There is a passage in the classic "Han Feizi" of the Chinese Warring States period: The country is small and not humble, the strength is small and not afraid of the strong, the rude and insulting neighbor, the greedy and clumsy, but also the death. In Han Feizi's time, the most suitable for this sentence was the Song Kingdom, which attacked everywhere with the size of small and medium-sized princes, and was eventually divided up by the major powers;
In recent history, this sentence is more appropriate for the west to harass Germany and the east to provoke the Soviet Union, and eventually to be divided by the united partition. In contemporary international politics, the one that best meets this criterion of subjugation is Turkey, the successor of the Ottoman Empire.
During this time, Turkey became the focus of international politics. First, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shelled the UNITED Nations Security Council in public, saying that the five permanent members of China, the United States, Russia, Britain, and France are "a handful" of countries that are not qualified to decide the fate of mankind, and demand that the veto power of the five major powers be revoked; on the 21st, he criticized the 10 countries led by the United States for interfering in Turkey's internal affairs, shelling them for not being qualified to point fingers at Turkey, and even threatening to take action against the ambassadors of these countries and issue an "eviction order."
Erdogan's so-called "interference in internal affairs" refers to a joint statement issued by the embassies of these Western countries on the 18th, urging Turkey to immediately release Turkish businessman Kavala. The person was accused by the Turkish government of participating in the 2016 attempted military coup against Erdogan, and has been detained by the Turkish government for a long time.
Western countries are already good at taking care of other people's business, and countries have long been accustomed to it. It is reasonable to say that Erdogan is also an old fritter in politics, and there is another important reason for such a big reaction this time, that is, to play on the topic and repay the United States with an arrow of revenge. Erdogan's greatest political enemy was Gulen and the Gulen movement he led.
The Gulen movement has a strong influence in the global Muslim world and is the only political faction in Turkey capable of competing with Erdogan. According to the data, in 2017 alone, the Turkish government announced that more than 4,400 people were associated with the "Gulen Movement", which was spread across various key departments such as the Turkish Ministry of Education, Gendarmerie Headquarters, General Security Directorate, and The Interior Ministry, and its leader Gulen has been living in the United States since 1999.
Erdogan aspires to be the leader of the Muslim world, so the Gulen movement is the target he must eliminate, and the long-term asylum of Gulen by the United States has made Erdogan furious. In the Middle East, a small place, Turkey is a big country, but in the face of a more domineering United States than it is, there will not be much to do for a while.
In fact, Erdogan is not the only political enemy in the country, gulen, and the new canal in Istanbul, which he has advocated since 2011, is also the focus of opposition from political opponents. The planned canal, located on the west side of Istanbul and connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, has been controversial in Turkey, but erdogan announced official construction in June.
Before construction began, more than 100 retired Turkish generals issued a joint statement opposing the construction of the canal, and Erdogan ordered the arrest of 10 retired admirals. Erdogan had many reasons for building Istanbul's new canal, the most important of which was economic gain. Under the 1936 Montreux Convention, the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, which connect the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, were to be "demilitarized."
The equivalent of turning Turkey's territorial waters into high seas, Turkey cannot charge tolls like Panama and Egypt. After the completion of the new canal, merchant ships will be closer to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, which is bound to bring huge toll revenues to Turkey and consolidate Erdogan's ruling position, so political opponents will desperately oppose the project.
At the same time, opposition to the new canal plan is also an extremely rare place where the United States and Russia can reach a consensus. Because once the new canal replaces the existing Turkish Strait as a new golden waterway, Turkey can control the key trade routes between Europe and Asia, and militarily prevent Russia from moving south and the United States from moving east.
To put the United States and Russia on the same front, Erdogan is also a talent. Not only that, but Erdogan has more to focus on. In The history of Turkey, there is a nickname of "the sick man of West Asia", that is, the declining world power. After the Mustafa Kemal Revolution after World War I, he barely managed to hold the two core areas of the Peninsula of Asia Minor and Istanbul, and all the peripheral territories and vassal states were lost.
With such a size, it is impossible to have any world influence. But Turkey dares to shoot down Russian fighter jets, dares to intervene in the Libyan civil war, and dares to send troops to invade Syrian territory. In today's international situation dominated by major powers, such small powers are indeed rare. What is less well known is that Erdogan also has many accusations against China's internal affairs.
In today's world, there are two countries that have offended the five permanent members of the United Nations at the same time, one is Libya under Qaddafi, which is now three feet high; the other is Turkey. In the future exchange between East and West, Turkey, which occupies the crossroads, will continue to brush up on the sense of existence. However, according to the experience of the "small strong" countries in history, Erdogan's "ideal" of restoring the Ottoman Empire is likely to eventually become a dream of Nanke.