In Wake Of Failed Coup, Turkey Moves Closer To Russia, Discusses Pipeline, Syria, Better Relations

Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
August 11, 2016

The Turkish coup currently stands as one of the most initially confounding and confusing acts of political turmoil since the turn of the 21st century. Weeks after the coup was first attempted and eventually failed, many observers are still as ignorant of who was behind it as they were when the coup was actually happening in real time.

Regardless of who initiated the coup, it is now clear that Erdogan as a national political figure is stronger than he was immediately beforehand as he has used the coup as justification for a massive purge of political opposition, critics, dissidents, journalists, and military figures. Indeed, whether or not the U.S. or Erdogan himself was responsible for the coup, Erdogan is now stronger as a result of it.

Yet Erdogan’s position is not necessarily evidence of who was behind the coup. What will likely tell us the most regarding the guilty party is Erdogan’s reaction, despite there being a residual amount of anomalies surrounding the incident.

Having traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, the first face to face meeting between Erdogan and Putin since the shoot down of the Russian jet, it is now becoming increasingly clear that Erdogan is attempting to move closer to Russia, even as he holds the line with NATO and maintains his opposition to the secular government of Bashar al-Assad.

Despite the obvious disagreements between Russia and Turkey, the two have expressed a “renewed” interest in mending political and diplomatic fences in the wake of the failed coup. In addition, in the midst of the turmoil in Turkey, Russia expressed support for the “legitimate” government and refused to waver at any point.


Keep in mind, Erdogan’s Turkey had, in the weeks leading up to the coup, expressed greater tendency toward reconciliation with Russia both in terms of geopolitical issues as well as economic projects. After having apologized to Russia for the downing of a Russian jet, relations between the two countries seemed to warm despite the continuation of a deep rift between them on the issue of Syria and terrorism. With the issue regarding the shoot down of the Russian jet now largely solved, both Russia and Turkey are able to use the recent warming of relations to get back to business setting up and developing the Russia-Turkey gas pipeline. It is for this reason that some researchers have suggested that the United States is behind the Turkish coup, perhaps using Gulen as the battering ram against Erdogan so as to disrupt the potential Russia-Turkey cooperation and Turkey’s political move toward Russia.

Indeed, the question of the Turkish-Stream Pipeline was already on the docket for discussion between Putin and Erdogan in St. Petersburg. As Bloomberg reported on July 26,

Turkey confirmed interest in resuming the Turkish Stream gas-pipeline project, Alexander Medvedev, deputy chief executive officer of Gazprom PJSC, told reporters after taking part in talks between Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Zeybekci. A decision on an agreement will be made after Putin and Erdogan meet, he said. 

Russia shelved talks in December on the planned Black Sea link that would make Turkey a linchpin in Europe’s energy supplies by 2020, with Gazprom saying the route was still possible if political relations improved.

The St. Petersburg meeting has gone well enough indeed, with Russian President Putin stating to Erdogan that “Your visit today, despite a very difficult situation regarding domestic politics, indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between Russia and Turkey.”

“I know that I was one of the first who called you to express support regarding the crisis,” Putin stated. “I want to say once again that this is our principled position, we are against any unconstitutional actions.”

But there has now been more than mere rhetoric between Putin and Erdogan as both countries are now making plans to set up a series of “committees” to deal with the crisis in Syria. These committees are to begin meeting together almost immediately. As Anadolu Agency reports,

Turkey and Russia have formed new committees to discuss the Syrian crisis, which will meet for the first time in Moscow on Thursday, Turkey’s presidential spokesman said Wednesday. 

In remarks made to the Turkish A Haber TV, Ibrahim Kalin said orders to set up new committees to tackle the Syrian crisis were issued following the meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. 

"The presidents [of Russia and Turkey] gave an order yesterday [Tuesday] to set up again a trilateral mechanism, which would comprise of committees with representatives of intelligence, military and diplomatic representatives from each side. 

"I think the committee will go to Moscow today [Wednesday] night. The first meeting will be tomorrow [Thursday]," Kalin said. 

The spokesman said Turkey and Russia have opened a new chapter following the meeting between Erdogan and Putin in St. Petersburg. 

. . . . .

"We have opened a new chapter. This unwelcome incident had upset us. It was said [on Tuesday that both countries would remain] in close cooperation for avoiding such incidents. 

"In this context, our General Staff and Russian General Staff have set up a direct line again," Kalin said. 

He also said the Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov had also attended the meeting between Erdogan and Putin. "The chief of general staffs of our two countries are in very close cooperation."

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a propaganda outlet of the United States government even reported on the warming of relations between Russia and Turkey, going so far as to claim that the two countries share opinions on the need for a ceasefire in Syria and a political solution to the crisis. The agency stated,

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on August 10 that Ankara and Moscow share similar views on the need for a cease-fire in Syria, the provision of humanitarian aid, and a political solution to end the Syrian war. 

He said Turkey and Russia are building a "strong mechanism" for cooperation on Syria.

