17 - Kitsikis's interview to Sputnik

Moscow 

17 - Kitsikis's interview to Sputnik

Interview to Sputnik News,Moscow,

28 August 2020

To Andrei Savenkov

 

Dear Andrei,

 

1 - There is no intention whatsoever neither from Turkey nor from Greece to go to war in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterannean.

 

2 - The whole crisis has been pre-arranged by the Western Powers to force the two sides to sit down and agree on an overall settlement of their disputes in the shape of a joint-venture of a common exploitation and not in a separation of profits and losses.

 

3 - Because of the election period in the United States till November 3, President Trump has left the initiative of directing the agreement to its otherwise rival Germany, knowing the influence of Merkel on both Mitsotakis and Erdogan, awaiting his sure further presence as President after November 3, 2020, when he will take over the lead of this coming Greek-Turkish common venture.

 

4 - President Trump knows that in case of success of his efforts as leader of the Greek-Turkish Ensemble he will have in some way to compensate his friend Russian President Putin in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.

 

5 - Still there remains the small possibility of an accident that would lead to confrontation and also to the now unpredictable character of President Erdogan. Truly, Erdogan, after the failed attempt of 2016 to assassinate him has become another man determined to take incredible risks that he would have never taken before July 2016.

 

6 - All in all there should be optimism from the American side in the success of the building of a Greek-Turkish wall against the further expansion of the Chinese New Silk Road westward, considered as the main geopolitical threat for Donald Trump`s strategy.

 

Yours truly,

 

Prof. Dr. Dimitri Kitsikis 

 

16 - Sputnik international news-Russia

16 - Sputnik international news-Russia

Turkish-Greek Escalation Stems From Sovereignty Issues Rather Than Hydrocarbons’ Control 

MOSCOW, August 27, 2020 (Sputnik) - The Turkish-Greek escalation that reached a boiling point this month is sparked by their sovereignty issues, which have been simmering for a long time, rather than the actual control over hydrocarbons’ reserves in the Mediterranean, experts told Sputnik.

 The tensions between Athens and Ankara escalated earlier in August after Turkey's Oruc Reis research vessel began exploration drilling in the Greek-claimed waters in the eastern Mediterranean. Greece considers this territory to be its exclusive economic zone, has mobilized its armed forces to high alert, and vowed to protect its sovereign rights by all necessary means. 

The row has reached a dangerous point when both states have started to hold military drills in the contested maritime area. This week, Greece alongside Cyprus, France and Italy held a joint military exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean as part of the so-called Quartet Cooperation Initiative (QUAD), while the navies of Turkey and the United States have conducted joint drills in the same area.

 CONTROL OVER NATURAL RESOURCES DRIVES UP HISTORIC TENSIONS

 The Turkish-Greek relations have been shadowed by the disputes for years, but the discovery of hydrocarbon reserves in the maritime zone, claimed by both states, have escalated the tensions, bringing the historic conflict back into the spotlight, Dr. Zenonas Tziarras, the researcher with the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) Cyprus Centre, told Sputnik. 

"The biggest problem in the area is not energy resources, but traditional sovereignty issues pertaining to maritime zones. The discovery of hydrocarbons over the past years exacerbated these problems given that control over maritime space sometimes entails control over natural resources as well, among other things. At least since the early 2010s," Tziarras said. 

Turkey seeks to expand its control over maritime areas and natural resources through its "openly revisionist foreign policy," designed to elevate the country to the status of great power, the researcher noted.

 "The latest crisis is only one episode in a long series of episodes stirred by problematic relations and unresolved issues. The efforts for de-escalating this crisis might be successful sooner or later. However, the core of the problem will not go away unless gunboat diplomacy, especially by Turkey, is abandoned and the two countries engage in dialogue to resolve their bilateral issues. Without a breakthrough in this respect, more crises will follow," Tziarras said. 

COULD ESCALATION SPILL OVER INTO OPEN MILITARY CONFLICT? 

After Greece and Turkey have simultaneously launched military drills in the eastern Mediterranean, some have expressed fears that an open military confrontation between two NATO allies could happen by accident or deliberately.

 "There remains the small possibility of an accident that would lead to confrontation and also to the now unpredictable character of President Erdogan. Truly, Erdogan, after the failed attempt of 2016 to assassinate him, has become another man determined to take incredible risks that he would have never taken before July 2016," Prof. Dimitri Kitsikis, an expert in the Turkish-Greek relations, told Sputnik. 

