https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypCxTzXx0hc
[expander_maker id=”8″ more=”Click for entire transcript” less=”Read less”]
2020
00:04
and uh turkey appears to be continuing
00:07
its ramping up of animosity against
00:11
basically everybody um what is it that
00:14
you have for us today
00:16
well kind of a couple of interesting
00:18
developments and this is something that
00:20
we
00:20
actually talk about fairly often just
00:22
because uh you know how
00:24
aggressive and expansionist turkey has
00:26
become under the leadership of its
00:28
current president erdogan
00:30
so uh there was something that yet we’ve
00:33
talked a couple of times there’s been
00:35
quite a little bit in the news but
00:36
there’s a lot of problems going on
00:38
between greece and turkey and
00:40
essentially
00:41
the problem is coming from turkey
00:45
and or it’s been being initiated by
00:47
turkey
00:48
and turkey is claiming that in those
00:50
mediterranean greek waters
00:52
that the natural oil and gas
00:56
resources that are in those areas belong
00:58
to him
00:59
and uh there was a quote that he just
01:02
came out and was was talking about i
01:03
want to read it says
01:04
we will not compromise what is ours we
01:07
are determined to do whatever is
01:08
necessary
01:09
and he said that at a ceremony
01:13
uh just this in the past couple of days
01:16
uh which was celebrating the the
01:19
victory of the ottoman empire over the
01:22
byzantine empire the byzantine empire
01:24
which
01:25
the eastern orthodox uh which was
01:27
constantinople and
01:29
where the uh highest fiat church is all
01:32
of that stuff so
01:33
when it got conquered this is a this is
01:35
a celebration of that
01:37
victory which also you know in their
01:40
mind includes
01:41
basically the greek uh waters and
01:44
and and territories which uh the ottoman
01:47
empire at its
01:49
uh greatest extent controlled much of
01:52
europe and
01:54
certainly all of that area around them
01:55
including the arab countries
01:57
and so uh that’s how erdogan views it in
02:01
the
02:01
is in islam for for him
02:04
uh and he views himself as the next
02:06
caliph of a
02:08
neo-ottoman empire
02:11
he views all those resources as
02:13
rightfully his
02:14
and so this is how absolutely how wars
02:17
gets started
02:18
and he has and and his comments to
02:21
greece he’s saying
02:22
exactly that those are ours we’re not
02:25
compromising on it
02:26
and we’re going to do what it whatever
02:27
is necessary to have what’s ours now
02:30
of course the rest of the world
02:32
basically doesn’t agree
02:33
i mean that’s territory that they lost a
02:36
very long time ago
02:37
so it’s it’s not something that they can
02:39
really rightfully claim
02:41
under international law as it’s viewed
02:43
today
02:46
but this is something where he just
02:47
doesn’t care that’s not his perspective
02:49
he’s using
02:50
kind of the ancient old style you know
02:53
from
02:54
uh by the way that victory from over the
02:56
byzantine empire that he was celebrating
02:58
took place in
02:59
1071. so i mean that’s that is his
03:02
perspective that those
03:04
customs or rules or whatever from back
03:05
in 1071 or what should apply now in
03:08
2020 so uh i i don’t
03:11
really see now germany has just gone off
03:14
they’ve sent an
03:15
emissary to go to back and forth between
03:17
athens and ankara
03:19
and try to broker peace and reduce the
03:22
tension all this because it
03:23
people see where this is headed but
03:26
how do you you know greece is not just
03:30
going to
03:31
give up its territory and
03:35
ankara erdogan doesn’t see it that way
03:38
he views that as
03:39
his rightfully his and by with holding
03:42
it from him that’s an act of war in
03:45
essence from erdogan’s perspective
03:47
so uh now greece is largely i mean
03:51
it’s clear what’s happening here this is
03:53
an aggression by greece
03:55
whether you know you can justify it or
03:57
not by these
03:58
uh traditions from islam you know is
04:01
this kind of a separate issue but
04:03
the uh the fact is that turkey’s
04:06
essentially attacking
04:07
uh greek territory to take the resources
04:10
from those which
04:10
again they think it’s theirs the rest of
04:13
the world says it’s not
04:14
in essence uh so kind of one of the
