Confrontation in the Mediterranean by Behcet Kaya

 

Last Sunday a German frigate warship stopped a Turkish cargo ship in the Eastern Mediterranean and searched the ship suspecting it was carrying weapons to Libya. That was the excuse. What they found was the cargo ship was carrying paint and food to Libya.

The German warship was commanded by a Greek Colonel, four American officers, one French officer, and German personal. The Greek commander ordered the commandos to search the ship without obeying the Maritime laws. They pushed the cargo ship personnel, handcuffed the captain, and conducted their search. They held the ship for sixteen hours and they did not find any weapons. Then, as if nothing had happened, they left the ship.

This was similar to the way U.S. commandos put hoods on Turkish Special Forces in Suleymania, Iraq back in 2003. Turkey will answer to this injustice done to its Turkish cargo carrying ship, but I want to talk about what the message is that they were trying to pass on. 

We start a week ago when Secretary of State Pompeo visited seven countries including Turkey. Pompeo first visited France and Germany, then visited Istanbul, Turkey, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Pompeo did not bother to contact any Turkish government officials. Instead he met with Bartelome, a religious leader in Istanbul.

Pompeo is the U.S. shadow leader; just as Cheney ran U.S. foreign policy under George W. Bush. Pompeo openly said that he was uncomfortable with Turkey’s military strength since Turkish Armed Forces successes in Libya, Suriye, Iraq and lastly in Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan. 

So what was the message Pompeo and Germany were passing out? It has to do with the U.S. elections. Markel and many European leaders congratulated Biden in his winning the elections. Markel is happy that Biden has been elected president of the U.S. Many Europeans, especially Markel, were unhappy with Trump.

It is important to mention here that when Pompeo was traveling to the Middle East, Biden’s men were there with him. The message was that from now on Turkey has to deal with Europe meaning Germany. This is the message.

Why? Because Biden’s leadership is not going to follow Trump’s foreign policy. And when it comes to the Middle East, Biden’s foreign policy will be harsher than Trump’s. 

The U.S. has serious problems with China. How Biden handles China will be different than Trump. In order to handle China, the U.S. needs the EU and therefore gave the problem of Turkey to Germany.

Biden already said while campaigning that he wants to overthrow Erdogan. The way he wants to do that is by helping the opposition party leaders in Turkey. Erdogan is a problem to the U.S. and the EU. Biden wants to not only overthrow Erdogan, but to change Turkey to parliamentary system which is what the opposition leaders want in Turkey.

So whether or not a Greek Colonel ordered the search of the Turkish cargo ship is not important. This was out-right harassment to Turkey since the German ship had French, American, Italian, and Greek officers onboard.

The message was clear that under Biden’s leadership the EU and the U.S. together will stop Turkish advancement in Libya and Middle East, and prevent making the Mediterranean a Turkish lake. It may also indicate a test on how Turkey is going to respond, because the German frigate and the officers knew they were violating maritime laws.

 

 

 

 

Title: Appellate Judge
Subtitle: A Jack Ludefance Novel Author: Behcet Kaya
Publisher: Amazon Digital Pages: TBA
Genre: Fiction / Crime / Thriller Reviewed by: Jake Bishop

Hollywood Book Reviews

Tallahassee, Florida is the primary setting for this engaging murder mystery filled with twists, turns, revelations, and machinations, as a private investigator sets out to solve a crime that apparently has local police stumped. The crime is the killing of a judge. The P. I. is Jack Ludefance, somewhat of a sunshine state celebrity in his own right known for solving tough cases frequently, narrowly avoiding his own demise from time to time, and putting particularly bad actors where they belong, be it below ground or behind bars.

Ludefance is an ex-Navy pilot, originally from New Orleans, who still carries the scar along one side of his face that an alligator left him some time ago. The shamus is hired by the murder victim’s daughter to see if he can succeed where the Tallahassee constabulary has so far failed.

It turns out that Cindy, the deceased judge’s daughter, is a bit of mystery in herself. She’s independent, occasionally quick to anger, and unknown to many, in the care of a psychiatrist. But she’s just the beginning of the judge’s family who are decidedly out of the ordinary. The judge’s widow is a vixen who, rumor has it, makes cougars look tame. After an initial grilling by Ludefance, as well as input from Cindy, it’s made known that she satisfied her sexual needs outside the marriage, both often and with multiple partners. There are also a couple of other daughters whose relationship with their father was far less intense than Cindy’s. Not exactly a King Lear scenario, but not Little Women either.

As the P. I. gets deeper into the case, he learns of all sorts of unexplainable situations and any number of potential suspects. When the judge was killed, he was in his courthouse chambers supposedly impossible to enter or exit without being noticed, yet no one was on camera or seen by other building personnel. In addition to his wife’s lovers, and former individuals he had pronounced judgement on, other suspects are members of the musical judge’s string quartet, one of which is an ex-con. Plus a giant pharmaceutical company, with shady ownership, who had a case pending before the jurist. And when it comes to motive, initially robbery was ruled out because nothing seemed to be missing—but perhaps something quite valuable really is missing.

Author Kaya does a first-rate job of keeping the pace of his novel moving at a satisfying speed—not so fast that it’s hard to keep with and not so slow as to impede interest. He creates supporting characters that are as entertaining as they are necessary to plot development. Not the least of which is a computer hacker slacker and a sumo sized gangster with access to otherwise virtually unknowable information. He’s created aprotagonist, Ludefance, who is pragmatic, rugged, and human, without being a typical genre cliché. His prose is easy on the intellect and his dialogue snaps when necessary but avoids overindulgence in tough guy speak.

Appellate Judge is one in a series of Jack Ludefance novels. It’s an entertaining yarn that aficionados of the genre will likely enjoy. Those who do will also be glad to hear that another, Murder In Buckhead, is on the way. This Ludefance fellow may well be someone crime and mystery readers can easily get used to spending time with.