However, "there is no intention whatsoever neither from Turkey nor from Greece to go to war in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean," Kitsikis, who serves as the professor emeritus with the University of Ottawa’s History Department, noted. 

The PRIO researcher is in agreement with Kitsikis that both Turkey and Greece do not seek a military confrontation.

 "The two countries do not want a military confrontation. However, when there are such tensions and military-naval mobilization, the possibility of an accident or a miscalculation is always a possibility, especially if the crisis is prolonged and the diplomatic efforts for de-escalation take a long time or are unsuccessful," Tziarras said.

 The rising tensions between Athens and Ankara negatively impact the unity with NATO, the expert noted. 

"The potential of a conflict between Greece and Turkey has always been a concern for NATO and the United States. For this reason, they have tried in the past to keep the peace between the two countries. Any crisis between Greece and Turkey hinders NATO's unity, regional cohesion and interests. Although Germany and the EU are playing a primary mediation role in de-escalating the crisis, the US and NATO are also believed to be trying to defuse tensions and prevent further escalation," Tziarras underlined. 

As for NATO's role in efforts to deescalate the tensions, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that he regularly maintains contact with both Turkey and Greece. 

FEARS OVER LOCAL CONFLICT BECOMING INTERNATIONAL

 France decision to send naval forces to the Eastern Mediterranean, which was welcomed by Greece, may add to tensions in the region, Panayotis Tsakonas, a professor of security studies at the University of Athens and the head of the Program on Security at Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), told Sputnik.

 "By implication, France has not been hesitant in supporting Greece in its conflict with Turkey by sending a strong message to Turkey — through the mobilization of its fleet — that this time Turkey went it too far. However, a note of caution should be added here — although Greece welcomes France's initiative aiming at deterring any further Turkish aggression this may also add up to an already heavily militarized region where the possibility of an accident is high," Tsakonas said.

 The expert also mentioned that Paris and Ankara have contradicting interests not only in the Eastern Mediterranean sea but also in Africa, adding that French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have "personal antipathy." 

"Based on the aforementioned reasons for France's military engagement in the region I strongly doubt there will be any other country willing to follow suit," Tsakonas added. When addressing the joint response by the European Union to Turkey over Ankara’s actions in the Eastern Mediterranean, the expert said that France and Germany do not "share the same views on how best to deal with Turkey." 

"France is more in favor of punishing Erdogan's aggressiveness through the adoption of direct punitive measures, i.e. sanctions while Germany — which now runs the EU Presidency — is more interested in not letting Turkey further distancing itself from the EU promoting thus Turkey's engagement with the EU," Tsakonas said.

 At the same time, the professor noted that NATO, unsurprisingly, is much more fragmented and divided over the issue with Turkey.

 "Indeed despite a series of strategic divides between Turkey and its NATO allies, the Atlantic Alliance is expected to remain a passive observer with regard to Turkey's behavior vis-a-vis Greece, another NATO member, given that for NATO Turkey remains too big, powerful and strategically important to allow for an open confrontation," Tsakonas said. 

The expert added that the current situation, if it is left unchecked, would have certain negative effects on the stability at the EU’s southern border and said that the EU and the United States should reset their relationship with Turkey "with a new one based on a balanced mixture of carrots and sticks and/or benefits and obligations" as soon as possible.

15 - Erdogan and the Rebirth of the Empire

15 - Erdogan and the Rebirth of the Empire

(Interview given to Gercek Hayat, Istanbul, special issue, 24-29 February 2020, pp. 32-34)

In 1453, the imperial succession passed from the Greeks to the Turks. In 1821, the Westerners through the Eastern Question started the dismantlement of the Empire by persuading the Greeks that the 1453 succession was made to their detriment and that they had to come back to the values of pre-Christian Greece.

The main result was double fold: to enslave the Greeks to the Frankish West and to destroy the Empire after a hundred year civil war (1822-1922) between the two brother nations that had formed the Ottoman Empire.

The extraordinary courage of the Turkish people and their leader Mustafa Kemal who refused to give up to Western imperialism led to the liberation of Anatolia but only after sacrificing the traditions of the Turkish people by throwing the Turkish cultural baby with the water of the bath tub i.e. Islam in the same way than Venizelos had thrown away the Greek cultural baby of Orthodox Christianity.

Since 2002, the extraordinary feat of Erdogan was to put back in place Islam in the heart of Turkish tradition without betraying Ataturk principles of independence of Anatolia while at the same time in Rumeli Greeks through Archbishop Christodoulos were coming back slowly to their Christian traditions.

