Quote function fucked. SNAFU.
Main reason Turkey is in NATO was obsolete long before the Soviet Union fell anyways, the US needed a place that could hit deep within the Russian heartland with missiles, IRBMs and ICBMs wouldn't exist for another few years and even then, would still have some significant drawbacks for another several years, so the primary nuclear delivery system was still bombers which were much easier to intercept. Turkey was basically the perfect place for them.
But you repeat myself!
I didn't know that.
That's the thing of being the absolute fucking ground zero center of the world's land mass. It's easier to hit anything from there. Who wouldn't want their missiles stationed there. Shorter range to go, quicker to hit. This is Turkey's major geopolitical advantage and why it has been taken so seriously on the world stage by much bigger players.
Still, didn't know that little factoid, so thank you.
But it's not just stationing and putting missiles within Turkey's land mass. It's almost as much about them allowing their neighbors to have said missiles stationed there, right next to their borders. They can always cry "But they are threatening us" or whatever side they happen to be on today or tomorrow. And they will always have a good argument. They are the joker in the pack of Geopolitical relations and as such, that may actually make them the only truly Neutral country on Planet Earth. Because they have to be. No matter what bluff and bluster they give out.
It's turning out that the Finns and the Swedes maybe aren't so neutral after all.
It's an inverse and somewhat perverse turn of events. Finland and Sweden are a big major buffer. Even I can see why Russia might be threatened by them joining Nato. I don't think that Sweden or Finland thinks it's going to be invaded any time soon, but strike while the iron is hot! Now is too good an opportunity to let pass. Russia can do little at the moment. It is stretched strategically and also politically and 'optics wise'.
Never forget that the West (UK/USA et al) turn a blind eye to the atrocities (and I'm not just talking about their haircuts, though, my good god!) that go on in Turkey, just so they can have 'their boy' in the region. Erdogan is their boy. He thinks he's the pimp, but he's more pimped out than anything else.
This game has been played for a long time now. Everyone knows their position, but still, just like copyright and trademark law or wtf, you have to defend it periodically or you won't have a greater claim when it comes to going to court. You have to defend what is yours, when it's not even being threatened. And you have to threaten other countries, even when they aren't trying to attack you. This is the game of Geopolitics to an extent. but to a greater extent it's the game that Turkey plays. Then again, everyone who is a player at
that table knows
their game.
All that being said, Turkey lies at the center of the greatest land mass on Planet Earth.
Earth is 70 percent water/ocean.
You have the continents of North/South America (Canada - 2nd Largest country by land mass) *, and they do take up a lot. Then you have Australia, that takes up a lot again.
*
But Russia is the biggest country on Planet Earth. And on that continent you also have China. You also have India. Oh, and you also have fucking Europe!
And right in the very center of that land mass is Turkey. Equidistant to all points in Russia, China, India, oh, and fucking Europe!
You do the math. This isn't 5D chess. It's basic 2D Chess game.
Turkey has been negging the West, Russia, Arabs, for as long as it got recognized as such - the major InCel player in this game of wider Geopolitics. And as much as everyone would like to wipe it off the map, none can, because it not only means too much to each country, geopolitically, but it means too much to the other countries geopolitically.
Let's face it. You'd love to kick that little bitch dog over the fence in a rugby punt when it starts snapping at your heals. But you can't. Either because the owner is a big hairy brute of a bastard, or it's some little old lady who has a mean old Alsatian walking with it, and you know, well, maybe next time... Sometimes both.
Ironically, this counter-weight, this gimbal, right at the center of gravity of where it's needed most, provides some kind of stability,
when it is needed most. And everyone turns a blind eye and pretends to take notice when the dog yaps. Throw it another bone FFS. The little doggie just wants everyone to know
I'm here I'm here look at me.
So they pat it on the head, give it another concession, turn another blind eye (to shit like torture).
But it's not purely attention seeking. It's a little Geopolitical reminder that they are treacherous cunts and will turn on a sixpence/dime to either protect themselves, or get a better deal.
In this way, they may ironically be the only neutral war-mongering country on earth.
This whole Turkey thing will be forgotten in a bit. Forgive the sperg out.
It'll be back to the other battle lines being drawn and redrawn very soon.
I don't see any other way this can play out without it becoming a major World War, very soon.
