They say Byzantium was founded in 667BC, but that is clearly not true. I think wiki meant in 667 BC it was first taxed by a foreign occupying force. Prior to any imposition of foreign government, there were Cimmerians and Scythians, the Alans were eventually massacred by the Romans but predate all things Spartan by hundreds or thousands of years.
photo from hurriyetemlak.com
Where Europe meets Asia--with the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia side by side--for this metropolis everything about its future may have changed in the last few weeks.
Turkey currently has the second largest army in NATO (they need 400 F-15's why?) Trucking crude oil from Syrian fields through a company managed by Erdogan's own son seemed a decent enough racket until Russian jets strafed the convoy and ended the financial stream. You'll remember the downing of a Russian jet, the Russian economic block of all Turkish imports, the failed coup attempt of 2016, then tears based on sheer liesshed for Aleppostreamed right into the purged Turkish military officers. We heard how a dictator was destroying democracy by incarcerating soldiers and closing media outlets, yet Russia lifted the sanctions.
Any time there is a media outcry about some human right violation I usually assume that means the State Dept is losing something important. Aleppo and Raqqa were taken by ISIS with minimal damage to the infrastructure or media coverage, coincidentally on major routes to Tehran, then when liberated from the rebels, the outcry was deafening to the point of being actually ridiculous. Nothing was said when the head choppers took the region and slaughtered whole Alawati and Yadzidi villages. When Aleppo was liberated we heard about atrocities for months. Finally broken of the ISIS strangle we never saw 10 000 people celebrating the Syrian military with multiple victory parades.
photo from theculturetrip.com
Byzantium is a global version of Raqqa. While it would be great to control all the water in the Euphrates river, it would be better to control the maritime bottleneck between Europe and Asia. Erdogan just built a tunnel under the water way, just like he built mosques all over the countryside, and though neither have a chance to return the original investment, the second bought votes and the first debt to euro creditors may not actually matter.
photo from anatalyahomes.com
It may not matter that Erdogan is in debt for buildings that generate neither jobs nor exports because he has a weapon that no one has. Turkey has been hosting 3.5 million Syrian refugees for over a year. The EU promised to pay him $3B then another 3B later, now Erdogan says he's received only $850M despite incurring $11B in expenses (US$5000 per year per individual) and the EU needs to find a very VERY good reason for him not to release boat loads to the north.
After a two day sell off, unsurprisingly his lira rebounded. The CIA can crash the economy in Venezuela because there's no consequence, but its harder when the euros are nervous about jihadi migration. Turkey isn't policing Idlib like they promised in the Astana agreement, instead they've let it devolve into gang warfare. The current Idlib inhabitants are the ones that refused to join the government forces. The most wahabbi of the bunch. These are the ones that Erdogan can release to Europe. He knows their names and can land ring leaders in Paris and Berlin.
And so the lira rebounded. Foreign buyers stopped selling their lira and instead started buying Turkish government bonds. Venezuela was not so lucky. Nor Iran.
Erdogan didn't remotely give up his purchase of the S-400. And that is the mind blower. Years ago he paid over $1B towards a couple F-35's and when last month he agreed to purchase the Russian anti-aircraft system his Lockheed order was immediately cancelled. Because what is NOT going to happen is that Russia runs live drills with an F-35 and their new and experimental S-500 systems.
Any other nation would be immediately regime changed via bombs of freedom until their philia improved. Except Russia, China, Iran, NoKo, and now Turkey. It will always be the geographical center of the world but now is safe from France because Erdogan has a million muslim refugees ready to beach on Italian shores.
photo from airpano.com
Erdogan has an opportunity to build infrastructure not sanctioned by IMF loans. Now he can actually build processing systems for olives and figs. Erdogan can build Byzantium to become the center of the free world again. Rather than looking to the imperialistic Ottomans, he can look further back. Before the greeks invaded, people lived without overlords. Hope he chooses well.
