It turns out Erdogan is not as unpredictable as he wants to appear, as he proved during his three-day presence at the NATO summit this week. The Turkish President left his red lines in Ankara and went to Madrid waving a white flag. What did not change was his communication management of the proceedings.
Even before he arrived in the Spanish capital, Erdogan knew that he could not afford to stay on the path of denial about Sweden and Finland's membership in the Alliance any longer. He traded his "yes" for the maximum he could get. That was verbal support in the fight against terrorism and a promise to lift the embargo on arms sales from the two Nordic countries to Turkey.
The Memorandum of Understanding signed by the three countries before the start of the Summit contains nothing more than general references. Nevertheless, Erdogan "sold" it at home as a tremendous success of his government. Although he managed to convince only the pro-government media, since all the rest of the media interpreted the facts differently. As did the opposition in Turkey, which accused the Turkish President of backing down.
Victory the appointment, talk of F16s
The only thing he clearly gained from this retreat was his appointment with the American President. A meeting he had been requesting for months. Joe Biden granted his request only when light began to appear in the tunnel of the NATO crisis.
As expected, during the meeting Erdogan raised the issue of modernizing and strengthening the Turkish F16 fleet. The US President replied that he was not against it, but Congress has the final say. Something he stated publicly, rushing to clarify that this move is not related to the bargaining that the Turkish President tried to do in NATO.
In fact, Biden repeated what he had stated in December about the F16, but Erdogan presented this issue as another big victory. He even suggested that this victory was linked to developments in NATO. This information was also ignored by the Turkish opposition, claiming that instead of action the Turkish President returned to Ankara with promises.
He did not dare...
In any case, the removal of engagement in the debate on Sweden's and Finland's NATO membership also suited Erdogan in relation to the chapter of the Greek-Turkish chapter.
Since he had something to present at home, the Turkish President chose not to open the Aeolian Asylum by opening a discussion on the Aegean at the summit. Therefore, he did not... denounce Athens for violations and did not openly challenge the sovereignty of Greek islands, as Turkish government sources leaked until last week.
In fact, he did not intend to do so, since even he himself acknowledges that there is no logic behind these claims. Just as there is no sensible person who would accept the rhetoric that Erdogan has suddenly adopted in recent weeks, purely for electoral purposes.
This does not mean that he intends to stop the verbal attacks and hybrid warfare against Greece. For Erdogan, the three days of... abstinence were too much and that is why immediately after the end of the summit he went back to the verbal abuse that is more aimed at his country's electorate than at Athens.
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
