German media: Turkey in the process of expansion with neo-Ottoman aspirations

The left-wing newspaper in Berlin The daily newspaper stylizes its neo-Ottoman aspirations Turkey, which have now become more than apparent mainly in northern Syria, he says. These are not only neo-Ottoman visions in words, but also in deeds in areas of the former Ottoman Empire, where the Turks were more or less there. The relevant DW article starts with Cyprus.

In 1974, Turkey sent military forces to northern Cyprus, once part of the Ottoman Empire, supporting the non-internationally recognized puppet country “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”. The fact that there is no longer a question of reunification of the divided island, Erdogan said last November, when he visited Varosia, which before the division was inhabited mainly by Greek Cypriots. Unlike Cyprus, northern Syria is outside Turkey’s door. Here the Turkish demands are imposed in a more aggressive way. Since 2016, Ankara, with several military operations by Islamic State militias, has seized the autonomous Kurdish areas, which it first branded as a “terrorist” nest, and has deployed Syrian subordinates there against the Assad regime. The transitional government he set up there was founded in 2013 in Istanbul and was originally based in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep until it was transferred to the northern Syrian Azaz. “It officially rules the so-called Arab Syrian Republic, but at the same time it appears as a Turkish creation.”

The columnist points out that the “Turkification” of the region becomes apparent not only from the Turkish flag and the government flag in the town hall, in schools and other public buildings and the signs written in Turkish and Arabic.

“Electricity, telephone, currency as well as the banking and postal system come from Turkey. Turkish construction companies and religious welfare organizations are working to rapidly expand the infrastructure. In Turkey, this paternalistic influence is called “helping our Syrian brothers.” “The declared goal is for the Turks to settle refugees in the occupied border areas, mainly Syrian Sunnis, while uprooting the native Kurds and Yezidis.”

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