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In difficult times, we refer to the advice of those who lived and handled difficult situations with Turkey. Because, as the late Greek diplomat and writer Vyron Theodoropoulos often said, history should not teach you what to do but what not to do. We are on the verge of some kind of incident, without anyone being able to predict what and when it will happen. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has too much invested to back down without losing face.

So previous experience has taught us what to do:

We should not be dragged into an escalation that is not planned and a foregone conclusion. Avoiding escalation is a great art. One wrong move, statement or decision can push into a spiral of endless actions and counteractions. We are supposed to have learned our lesson after the 1996 Imia crisis. Nothing can simply be left to chance.

We should know exactly what our key partners and allies are thinking and planning to do in the event of an incident. This is not easy either. But since we have paid dearly many times for this lack of knowledge in the past, it is absolutely crucial. We need straight talk, even if it displeases us. It is better to know the truth and the limits of each allys reaction than to be unpleasantly surprised.

All main players must speak the same language, be able to communicate without quarreling or personal agendas which is something we paid dearly for in Imia. And of course we must put aside partisan and personal issues for a while, because without a solid domestic political front one cannot go very far.

We must keep some elementary channels of communication open with the other side. Erdogan is burning bridges and making it difficult. It requires perseverance because without such channels it will be very difficult to ease tensions.

All of the above may be unnecessary remarks and it may turn out that we are going through another rhetorical and psychosomatic outburst of a very cornered and arrogant leader. But Erdogan may face the consequences of historic hubris, which could happen through his relationship with Greece.

So lets be prepared, just in case. And lets not underestimate the accident that can blow everything up. It happens in the most organized countries when everything is blurred by the fog of an escalating crisis. As former foreign minister Petros Molyviatis often points out to us with his great wisdom, do not always seek to find something deep or complicated behind a mistake. It may just be a mistake. Eyes open, then.

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Erdogans hubris and accidents - Kathimerini English Edition

ISTANBUL

Turkeys export will exceed the targeted $250 billion at the end of 2022, President Recep Tayyip Erdoan has said, stressing that the existing growth-based economic model will continue to be decisively implemented.

The global health crisis followed by security crisis are making our job in terms of becoming a manufacturing hub easier. In this picture, the country that comes to the fore is Turkey. We understand that our export will exceed $250 billion, our target for 2022, Erdoan said at a meeting on the occasion for distributing awards to investors in Istanbul on June 13.

The meeting was organized by Turkeys Exporters Assembly (TM).

The first quarter has shown an increase beyond expectations in the exports figures thanks to the efforts and works by the TM, Erdoan stated.

Export figures exceeding $250 billion will make Turkey one step closer to fulfilling the 2023 targets, the president said.

Global economic problems, uncertainties and currency fluctuations also has impact on Turkey, Erdoan stressed, citing the rising cost of life in the country.

This is the empty part of the glass, but we should also look at the full part of the glass, he said, underlining economic and democratic development of Turkey in the past 20 years under his rule.

We will do everything so that our country takes more share from $100 trillion global markets.

Turkey has always been the target of some powers who wanted to stop its economic growth, and these efforts have been much more visible in the past decade, Erdoan said.

The government will not allow high interest rates but will focus on growing the economy and employment by boosting production, the president noted.

We will surely compensate the loss of our peoples prosperity. We will decisively implement the Turkish economic model based on employment, production, investment and export.

Erdogan,

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Turkeys 2022 exports will exceed $250 billion target: Erdoan - Hurriyet Daily News

Although there is no mention of the Armenian-Turkish negotiations, that could also be impacted because they were initiated upon the demand of President Joe Biden. When we see the toughening of Turkeys bargaining position, we will know where Ankara is coming from.

When asked on May 18 how he would convince President Erdogan to drop his objection against Finland and Sweden joining NATO, President Biden answered, Im not going to Turkey, but I think were going to be OK.

But it looks like everything will not be okay, because among other thing, Erdogan savors public attention and wants to be treated by all US officials like he was treated in the Trump era. Erdogan has even complained to reporters that he and President Biden dont have the kind of relationship he had with Presidents Trump and Obama. Of course, there are some meetings from time to time, but they should have been more advanced, he said.

Erdogan would like to get away with murder, in view of the Wests economic sanctions against Russia. Indeed, Turkeys business community is hard at work at this time negotiating trade deals with their Russian counterparts to replace Western companies, which have severed their relations with Russia.

Erdogans macho stand against the West will garner the most dividends on the domestic front. He needed this confrontation to boost his sagging popularity at home in time for the 2023 elections, where his prospects of winning are dimming in light of the runaway inflation.

Mr. Erdogan fails to see the negative, bullying image that he is projecting to the West. Even if he is cognizant of that less-than-complimentary image, he seems not to care.

In an opinion piece written by Joseph Lieberman, the former US Senator from Connecticut, he argues that Mr. Erdogans Turkey would flunk the alliances standards for democratic governance sought in prospective new member states. The essay, which was published in the Wall Street Journal, warned that Ankaras policies, including coziness with Putin, had undermined NATOs interests and the alliance should explore ways of ejecting Turkey.

Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in 2019, after Turkeys incursion into Syria, Turkey under Erdogan should not and cannot be seen as an ally.

Despite those characterizations, Ankara has been selling a bill of goods to the Europeans, extending its repressive rule to that continent.

During Erdogans rule, Turkey has carried out political activities in Germany and the Netherlands, trying to politicize and mobilize Turkish minorities living in those two countries, over the objections of the respective governments of those countries. It had extended the bloody hands of the deep state and the dreaded secret service, MIT, to commit high-profile political assassinations of female Kurdish leaders in Paris in 2013.

Despite such criminal conduct being launched by Turkey in Europe, Mr. Erdogan has issued this admonishment: Let me underscore it once again hereby. Those who back and provide every kind of support to terrorist organizations that pose a threat to Turkey should first of all abandon their unlawful, insincere and arrogant attitude towards us. May no one have any doubts whatsoever that we as Turkey will do our part once we see concrete practices indicating such a change.

Turkey itself is a terrorist state and because of political expediency, has convinced European Union countries to place the PKK on their list of terrorists. Twenty-five percent of Turkeys population consists of Kurds who have been denied their basic human rights; they have been systematically slaughtered by successive Turkish administrations. Article 64 of the Sevres Treaty (August 10, 1920) promised a homeland to the Kurds within the current territory of Turkey; that pledge has not been fulfilled yet. The Kurds have been subjected to mass murder from the Ataturk era to Erdogans administration. The most atrocious mass murders took place in the 1930s in Dersim.

Erdogan himself duped the Kurdish minority by feigning to hold negotiations to observe their human rights and as soon as he was elected with the support of Kurdish voters, he suspended the negotiations and resorted back to the persecution of the Kurdish minority. He even stripped the parliamentary immunity of members including Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag and jailed them. And today, with a straight face, he is accusing Europeans of harboring Kurdish terrorists.

With heavy-handed tactics, Erdogan has intimidated political leaders both in Europe and Russia and has been able to push his expansionist policies.

While Erdogan is playing hardball with the major powers, hopefully he wont focus on Armenia, which is not in the same league as the latter.

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Erdogan the Bully - The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

ISTANBUL, May 31 (Reuters) - Turkish police clashed with protesters around Istanbul's main Taksim Square on Tuesday and 170 people were detained as they gathered to mark the anniversary of nationwide anti-government demonstrations that began nine years ago in nearby Gezi Park.

The 2013 demonstrations were the biggest popular challenge to then-Premier Tayyip Erdogan's rule. Erdogan, who is now president, has equated the protesters with Kurdish militants and those accused of orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016.

A Turkish court sentenced eight people to jail last month, including philanthropist Osman Kavala, finding them guilty of organising and financing the so-called Gezi protests. read more

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They denied the charges, saying anti-government demonstrations erupted spontaneously nationwide and were protected by constitutional rights.

Some 1,000 people gathered on streets near Taksim Square on Tuesday evening, carrying pictures of those who were sentenced to jail.

They also held up pictures of those who died when police intervened in 2013, as well as a banner reading, "The darknes will go away, Gezi will remain."

The crowds were blocked by riot police carrying shields when they attempted to walk to Taksim Square and the main Istiklal Avenue. They also used tear gas to disperse the groups.

"Erdogan is going to go. There is no other way," the protesters chanted.

Earlier, smaller groups of people clashed with police in other areas near Taksim as they attempted to walk to the square.

Social media posts showed people hiding in a building after being affected by the tear gas and police standing outside the shuttered doors.

Istanbul governor's office said 170 people were detained on Tuesday. It said the protests were unauthorised and the Beyoglu area was not designated by law as a place where demonstrations and marches can take place.

Earlier in the day, members of parliament from the Workers' Party of Turkey (TIP) hung a giant banner from one of the bridges spanning the Bosphorus.

After a scuffle, police took down the banner that read "Everywhere is Taksim, everywhere is resistance" - a popular slogan during the 2013 protests.

Ankara's Western allies, rights groups and Europe's top human rights court say last month's court decision and jailings were politically motivated and meant to intimidate Erdogan's opponents.

Critics say the verdict was aimed at criminalising Gezi and creating the perception that protesters were funded by foreign powers.

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Reporting by Umit Bektas; Writing by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Nick Macfie and David Gregorio

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Turks clash with police on anniversary of anti-Erdogan 'Gezi' protests - Reuters

[Presidential Press Service via AP, Pool]

The Turkish opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) has expressed its agreement with the recent government escalation vis--vis Greece and indicated that it would support President Recep Tayyip Erdogan if he decided to go through with a threat to challenge the sovereignty of Greek islands in the eastern Aegean.

If you have the heart for it, take the step on the occupied and armed islands. We will support you, CHP chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu was quoted by Turkish media as saying in response to one of a series of questions posed to him by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) at the Grand National Assembly on Wednesday.

It is imperative that we increase the pressure in the Mediterranean and the Aegean, he said.

These things arent handled by sending out a ship, then pulling I back and saying: I wish Biden would call me, he added, in reference to US President Joe Biden.

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Turkish opposition backs Erdogan over Greek island claims - Kathimerini English Edition