The result of these evolutions on both sides of the Aegean was a revival of nostalgia for the greatness of the defunct Empire that had been destroyed in the 100 year Greek-Turkish civil war by the West.

On the Rumeli side, Kitsikis was the first Greek that through his numerous publications openly promoted the idea of the coming back of the Ottoman Empire, already in the 1960s while Erdogan followed on his path and on the path of Kitsikis’s spiritual son  Ozal, by promoting openly the rebirth of the Empire around its long time prestigious capital Istanbul.

Nevertheless such a political revival which Kitsikis called the Çamlica dream, referring to the hill on the Asian side of the Bosphorus facing Istanbul as the center of the future federal capital, was considered by everybody an unattainable dream even though one should have known that only dreams make great history.

The seemingly unsurpassable difficulty for the realization of such a bold dream was the existence since the I5th century of the Russian candidate to the Istanbul throne as Third Rome and also the activity of the destroyers of the Empire through the Eastern Question represented by the Western imperialist Powers who wanted a free passage to their Asian colonies through Eastern Mediterranean, a passage that was permanently blocked by the Ecumenical Byzantine-Ottoman Empire.

Nevertheless, 2016 marked a decisive turning point. The coming to power of President Trump and the defeat of former President Obama who failed to assassinate Erdogan. Trump seemed as a present of God.

His seemingly chaotic foreign policy, in fact directed exclusively against China, reversing the century long Western policy of expansion from West to East through the Eastern Mediterranean to an East West expansion using the new Silk Road of Chinese conquest of Western Europe, gave to the Intermediate Region of Civilization which center had always been the Ecumenical Empire for the last 2500 years a new importance: it had to become a wall against China drive to the West.

So President Trump through his seemingly chaotic foreign policy had one and only aim: stop the Silk Road Western expansion by all means. This meant trying to form a chain of alliances with as many nations as possible in Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East and first and foremost with Russia to form a barrier against Chinese expansion.

The dismemberment of the Ecumenical Empire had to be stopped and even it had to be rebuilt. Turkey, since 2002, because of Erdogan, had become a stabilized geopolitical entity which could form this barrier by reviving the Ottoman Empire.

But this could not be done without the reunification of the two shores of the Aegean lake not by splitting it between Greece and Turkey but by reuniting it in the form of a Greek-Turkish Confederation.

I have many times compared the Aegean Sea to a human body with two lungs: the Rumeli lung and the Anatolia lung, with a trachea in the middle for the body to be able to breathe freely: the Aegean Sea. It is nonsense to cut the trachea in the middle: a Rumeli half and an Anatolia half. Because then the body of the Empire would suffocate. This happened in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 with the result to have created the present disputes between Greece and Turkey.

So, in order to reunite the Aegean lake the Lausanne treaties have to be revised, even abolished.  Unfortunately the terrible crime of the exchange of populations cannot be mended today. But why not? The Cretan Muslims could come back to Crete and the Karamanli Christian could go back to Cappadocia.

God gave Erdogan the mission to accomplish the dream. The dream of the revival of the Ottoman Empire, perhaps with the help of President Trump. Erdogan represents the forces of unification (Empire) againt the forces of division (Eastern Question). It is neither in the interest of Turkey to be dismembered between Kurds and Armenians nor in the interest of Greece to be dismembered between Thracians and Cretans

I, as an intellectual, I will continue with all my enthusiasm to promote the  reunification dream. Lets God accomplish  his scheme.

Dimitri Kitsikis                        29 February 2020

14 - Dimitri Kitsikis interview to Gerçek Hayat, 9-15 September 2019.

14 - Dimitri Kitsikis interview published in Turkish in Gerçek Hayat,  weekly magazine, Istanbul, 9-15 September 2019,

Back to the Ottoman Empire

Turkish Interview   August 30, 2019

 Dear Suleyman,

Below are my answers to your questions. Please, do send me a paper copy of your magazine containing my interview to the following address:   Prof.Dr. Dimitri Kitsikis, Department of History, Desmarais Building, University of Ottawa, 55, Laurier Ave East, Ottawa, K1N6N5,Canada (Air Mail), as well as an electronic copy.

1. You have a thesis known as Turkish-Greek State. What means that definitely? Federation, Confederation or something another?

