The Turkey weakness strategy

David Goldman:Turkey blackmails Europe with its own instability

This is the sort of thing that happens in Mel Brooks movies, but not–at least until now–in geopolitics: Turkey’s claim upon the support of Western Europe comes from its own propensity to collapse. If it does so, the Europeans fear, the refugee stream that inundated Europe during 2015 will acquire another zero. That is why West Germany is willing to humiliate itself in order to prop up the regime of Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Europe is paying Erdogan to stop the flow of refugees, which Erdogan has threatened to accelerate if his demands are not met. Erdogan’s negotiating stance recalls Brooks’ 1974 comedy “Blazing Saddles,” where a black sheriff turns back a lynch mob by putting a gun to his own head and threatening to pull the trigger.
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I have used a similar argument against Donald Trump's trade policy.  It is an apt argument for Turkey too.  It is ironic that an Islamist strongman and despot has reduced his country to playing the weakness card.

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