Assessing the Sultan (Erdogan)
Egypt is the queen of the maritime Silk Roads, and Turkey is the queen of the territorial Silk Roads. They have always been. I mean these pieces of land whatever they were called.
Map 1
It is not a coincidence that Turkey, together with Iran and Qatar, did everything she could to bring to power the Egyptian Islamists, and they finally did it, by spending huge amounts of money, and by promising everything to the Egyptian people. Mohamed Morsi became President of Egypt in 2012, and he immediately received in Egypt, and he treated him like a Sultan. Morsi also invited the Iranian President. It was the first visit of an Iranian President to Egypt since the rise of the Iranian Islamists in 1979. Morsi also made clear that he would revoke the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
Everything was going according to the plans of the Sultan. The Sultan was creating his Islamic Union. An Islamic version of the Soviet Union, with Erdgoan in the role of the Sultan. The Sultan would control all the Silk Roads.
The Sultan would send the natural gas and oil of the Middle East and the Caspian Sea to Europe through Turkey, and the Islamic Union would make sure that this time the crusaders (European) would pay fair prices to the Mulsim people. There would be no more exploitation of the Muslim People from the crusaders. The Islamic Union would also be able to fight the infidels (Russians).
The Chinese, the Indians and the Japanese would have to ask the Sultan if they wanted to send their merchandizes to Europe, either through Egypt or through Turkey, and the Sultan would tell them what a fair price would be. A price that would not exploit the Muslim people.
And the same would be true if the crusaders (Europeans) wanted to send their merchandizes to Asia. Everybody would pay fair prices, and the Sultan would distribute the wealth equally to the Muslim people.
Map 2
It was a simple plan. A very simple plan. Egypt would take Israel, with the help of Turkey and Iran, and Turkey would take Syria, with the help of the Sunni majority, which would revolt against the Alawite regime which was cooperating with the infidels (Russians). This plan did not scare the Americans as one would have expected.
However in Syria there was the problem with Iran, because Iran did not want the Sultan to control all the trade routes, and they wanted some control for themselves. They were selfish. If you want a real cartel you need to have one ruler. But the alliance of the Iranians with the Russians only made things worse.
Moreover there were problems with the Saudi King, because the Saudi King was also selfish, and he wanted to be the leader of the Sunni world too. And the Sultan finally went to a war with Russia, Iran, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria. It was a simple plan, a very ambitious plan, which seemed to start falling apart. If only the Sultan had more power….And if only the other Muslim leaders were not selfish…
But one could argue that the Sultan has achieved a great deal. That is if one does not take into account the price paid by the Turkish people. The Sultan was close to his Islamic Union.
An Egyptian-Israeli war would broke out at some point, if the Saudis and the UAE hadn’t helped the Egyptian socialists to overturn the Islamists.
Moreover Erdogan almost convinced Iran and Qatar to send natural gas to Turkey, from their huge gas field (South Pars/ North Fields). And all three countries were supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Saudi Arabia against the Saudi King.
Erdogan also managed to gain influence in the Turkic nations i.e. Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgistan, and even to put pressure on China by supporting the Islamists of the Chinese Muslim province of Xin Jiang.
Erdogan helped the Sunnis of Syria to revolt, and he opened a Sunni corridor to the Persian Gulf, which had been closed 100 years ago during the First World War.
Erdogan managed to convince Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and possibly other Muslim countries, to pay Turkey huge sums of money.
Unfortunately all these were achieved by going to a war with Russia, Iran, Syria, Israel, Egypt, and by paying the price of a revolt at the Kurdistan of Turkey. Moreover the Sultan almost caused a civil war in Turkey, between Turkish socialists and Turkish Islamists, and at the same time he flooded the Turkish economy with Turkish liras, in order to finance his deficits, and he created a bubble economy. What the Sultan achieved was impressive. At least if you are not a Turkish citizen you are impressed. And he is still there. We don’t know what else he is capable of. There might be more of that….
In the begining I mentioned Egypt’s importance for Turkey, and as a final word I must mention Israel’s importance for Egypt. Israel has managed to cooperate with the Egyptian socialists, but the truth is that for Egypt Israel is a wound. With their Eilat port in the Red Sea the Israelis bypass the Suez Canal and they reduce Egypt’s importance in the maritime Silk Roads.
If Egypt was to take Israel Egypt would be the queen of the maritime Silk Roads, and if Turkey was to take Egypt Turkey would be the queen of all the Silk Roads. That is if Turkey also managed to conquer Syria. And Erdogan almost did it.
Map 3