The Turkish-Greek State should be the restauration of the Ecumenical Byzantine-ottoman Empire with its confederal capital in Istanbul under the modern structure of two independent states based in Ankara and Athens linked in a Confederation, gradually increasing its integration in a superior union that would tend to recreate the Empire

2. Both, Modern Turkish and Greek States founded on ideological, opposite nationalist bases. Is that a big challenge for your thesis?

Nationalism is an ideology which appeared in the West in the 18^th century and aimed at the replacement of empires by nation-states. The West used this new ideology as a violent poison to destroy the Ecumenical Ottoman Empire and beak it down in nation-states. It started in 1821 with the creation of Greece and ended in 1923 with the creation of Turkey. This  Western imperialistic policy is known to historians as the Eastern Question.

The Eastern Question is an exact repetition of the Western imperialistic policy against the Ecumenical Empire of Byzantium, from 1081 to 1204, the ancestor of the Ottoman Empire. As at the time nationalism did not exist, the West used religion to dismantle the Empire, i.e. the Roman Catholic Crusades against Islam and Christian Orthodoxy. The fourth crusade, in 1204, succeeded in dismantling the Byzantine Empire by destroying Constantinople and creating numerous independent states instead. Fortunately, with the help of the Byzantines, the Empire was reconstituted under the wise rule of the Fatih and the Ottomans in 1453.

3. Yes, we know Turks and Greeks lived peacefully almost a millenium. Who broke this harmony and why?

From 1081 to 1453, the West tried hard, through religion to divide the people of the Empire. They did not succeed as in 1453, the great majority of Christian Orthodox people of Byzantium were «pro-Turkish»  demanding to be liberated by the Ottomans against a small minority of «pro-Latin» Byzantines, considered as sold out to the West. Thus,  May 29, 1453, was considered by the overwhelming majority of Byzantine people a kind of «national day» to be  celebrated as «independence day» . The only problem was the difference of religion inside the Empire. George of Trebizond (1395-1486), the famous Greek philosopher from Crete, wrote to the Fatih (see: Χρῆστος Κυπραῖος, '' Ἡ ἰδεολογία τοῦ ἑλληνοτουρκισμοῦ ἀπὸ τὸν Γεώργιο Τραπεζούντιο στὸν Δημήτρη Κιτσίκη'' - Ἀθήνα, Ἐκδόσεις  Ἔξοδος, 2019, ISBN 978-618-84162-0-8 (Christos Kypraios, “The Ideology of Hellenorurkism from George of Trebizond to Dimitri Kitsikis”, Athens, Exodos Publishers, 2019). In this letter to the Fatih George presented a project of merging, in one religion, Orthodox Christianity and Islam on the basis of Bektashism-Alevism which was the religion of the Ottoman family, very close to Christian Orthodoxy. In a word, having the whole of the Greek-Turkish people praying for Christ-Ali, Christ being Ali and vice versa. Even though the Fatih agreed with George he did not go to the end of the project from fear of violent reaction from fanatics from both religions. Myself I have always been a supporter of such a merging scheme as everybody is aware of my support to bektashism-alevism.

4. We also know, Russia and West helped Greece to gain independence from Ottoman Empire. What was the reason for that? Hellenophilia or something hid behind it?

Certainly not Hellenophilia as Great Powers serve only their own interests. Their aim, explained above, was the implementation of the Eastern Question, i.e. the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire.

5. Since West aparted two nations, can we expect it to tolerate Turkish-Greek State today? Any change since then?

The Western game of dismantling today nation-states as a continuation of the Eastern Question(this is what I call the Kuweitization of the Middle East and the Kossovozation of the Balkans) is aimed at preventing any territorial formation that would try to become strong  enough to extract itself from Western hegemony. Nevertheless, acquiring nuclear power would help in giving strength to such enlarged territorial formations. The recent example of Erdoğan’s independent policy is encouraging enough. A common Greek-Turkish venture in the Aegean as well as a two-state  Cyprus Greek-Turkish Confederation could be a good starting point towards a larger Turkish-Greek Confederation between Ankara and Athens under a Trump-Putin single umbrella.

6. Do you think that Greek nation is ready for such a joint venture?

The present Greek State suffers from a total lack of leadership. This is the reason why the majority of Greek people look with envy at the Turkish performances,  saying  loudly, “If only Greece could have a leader of the Erdoğan calibre!”  

