Eastern Question

By Dimitris Konstantakopoulos First Published: 23/7/2017 The new General Secretary of the UN does nothing to stop the wars that are destroying Libya, Syria, Yemen or...

By Dimitris Konstantakopoulos The new General Secretary of the UN does nothing to stop the wars that are destroying Libya, Syria, Yemen or those threatening...

Modern Turkey is a strange amalgam of Western structures underpinned by Ottoman habits. Their various governments, whether military or not, are still heavily influenced by its huge military, and the contradiction between religion and secularism stills bedevils its development. Russia knows this, and knows that the bazaar mentality prevails in Turkish foreign policy. Rather than provoke a collapse of the shaky Turkish state, Russia prefers to weaken a neurotic NATO, and eventually bring Turkey into its sphere of influence, in the interests of Middle Eastern stability.