These recent developments (a greater trend toward Russia and continued shaky relations with Europe and the United States) tend to lend credence to claims by those suggesting that the coup was initiated by West (the United States in particular) as a response to Turkey’s recent warming of relations with Russia. These individuals claim that the U.S., in fear that they were losing an ally and useful pawn in the war against Syria to Russia, attempted to overthrow Erdogan and replace him with a more amenable government or, at the very least, frighten Erdogan into playing ball.

One such individual is researcher and analyst, Mimi al-Laham (aka Syrian Girl, Partisan Girl). She says,

“I don’t believe it [the coup] is [an inside job], the man had to go on FaceTime to tell his people to come out in the streets and protest, it was quite humiliating! The reason I don’t believe it was, it’s because a few days before the coup, about 4 days, Turkey started making statements that they were sorry for shooting down the Russian jet, and they wanted to re-affirm their alliance with Russia, and they wanted to get closer to their regional allies. This was like a few days or weeks after Brexit. Basically, the EU wasn’t the same EU anymore.. and the Turkey wasn’t desperate to join it any-more, so Turkey decided to maybe come up with a different Foreign Policy, and Turkey is also unhappy with the agenda to create a Kurdish state in Syria, because that is going to create a Kurdish state in Turkey as well, and of-course, it is going to displace the Christian and Syrian population in Syria as a result, but I guess those people don’t matter, as long as the agenda is pushed. 

But, Erdogan is / has been a criminal for the last 4 years, and there is no doubt that he has supported terrorism up until this day, but, he is not the biggest criminal: the biggest criminals were his puppet masters which were in the White House, because, obviously, those people are far more powerful, and those people – there is a lot of indication that it was actually the CIA that was behind it. There were reports that came out that Russia actually tipped off the Turks : the leader behind the coup is in Washington, and Washington has refused to extradite him. 

If you look at the Media, the Main Stream Media, for some reason, even though we have been calling Erdogan a terrorist supporter for ages, only now have they decided: “Yep! Oh yea, yea, he is a terrorist supporter.” 

France, just before the Nice attacks, or – I’m not quite sure but at-least before the coup, they shut down their Embassy in Turkey. I mean, France has made statements now that Erdogan can no longer be a partner against terror. It’s a joke, cause France itself has been openly arming terror for the last 4 years, and, of-course, so has Turkey : so what’s really going on is France is angry that Turkey is choosing to go a different way now, it’s leaning now towards trying to reverse the disaster it has created for itself, with this instability, with economic problems with Russia, taking advice and shooting down a Russian jet, all because they wanted to join the EU – which is on its way to collapsing.
This is how I read the situation, and I think that *the idea that they did it to themselves.. uhm, I think it comes from a hate and distrust of Erdogan, like a lack of understanding as to why sometimes puppets are just thrown away when they are no longer doing what they are told, or they are no longer useful – which – you know, it’s a confusing situation, but no, many people died, people are in exile, coup leaders are in jail, I don’t think he did it to himself, I think that Russia tipped him off about a CIA agent to get rid of him, and put in some-one else that was gonna maintain the status-quo, and not try to make friends with Russia.”

Still, as Tony Cartalucci writes in his article “Turkey’s Failed Coup A Gift From God,” if the United States was truly involved in the Turkish coup or even if the U.S. had merely facilitated the coup via the Gulen Movement, Turkey’s response has been “disproportionately subdued.” “No one is suggesting that Turkey would “go to war” with the United States,” writes Cartalucci, “but even amid diplomatic rows of far lesser significance, nations have expelled diplomats and withdrawn the use of their territory for specific uses by the nation in question. Turkey, so far, has done none of this in regards to the United States.”

If the U.S. was truly involved in the Turkish coup one would expect a number of actions to follow the incident. First, as Cartalucci suggests, we would expect to see the expulsion of diplomats and the expulsion of U.S. forces from Turkish territory, namely Incirlik Air Base. We would expect the closure of the rather large American embassy in Ankara. Likewise, Turkey would then be forced to rethink its membership in NATO since, despite the organization being based upon the concept of “collective defense,” no one came to Turkey’s aid even though the coup would be considered an overt act of war against the Turkish government. We would also expect to see Turkey move closer to Russia, Iran, and possibly China as well as some elements of Europe.

While international developments are clearly still in flux, we have seen at least some signs that Turkey is moving closer to Russia but, interestingly enough, signs that Turkey may be moving further away from Europe.

We are undoubtedly seeing the slow trend toward Russia but we are also witnessing a hesitance on the part of Turkey to pull too far away from the United States, at least right now. Whether the latter aspect of Turkish policy is simply shrewd politics and a desire not to burn too many bridges at once or at least before other bridges are built remains to be seen. Although we are still unaware of the full details of the Turkish coup, Erdogan’s behavior is beginning to point us in a general direction in terms of a reasonable hypothesis that it was, indeed, the United States in concert with Gulen who was behind this coup. Regardless, his behavior over the coming weeks and months will explain more.

Brandon Turbeville – article archive here – is the author of seven books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 andvolume 2, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, and The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President. Turbeville has published over 650 articles on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s radio show Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. His website is BrandonTurbeville.com He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.

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