7. Did you ever think about a Balkan Commonwealth? Does it sound better?

In the Interwar Period of 1919-1939, Balkan Federation projects was high on the agenda. Second World War stopped the realization of such projects for which I have written tons of studies. My long time scheme of a Turkish-Greek Confederation of  reviving the Ottoman  Empire has always included as peripheral states joined to the Confederation , the Balkan countries as well as  the Middle East countries. Otherwise the scheme of a revived Ottoman Empire would not have any meaning.

8. Let's say you convinced Greeks upon your thesis. How can you convince Turks for that?

I do not need to convince Turks as they are already convinced of the necessity of Erdoğan’s vision of the the resurgence of the Ottoman Empire. My work of persuasion lies primarily with the Greeks and this has been the effort of my long life.

Dimitri Kitsikis, Ph.D.,

Professor Emeritus,

Geopolitics and International Relations,

University of Ottawa,

Fellow, Royal Society of Canada,

Honorary President, The  Dimitri Kitsikis Public Foundation,

http://www.idkf.gr

Pikoulianika, Laconia, Greece, Plethon House,

August 30, 2019

13 - Dimitri Kitsikis, father of a Greek-Turkish Confederation

13 - Dimitri Kitsikis, father of a Greek-Turkish Confederation

https://www.quora.com/Do-Turks-and-Greeks-know-that-Dimitri-Kitsikis-and-before-that-Ataturk-and-Venizelos-wanted-to-create-a-Turkey-Greece-confederation

12 - Fasting versus Fanaticism

12 - Letter to a Turkish friend: 

F vs F

Fasting versus Fanaticism or God versus the Devil

1 – Crusaders:  How the Devil took over

Emmanuel Sivan in a remarquable book he wrote in French, in 1968, titled, L’Islam et la croisade (Paris, Maisonneuve), says this:  In the 11^th century A.D. in Byzantine Syria, in the city of Antioch (Antakya), the «cradle of Christianity», Christians and Muslims lived together as brothers, making no religious difference between the two communities. Then came warriers from the West and the Muslims were not scared because they thought they were mercenaries of the Byzantine Greeks. But these warriors started slaughtering the Muslims with a cross on their dress and the latter understood they had nothing to do with the Greeks but with the Barbarian Franks, coming from Western Europe. In 1204, these same Crusaders conquered Constantinople from their Greek Christian brothers, slaughtered them and stole everything, transporting their booty to Venice where every stolen byzantine precious artifact is still shown with pride in this city of Western pirates. Since that time, for 700 years the Westerners looted and slaughtered the whole planet turning mad their Third World victims and gave birth among the subjected people to the sick phenomenon called djihadism, which had nothing to do with any religion whatsoever but with the Devil itself.

2 – The Temptation of Christ  by the Devil in  the Desert

In three of the four Christian Gospels i.e.  of Matthew, Mark and Luke, the evangelists say that after being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights in the Judean Desert. During these fourty days Satan appeared in  front of Jesus and tried to stop him from fasting but without any result. The result was that Jesus was strengthened in his resolutions and after the 40 days returned to Galilee to begin his teaching, because, contrary to what happens today with the Jihadists, Jesus won over the Devil who Jesus calls «the prince of this world».

3 – Why Christian Orthodoxy is nearer to Sufism than to Western Christianity

The main characteristic of Christian Orthodoxy is desert monachism that took birth in the first centuries after the death of Christ in the deserts of Egypt and Syria, following the familiarity with the Palestinian desert of John the Baptist and of Jesus. The word monk is derived from the Greek word «monachos» which means «alone», living alone in the desert. This is why even in the mountains of present-day Orthodoxy (see, the Holy Mountain  in Greece), among the trees and rich vegetation, the monks that live alone call their abode «the desert».

There are five different derivations of the word sufi. All of them refer to poverty due to the spiritual wisdom of a monk and all include the wisdom of the Greek «sophos» (the sage), because a monk is a sage wearing rough woolen («suf») and not silk garments.

A monk is defined mainly by fasting and that is why Western Christianity which never gave priority to monks, also did not insist on the practice of fasting. Up to the 11^th century A.D. Western Christianity followed Greek Christian tradition. Nevertheless, after Rome separated from Constantinople in the year 1054 A.D. the West started being loose on fasting arriving to the present day when practically no Western Christian (Roman Catholic or Protestant) fasts even though the word itself remains in their vocabulary. This practical disappearance of fasting in the West is the best proof that Western society has come under the spell of Devil’s practices, something evident from the overall picture of today`s  Western life.

