation in Libya and Syria, and Idlib in particular. Russian officials, including President Putin and his Foreign Minister Lavrov, do not hide their concern and annoyance with Ankara’s policies in Ukraine in particular, with President Erdogan continuing to talk about memories of Ottoman history.
Everyone knows that Erdogan has not and will not retract his dream of reviving these memories, since his ancestors left Central Asia and reached central Europe and most of Arab geography, after they fought the Russians in more than one battle, and China built a dam for fear of Genghis Khan and his Mongol army.
Leaving all these historical memories aside, the Turkish interest in Central Asia and the Caucasus, in its national and religious aspects, also carries with it a number of strategic meanings, which President Erdogan wants to make Turkey a superpower that challenges the two superpowers, the ally America and the traditional enemy Russia, because there are vast and important natural resources in these Islamic countries.
This explains President Erdogan’s interest in Afghanistan and his attempts to send his army after the American withdrawal from there. Erdogan’s moves enjoy the approval and support of Washington, which wants any Turkish move, regardless of its size, to annoy Moscow and create a number of foreign problems for it, which will be reflected in the difficult reality in Russia, economically and socially.
The quick Russian decision to intervene immediately in Kazakhstan came after President Putin recalled the major conspiracies that were sought by the enemies of Russia during the color revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine in 2004, and in Kyrgyzstan in 2010, and in Georgia again in 2008, and then in Ukraine again 2014, and finally in Belarus last year, as Washington and its allies continue efforts to tighten the blockade on Russia in the Black Sea.
And President Putin, who admitted his mistake in supporting the international resolution on Libya in February 2011, which led to what it led to in this strategic country, Russian analysts say that he regrets the extensive facilities he provided to Turkey in Syria, despite the gains that have been made. Russia achieved it there.
This explains the rapid Russian response to the West’s conspiracy in Ukraine, whereby Russia regained the Crimea and achieved a strategic balance through its alliance with the eastern Ukrainian provinces and their residents of Russian origin. Nor did Moscow evade before that in winning South Ossetia, along with Abkhazia, on its side in 2008, when Washington, along with “Tel Aviv”, tried to create problems for Russia through its southern neighbor Georgia, and then sent its army last year to Karabakh.
Without Moscow ignoring the size of the gains that President Erdogan reaped through the Russian facilities he obtained in Syria, through which he achieved strategic superiority in a number of regions in the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans, the Baltics, the Caucasus, and now in Central Asia near or adjacent to Afghanistan, with all its possible scenarios. President Putin is also well aware that Washington, through its allies from Islamic countries, such as Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey and the UAE, will not abandon the Islam card, both political and military. As the West plans, and it will plan, for Turkish-incited Islam to be its future weapon in the Russian interior, where more than twenty million Muslims live. Ankara says that most of them are of Turkish origin, and Turkish nationalist circles are in constant contact with them, whether secretly or openly.
Washington will also not hesitate to exploit Erdogan’s national and religious statements, and encourage him to do more, through its media, mouthpieces, and sleeper cells in Central Asia and the Caucasus, and even in the Balkans and the Middle East, and all the way to Iran.
There remains talk of a “Turkish Spring” that Washington and those with it want to occupy Russia and limit its influence in other areas of competition, such as Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. This may explain Erdogan’s efforts, with American encouragement, to reconcile with his archenemies in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and “Israel”. Washington wants President Erdogan to have the most important role in the scenarios of the new “Turkish Spring,” as he had in the “Arab Spring,” which lacked national and emotional slogans, and will turn into a practical reality in the Islamic republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus and among their peoples of Turkish origin.
Everyone knows that this will not be difficult, because the rulers of these countries are not different from Erdogan and his undemocratic approach. The memories of the peoples of these countries with Russia, and before that the Soviet Union, and before that Russia, are not positive, as is the case with China, which may not be comfortable with the Russian control over its neighbor Kazakhstan. Also, provoking and escalating these historical memories will not be difficult at all, while tickling the national and religious feelings of these peoples, through many secret and public means, and they have continued in full swing since the independence of the mentioned countries.
Everyone knows that mobilizing and inciting their people will not and will not be difficult because of dictatorships, injustice, corruption, poverty and hunger, which collectively hang over these rich countries. If this is not achieved, this time by provoking historical memories and national and religious feelings. This is what it did during the bloody years of the “Arab Spring,” albeit with different slogans, the most important of which was sectarianism. It will also remain expendable for amateurs of fishing in murky water, as in the case of fierce crocodiles!
___
https://www-almayadeen-net.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=ar&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc