Turkey believes Washington deceived it: Egyptian political analyst
WASHINGTON, USA (North Press) – Egyptian political analyst Hind al-Dawi said Erdogan is exploiting western agendas and Turkey's long-standing relationship with these countries to implement his own project of restoring the old or creating a new Ottoman empire, which explains his alliance with the nationalists in Turkey and the coup against Turkish understandings and agreements with the Kurds.
Al-Dawi said in an interview with North Press that Turkey believes it was deceived by the United States when they supported and armed the Kurds in northeastern Syria, failed to respond to Erdogan's demand from Washington to hand over Fethullah Gulen (a Turkish Islamic scholar once aligned with the Turkish government, but now living in exile) to Turkey, and failed to give Turkey the Patriot missile system. Thus, Turkey has been looking for alternatives, including the alliance with Russia.
She described the situation in Libya as very dangerous in light of Turkey's moves toward Sirte and al-Jufra, the two areas that Egypt considers a red line for Egyptian national security, a step that Egypt had warned against and expressed its intention to interfere in Libya if these lined were crossed. Egypt indicated it could intervene militarily in Libya, arming and supporting tribes to counter the Turkish interference.
The Egyptian parliament made this decision in a secret session on Monday evening, granting approval for the intervention of the Egyptian armed forces to protect Egyptian national security against the background of the situation in Libya.
According to al-Dawi, Erdogan's move to invade Libya came at a time when Turkey and its forces were besieged in Idlib. Turkey tried to turn the tables on Russia in order to escape defeat in Syria.
"The US role in the past is to try to mitigate Russian influence in the region through the Turkish role and the stated position of the Pentagon and the US State Department," she said.
Turkey has been seeking for a long time to annex the Syrian north to its modern state, which was rejected by Britain in the past. Ankara is trying to impose this today by exploiting the conditions of the region to control not only northern Syria, but also in all important areas, especially the water sources in North Africa and the Arabian Gulf region, according to al-Dawi.
"That's why we see Turkey in Libya, the Horn of Africa, and the Arabian Gulf, trying to control the land as much as possible to control the political decisions of these countries," she said.
[reporting by Hadeel Oueiss, editing by Lucas Chapman]