1 week ago
21
It is indispensable successful planetary affairs to cognize and understand who you’re dealing with, to cognize however they think, however they see, and what they expect from you. In the lawsuit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for example, the alteration has been tremendous and it intelligibly determines however helium acts toward Greece.
My archetypal content of him was that of a fashionable person listening to the concerns of a vicinity while drinking tea successful an flat successful a working-class building. A much striking content is that of Erdogan sitting successful a country with his advisers astatine an planetary forum, not speaking English, and being ignored by everyone.
A batch has changed since those days. Spending each time surviving and working successful a spot similar the Turkish Presidential Palace unsocial is capable to earnestly change the way you view the world. Turkey has changed radically under Erdogan’s rule. Its economy, defence industry, strategic role, colonisation – everything has changed. Its geopolitical chessboard has expanded to see Africa and the Middle East. Erdogan besides sees himself arsenic adjacent to the likes of Trump, Putin and Xi, while regarding the leaders of the European Union with comparative indifference, having already seen galore counterparts travel and go. We should besides adhd to this his cognition that helium present afloat controls his state and faces nary opposition.
All of these factors person understandably influenced the way helium views Greece. The asymmetry, unfortunately, is evident successful galore areas. It was not similar this 20 oregon 30 years ago. And, astir likely, the asymmetry will proceed to turn implicit time, unless Turkey succumbs to hubris, overreaching its strength and experiencing a collapse.
In the caput of Erdogan and the caller Turkish elite, notions we see wholly outrageous are regarded arsenic perfectly normal. One illustration is the conception of a clump of Greek islands within the Aegean country they assertion arsenic their own. This “cluster” would see each the Greek islands lying eastbound of the so-called median enactment that, according to Turkish demands, would disagreement the Aegean successful two. This and different such concepts are seen arsenic wholly logical successful the Turkish mindset, which, moreover, cannot grasp why they are not considered arsenic self-evident successful ours.
Let’s carnivore each of this successful caput when trying to analyse why Erdogan acts arsenic helium does.
Greek (GR) · 
English (US) ·