Cyprus-Forum.com

[Jerry]

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, has hit out at US and UK calls for military intervention in the Libya crisis, warning that would be an “absurdity” for the Nato alliance to intervene in the region.

Turkey has the second largest standing army in the 28-member Nato defence alliance and has an increasingly influential voice in the Middle East, where its growing economic weight has helped it renew old ties with its neighbours.

Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, a permanent member of the UN security council, also ruled out the idea of a no-fly zone on Tuesday. But Mr Erdogan’s comments suggest it could be difficult for a western military operation to be conducted under Nato auspices. Nato tends to take decisions on military action by consensus. If it is unable to reach this consensus, the US and UK may be forced to mount a no-fly zone using an informal coalition of willing states.

France also expressed doubts about about military intervention, stressing that humanitarian aid and cutting off Col Gaddafi’s income sources should be the priorities.

Mr Erdogan, who faces the additional embarrassment of having accepted a human rights prize from Mr Gaddafi in December, has been careful to distance Turkey from western policies in the region. He said on Monday any form of sanctions or intervention could endanger the lives of Libyans and foreigners still in the country and he suggested that western governments were motivated more by calculations over oil than humanitarian concerns.

“The Middle East and Africa have been viewed by the west as sources of oil and used as pawns in oil wars for decades,” he said in Germany, claiming western double standards over human rights had driven protesters onto the streets.

Such rhetoric plays well with voters at home, where anti-American sentiment has strengthened in recent years, and opposition to Israeli policies in Gaza has hardened.

Turkey’s resistance to financial sanctions against Libya is also consistent with the position it took last year towards Iran, when defied Washington to vote against UN sanctions targeting Tehran’s nuclear programme.

“Any type of sanctions or intervention that would punish the Libyan people is unacceptable and would cause massive problems,” Mr Erdogan said at the conference.”

A Turkish diplomat also compared the rejection of military intervention to Ankara’s position in 2003, when parliament voted to refuse American troops use of Turkish territory for the invasion of Iraq – a decision that caught the west by surprise, but bolstered Turkey’s diplomatic credibility as an independent player in the region.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), on Tuesday accused Mr Erdogan of “double standards”, wanting democracy for Egypt but not for Libya.

“When we look at the Middle East, we are not among those who look at its oil,” Mr Erdogan said. “We say democracy, human rights, justice, law… Whatever we say in Cairo, we say also in Tripoli. We do not get involved in anyone’s internal affairs.”

Undisclosed source

[jahitty]

As time goes on erdogan's delusions of grandeur increase alarmingly, his rant about Turkish immigrants to Germany were equally ridiculous, however we should expect to hear more of this rhetoric as we near the Turkeish elections.

[Cap]

good, let them isolate themselves further.
More please.

[ZoC]

i'm telling u, this guy's more deluded than gadaffi...

[georgios100]

Erdogan better shut his mouth & stop making a fool of him self. Can't believe this guy is in charge of 80 million Turks... might loose the elections with blunders like that. Last thing we need is the deep state taking over.

On the other hand, Qaddafi is exempt... already lost every bit of legitimacy in Libya.