04:17
other things and this is something i’ve
04:18
been talking about many many many times
04:20
for a very long time and
04:21
anyone who sees these on a regular basis
04:23
let me talk about the four plus one
04:25
which is kind of the
04:26
national security threat formula how how
04:30
the world is viewed right now and which
04:31
is
04:32
uh you know russia um china iran
04:36
and north korea plus the one being
04:39
terrorism
04:39
and i have long argued that china needs
04:42
to be bumped up so a more realistic
04:44
national security threat formula would
04:46
not be the four plus one it would be the
04:48
one plus four plus one meaning china
04:50
being the greater threat should be
04:52
separated out at the top
04:53
and then uh replaced by turkey in the
04:56
main body of the four so one
04:58
one plus four plus one which would still
04:59
be so china at the top
05:01
turkey russia north korea and iran
05:04
and then terrorism and this is something
05:07
that’s interesting just now
05:09
israel has come out and the former
05:11
director of their mossad their
05:13
intelligence agency has come out and
05:15
said that
05:16
former ally turkey with whom
05:19
israel had a good relationship
05:22
uh is no longer that friend you know
05:24
they used to sell weapons to turkey
05:26
those drones and stuff that
05:28
have popped up in different places
05:30
including uh
05:31
uh and azerbaijan and the fighting there
05:34
from
05:34
turkey bringing them in and using them
05:36
and
05:38
uh this is this is uh one of those cases
05:42
where
05:42
israel has now said yes indeed turkey
05:45
does represent a threat
05:47
they are a long-term national security
05:48
threat what i’ve been saying for a very
05:50
long time
05:52
and now it’s kind of officially they’ve
05:53
i’m sure been looking at it to get to
05:55
this point
05:56
where they finally agree with me and uh
06:00
and the interesting part of it too is we
06:02
just comes on the heels
06:03
of the agreement uh that was made with
06:07
uh united arab emirates and that’s been
06:09
in the press a lot over the past week so
06:12
this kind of falls into line where you
06:13
see this alliance beginning to form
06:16
including israel and arab countries
06:20
uh who view turkey
06:24
greece of course and israel has said you
06:26
know we’ll stand by you greece in this
06:27
issue we’re on yours
06:29
and so you see this coalition kind of
06:31
forming around greece
06:33
to protect them against turkish
06:35
aggression so this
06:36
is this is an interesting change in in
06:39
what we had been seeing with now israel
06:42
who is of course another ally of the
06:43
united states
06:44
uh who’s now openly stating that turkey
06:47
is
06:48
an ongoing threat now president trump
06:50
just recently
06:51
praised erdogan for these hostages that
06:54
came out but i think what we see
06:55
there uh they were these were hostages
06:58
american hostages
06:59
being held by turkey and they were
07:01
arrested because essentially they were
07:03
christians
07:04
and pastors and people like that who
07:06
were forming christian churches in
07:08
in turkey and so that’s illegal for them
07:11
and so these guys are all arrested now
07:13
they’ve gotten these uh people out of
07:16
of jails in in turkey and brought them
07:18
back home
07:19
so he praised erdogan for being
07:21
cooperative on that which is fair but on
07:23
the other hand
07:24
it’s not lost on me or i’m sure it’s not
07:26
lost on president trump that
07:28
those guys were all arrested by turkey
07:30
in the first place
07:31
for what you know for being christian so
07:34
uh this is a real problem forming we can
07:36
see the radical islamic perspective
07:39
really beginning to blossom in turkey
07:42
and the real take-home point out of all
07:44
of this is
07:45
for everyone to remember is that that’s
07:48
what
07:49
turkey views is correct and right and
07:52
righteous
07:52
and justified and all of that are those
07:54
behaviors you know being a christian
07:56
trying to convert people to christians
07:58
is essentially
07:59
a death penalty for him and so he was
08:03
by erdogan from erdogan’s perspective
08:05
being extremely understanding to let
08:07
these people go but he at least got them
08:08
out of his country
08:10
and so could save face essentially that
08:12
way but then
