Erdogan And The US-Israeli Demolition Of Syria: An Epic Betrayal?

Crescent International

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected Prime Minister of Turkey in 2003, and for the next seven years followed a “zero problems with neighbors” policy. Erdogan’s government refused to allow the US to use Turkish facilities for its criminal war of aggression against Iraq, and maintained cordial relations with neighboring countries including Iran and Syria.

Then around 2010, the zionist-occupied US, which had been taken over by neo-conservatives in Israel’s September 11 coup d’état, made Erdogan an offer he couldn’t refuse: join the coming US-Israeli regime change war on Syria, or else. The carrot: Turkey could recapture some of its Ottoman-era influence over Syria, strike a blow against Kurdish separatists, and augment its power in the region, especially vis-à-vis its biggest peer competitor, Iran.

Lucrative energy resources, including a potential pipeline from Qatar, were at stake, and Russia and Iran’s loss could be Turkey’s gain. The stick: Refusing Uncle Sam’s orders could provoke a coup or assassination, especially since the US was already annoyed at Erdogan for his opposition to the 2003 Iraq invasion.

Beginning in early 2011 the US sent Operation Gladio style terrorists to Syria and used CIA-asset NGOs to stage a color revolution according to Gene Sharp’s formula. By using US taxpayer money and social media incitement to provoke street demonstrations, then deploying Gladio-style rooftop snipers to fire on both police and demonstrators, convincing both sides that the other side was shooting at them, the CIA instigated huge waves of violent unrest.

Once the street battles were ongoing, the Americans sent in tens of thousands of terrorists, mercenaries, and combinations thereof. (The US-sponsored destabilization campaign was facilitated by the fact that genuine anti-Asad sentiment was widespread in many parts of Syria.)

The US war on Syria was sparked by neocon zionists in accordance with their Oded Yinon doctrine, according to which existing nation-states in the region should be balkanized into smaller ethnic and sectarian enclaves that would lack the power to resist Israeli expansion. So when Erdogan chose to support the US-zionist destruction of Syria, he joined forces with the very criminals he had refused to support in 2003 when the target was Iraq. What caused his change of heart?

The short answer: regional power politics. The US conquest of Iraq unintentionally increased the power of Iran and its allies in the Axis of Resistance, and Erdogan’s NATO-occupied Turkey unfortunately saw the Resistance Axis more as a rival than an ally.

Turkey and Iran are the two most influential Muslim-majority countries on the border of the Arab lands, the historical Muslim heartland, and both have historical reasons to position themselves as leaders of the Ummah: Turkey due to its hosting the final centuries of the 1300-year-old Caliphate, and Iran due to its 1979 Islamic Revolution, the high point of the modern Islamic Awakening. The history of hostilities between the Ottoman Empire and the Iranian Safavid and Qajar dynasties during their roughly 400 years of coexistence adds historical depth to the rivalry.

Tragically, Erdogan chose to betray the Axis of Resistance, and the Palestinian people, rather than support them, as he could and should have done in response to the Mavi Marmara incident on May 31, 2010. On that date the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish-based humanitarian aid ship, while seeking to break the zionist blockade of Gaza, was attacked in international waters by Israeli commandoes, who killed nine humanitarian aid workers and wounded 30.

The zionist entity’s unprovoked attack on an unarmed Turkish aid vessel was an act of war. Turkey should have declared war on “Israel” and invoked NATO’s Article 5, requiring the entire alliance to come to Turkey’s defense. When NATO refused, as it certainly would have given zionist control of the US, Turkey should have threatened to withdraw from NATO, seize American nuclear weapons from Incirlik Air Base, and form a new de facto alliance with Russia, Iran, and China.

The US would have then been forced to seek some kind of compromise, presumably involving an end to the blockade of Gaza, for which Erdogan could have taken credit. The popular adulation he would have received might have protected him from US-zionist retaliation.

But rather than defying the zionist terrorists, and making the Mavi Marmara massacre the historic turning point that it should have been, Erdogan joined their destroy-Syria campaign. What can explain such an epic betrayal?

Erdogan lacks the vision—and the charisma—to rise above the playing field of pragmatic power politics and take the risky, decisive, principled actions required by the Mavi Marmara crisis. He must have weighed his odds and decided that the time was not ripe for a potential break with the zionist terrorists and their captured American hegemon. Zionist infiltration of power centers in Turkey, including the armed forces, may have inspired his caution.

So Erdogan got back on board with the Zio-American Empire and its Oded Yinon-inspired regime change project in Syria, backing anti-Asad groups in loose collaboration with the Americans. But even that didn’t save him from the Empire’s wrath, perhaps because Erdogan, to his credit, was still seen as a potentially unruly vassal. On July 15, 2016 a US-sponsored coup attempt came close to ending Erdogan’s tenure and indeed his life. More than 250 Turks died in the street battles that erupted after the US-sponsored coup faction, led by CIA asset Fethullah Gulen, attacked the Turkish parliament and as the headquarters of the ruling AK party, and came close to shooting down Erdogan’s plane. Rumors that Russia saved Erdogan by warning him about the coming coup are plausible, and Turkish-Russian relations warmed significantly in the wake of Erdogan’s attempted overthrow.

Once again, Erdogan failed to capitalize on a historic opportunity to steer Turkey out of NATO and into the Axis of Resistance. By rousing his Turkish backers against the CIA coup attempt, and blaming the US regime—not just its pawn Fethullah Gulen—Erdogan could have generated popular support for a Turkish NEXIT (NATO exit). He could then have used Turkish power to strengthen the Resistance Axis and excise the zionist cancer from the Islamic heartland.

But Erdogan, who never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity, once again chose the middle ground of pragmatic wheeling and dealing, whose tawdry betrayals he disguised with bombastic rhetoric. Rather than chart a visionary course based on principle and faith in Allah (swt) the Turkish president chose to remain a mid-level player in cynical, Machievellian power games.

He is still playing that role at the beginning of 2025, as Turkey leads the ongoing destruction of Syria, once a key node in the Axis of Resistance to zionism. As usual, Erdogan talks a good game: “Israeli aggression, which constantly threatens peace and stability in the region, must be stopped before it is too late” the Turkish president told RAI Novosti. He has also stated that sooner or later, Israel will withdraw from the territories it has occupied by abusing the conditions in Syria—a “threat that should not be taken lightly” according to zionist media.

But there are no indications that Erdogan is planning to mobilize the military power that would be required to force the zionists out of Syria, convince them to end the genocidal mass slaughter of the people of Gaza, or compel them to abandon their Greater Israel project and associated plans to destroy the Aqsa mosque. Though Erdogan controls hundreds of times more military and economic power than Yemen’s Ansar Allah does, he has done hundreds of times less to support Palestine. Unlike the Yemenis, who fire missiles as well as words, Erdogan merely bombards Tel Aviv with vapidly bombastic rhetoric.

Will Erdogan go down in history as a great betrayer? That seems the most likely outcome of his current trajectory. But only Allah (swt) knows the secrets of hearts and the outcomes of complex events. So we should continue to hope and pray that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan somehow finds the strength to join the Resistance, defy and defeat the zionist Dajjal, and help save Palestine, the Ummah, and humanity.