4 – Christian fasting is not total abstinence

Because Christian fasting encompasses more than half of the calendar year, following total abstinence would be an impossible task. So normal Christian fasting means abstain from certain categories of food, i.e. four main ones. Abstinence from animal food that are absent in the desert i.e. no meat, no fish, no eggs, no dairy products, but animals without blood as locusts in the desert or bloodless sea food like squids. For more strict fasting, during certain periods of time, especially for monks, abstention is required from olive oil and wine. Before holy communion total abstinence, including no water, is required.

5 – The periods of fasting through the calendar  year

Even though the general word used for Christian fasting is «sarakoste» which means in Greek «fourty days», the many periods of fasting all preceding Christian holidays, vary from 50 days (before Easter), 40 days (before Christmas), 15 days (before the 15^th of August, Virgin Mary`s death) one week to one month before the feast of the Apostles Paul and Peter, and every Wednesday and Friday of a normal week during the year. Exempt from fasting are sick people.

6 – The Ottoman Empire, as the perfect kingdom of God on Earth

The Empire that reigned over the center of the planet Earth, that we call the Intermediate Region of Civilization for 2,500 years, from the Persian Empire, to Alexander’s Empire to the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, arriving at its perfection during the last 650 years of the Ottoman Empire, has been the perfect abode of world civilization, as the kingdom of God on earth, in which all religions were free to worship God through the millet system and fasting.

Today the world is waiting for its total destruction through fanaticism that establishes the kingdom of Satan and its inevitable consequence, the Armageddon. Only the restauration of the Ottoman Empire is capable of saving the planet from total destruction.

Dimitri Kitsikis,                                                                  Ottawa, 27 November 2018

11 - ABOVE GÜLEN AND ERDOĞAN STANDS TURKEY

11  - ABOVE GÜLEN AND ERDOĞAN STANDS TURKEY

I reproduce below an article by Jennifer Campbell, editor of «Diplomat &  International Canada», a magazine established in Ottawa, in 1989. She writes that the Canada Gülen organization sponsored her visit to Athens in order to write the article below, published in the magazine's issue of October-November 2018.

Having been myself for some years a follower of the Fethullah Gülen organization in Ottawa and having published some articles and contributions in books on Gülen, as a professor of Geopolitics and International Relations at the University of Ottawa since 1970, as well as a specialist of Turkey and being myself a Greek, being well known in Greece and Turkey to have uttered the sentence, «The best Greeks are the Turks», I would like to give here some further information on the relations between these two eminent Turks.

Both have repeatedly expressed their admiration for late president of Turkey, Turgut Özal, who considered me, in his own words, his «spiritual father» in pursuing the dream of a Greek-Turkish Confederation. Even though Gülen is pro-Jewish as Sufi Muslim and Erdoğan is anti-Jewish as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood there are both supporters of the multi-religious structure of the late Ottoman Empire. Özal`s father was an Orthodox Christian Armenian and his mother was a Kurdish Nakshibendi Sufi. Erdoğan and Gülen are both supporters of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch in Istanbul.

Since the coming to power of Erdoğan, in 2003, himself as well as his supporters, in the Turkish population were Gülenists and pro-American. Only, after the 2016  July military coup in Turkey, engineered by the alleged previous American administration of President Obama, did  Erdoğan accuse Gülen and his supporters of wanting to replace him by Gülen himself as a Turkish Khomeini. The result was understandable. Erdoğan was hit like a bull in a Spanish bullfight arena and persuaded that the bullfighter was Gülen himself under American instructions, he cracked down on his former self and supporters. A sheer tragedy in which the West with its hypocritical human rights should abstain from taking sides.

So what about me? Should I choose between my two favorite men? We Greeks are presently favorably impressed by the seemingly independent policy of President Erdoğan towards Great Powers, as all third nations victimized by the West would be. Because above NATO and Russia, stands our Turkish brother and the Greek public thinks Turkey`s seemingly aggressive policy against Greece is directed by Great Power interests. Above Gülen and Erdoğan I choose my dream of a Greek-Turkish Confederation. In 1934, Venizelos just 12 years after the catastrophical defeat of his country by the Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, proposed in a memorable letter to the Nobel Price organizers that they should give the Peace Nobel Price to his latter former foe!

Dimitri Kitsikis, Fellow, Royal Society of Canada, Ottawa, 28-X- 2018, www.idkf.gr

http://diplomatonline.com/mag/2018/10/fleeing-oppression-in-turkey/