08:13
viewing these territories which as i
08:15
said most of europe and most of
08:17
all of the arab countries and most of
08:20
the world around
08:22
uh turkey today’s turkey
08:25
he views those resources those things
08:27
those people
08:28
everything there as his and rightfully
08:31
his
08:31
and he’s going to get them back and
08:34
anything you know that works against
08:35
that is standing between
08:37
you know him and god’s will and
08:40
that you know that’s the simple truth of
08:42
it so i don’t think these negotiations
08:44
that germany is
08:45
is uh uh trying to conduct
08:48
to keep they keep peace between uh
08:53
greece and turkey uh
08:56
are are going to be successful i just
08:57
don’t see how this is going to work
08:59
because
08:59
like i said greece cannot just give up
09:03
this these territories to turkey and
09:05
turkey
09:07
things that rightfully they’re theirs so
09:09
you just have these opposite
09:10
perspectives
09:11
and he’s everyone wants that stuff he
09:14
wants those resources so
09:16
it’s not going to go away it’s not going
09:18
to change as long as erdogan is there
09:20
alive and kicking and in charge it’s
09:22
headed towards war in that region
09:24
so i don’t see it around it at this
09:26
point not saying that this is imminent
09:28
in the sense that
09:29
a naval war will erupt in the
09:31
mediterranean between greece and turkey
09:34
tomorrow but i am saying it’s more it’s
09:37
now become a question
09:38
of when not really a question of
09:41
if uh there are some other circumstances
09:45
there i’m oversimplifying of course but
09:47
uh if enough pressure can be brought to
09:48
bear by the united states and europe and
09:51
israel and other countries and and some
09:53
of the other arab countries
09:54
who also by the way view turkey as a
09:56
threat
09:57
uh you know if enough pressure can be
09:59
brought to bear by them you know you
10:01
might be able to curb them and keep them
10:02
in there keep them in a box
10:04
but that’s going to get tougher and
10:05
tougher and tougher and
10:07
erdogan has consolidated his control
10:09
inside turkey we’ve talked about all of
10:10
that in the
10:11
past and he needs those resources to
10:13
expand
10:14
much like i almost hate to make the
10:17
comparison but much like
10:18
why we saw japan go to war in world war
10:21
ii
10:21
they were very expansionist and they
10:24
needed those resources
10:26
from the expansion to continue the
10:27
expansion so
10:29
i i think that it’s it’s a similar logic
10:32
taking place in erdogan’s mind and and
10:35
he’s bound and determined to be the next
10:37
grand caliph so uh i see
10:40
dark clouds on the horizon we’ll see how
10:42
it turns out i wonder what the turkish
10:44
is for leban’s realm
10:46
um what so would you say the new axis
10:49
is china iran turkey
10:55
well now that is an interesting question
10:57
i
10:58
uh yes that if you want to continue the
11:02
comparison to world war
11:03
ii where we had the axis of
11:06
italy german the nazi party and the
11:09
japanese
11:10
uh imperial regime
11:13
yes i i that is a very interesting
11:16
comparison and certainly
11:18
bears some uh uh i think it would it
11:21
would be well worth
11:22
kind of looking at that from that
11:24
perspective because
11:26
certainly you’ve got china and iran and
11:28
turkey kind of
11:29
squaring off against similar enemies so
11:32
it would be sort of a natural
11:33
i would say in that uh once again it
11:36
would be kind of like the relationship
11:37
was with
11:38
uh you know the soviet union back in
11:41
world war ii because russia is sort of
11:42
the odd man
11:43
out uh you know they’re not a natural
11:45
ally necessarily
11:47
uh but they also have a number of
11:51
disputes with china they’re they’re they
11:53
certainly view each other’s competitors
11:55
just as russia views turkey is now
11:59
a competitor like i said they’ve had
12:00
wars through at least three major wars
12:02
in their history
12:04
and uh you know that that would be
12:06
certainly an
12:07
area where this whole thing could shape
12:09
up very similar to
12:10
what we saw between the axis and the
12:12
alliance in world war
12:13
ii uh with the soviet union then
12:17
russia now probably participating with
12:19
the alliance side
12:48
you
[/expander_maker]
