Turkey continues to walk the tightrope in its foreign policy between the West and its enemies, playing the card of the pretentious neutral in practice.
Thus we have the oxymoron of, on the one hand, its Parliament voting in favour of Sweden's accession to NATO, strengthening it in exchange for the sale of 40 F-16 BLOCK-70 F-16s by the United States, and a day later the Turkish President receiving his Iranian counterpart in Ankara, with whom he has concluded multiple agreements aimed at strengthening relations between the two countries.
Iran is not just any country, but is an enemy both of NATO, to which Turkey belongs, supplying Russia with drones which the latter is using massively in Ukraine, and of the US from which Erdogan is demanding to take the F-16s.
Erdogan promotes cooperation with Iran despite Western sanctions
Referring to Iranian President Raisi's visit to Turkey, ANADOLU News Agency in an article points out among other things:
"President Erdogan stressed Turkey-Iran cooperation to promote development, stability in the region.
"We have not and will not terminate our economic and trade relations with our neighbor Iran due to sanctions," Erdogan said in a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi shortly after their meeting and signing 10 agreements.
Erdogan stressed that the improvement of bilateral relations will not only benefit the two countries, but the entire region.
This includes strengthening banking and customs cooperation, along with cooperation in the fields of gas, energy, electricity, transit and the development of border trade.
Turkey is "determined to achieve the $30 billion trade target with Iran," he asserted.
Pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic and the sanctions imposed against Iran as the reasons why economic and trade relations have declined over the past two years, Erdogan stressed that the effects of these are still continuing, even though the coronavirus has lagged behind.
Modernisation of border gates - Bilateral trade
"As two neighboring countries, we attach great importance to activities in the border areas and infrastructure here for the development of our trade with Iran," the Turkish president said.
"When the modernization work we started at the Gurbulak-Bazargan border gate is completed, the Esendere and Dilucu customs gates will be relaxed and Gurbulak will provide high-capacity services.
"The issue of opening new border points with Iran is also on our agenda," he said.
"Efforts to establish border trade centers to increase the economic development of our border provinces are also underway."
"According to data from our Ministry of Commerce, our contracting companies have undertaken 56 projects totaling $4.6 billion in Iran so far," he said, adding: "While many Western companies have left Iran due to sanctions, 200 of our companies have chosen to remain in Iran despite all the difficulties."
Expressing Ankara's expectation of Tehran to take "concrete steps" to solve the problems facing Turkish companies in Iran, Erdogan said: "I believe this will open the way for more investment from Turkey in Iran."
"We will also encourage our companies to make more investments in Iran as part of a win-win approach," he said.
Turkish aid to Gaza
The Turkish president also discussed Israel's ongoing war in Gaza.
Citing Palestinian victims, Erdogan said: "The people of Gaza have been victims of an atrocity that will go down in human history as a disgrace."
"We have seen the real faces of those who have been teaching the world about human rights and democracy for decades together in this process," he said.
Underscoring Turkey's stance on the issue from the beginning, he noted: "With Egypt's support, we have so far sent 17 planes and five ships filled with humanitarian aid supplies to El-Arish."
"So we have sent more than 30,000 tons of relief materials, including 26,000 tons of flour, to the region to be delivered to our brothers in Gaza," he said, adding: "We are hosting 380 patients and 344 injured escorts in Turkey and providing treatment for them."
Erdogan wants to put Israel in the dock for war crimes against Palestinians
"We support the steps taken in the field of international law to prevent Israel from getting away with its war crimes," he stressed.
"The victory in this process will be of our Palestinian brothers and sisters," he said.
He added that the issue is in the focus of both Ankara and Tehran.
"We are working and will work with all our forces to stop the massacres, establish a ceasefire and pave the way for permanent peace in the region," he said.
Raisi cites "dysfunctionality" of international organisations
Raisi praised bilateral cooperation between the two neighbouring countries.
Regarding Israel's war in Gaza, the Iranian leader criticised the US support for Israeli decisions, as well as the "dysfunctionality" of international institutions, including the UN.
"At a time when international institutions are losing their ability to function, we must definitely strive for a new and just world order," he said.
He stressed to the international community that "breaking political and economic ties with the Zionist regime will be a deterrent to ending these Zionist killings."
The health ministry in the blockaded Gaza Strip said Wednesday that the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since Oct. 7 has risen to 25,700.
The ministry said in a statement that 63,740 others were also wounded.
About 85 percent of Gazans have been displaced and the health system is collapsing. Hundreds of thousands of people are living without shelter and fewer than half as many aid trucks are entering the area as before the conflict began."
"They are laughing" at US-NATO tolerance towards Turkey
Finally, Erdogan's insolence towards the West has no limit, since even the stones are laughing at the US-NATO's tolerance of Turkey.
It is at least inconceivable that the Turkish President on the one hand asks for F-16 fighters from the USA, due to the acceptance by his country's Parliament of Sweden's entry into NATO, and on the other hand develops new partnerships with Iran, a mortal enemy of the Alliance and the West, which on the one hand equips Russia with drones with which the latter is mercilessly pounding Ukraine and on the other hand, through its six wings in the Middle East, is also a fighter aircraft. East, Houthi-Hezbollah-Hamas-Syria, threatens to blow up the region.
Will Erdogan's highly provocative stance be "rewarded" by the sale of F-16s by the US?
If so, then the US-NATO-West is worthy of our fate.
