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. 

Update on Nagorno Karabag

 

Today’s war between Armenia and Azerbaijan is unfortunately the result of global powers. When we look into Nagorno Karabag we must include other areas. Yes! Armenia has occupied Azerbaijani lands for 27 years and Azerbaijan is just trying to free its occupied lands.

But this is how it looks. Behind the curtains is this. This conflict is orchestrated by Russia but the game the Russians played has turned against Russia. Russia wants both Armenia and Azerbaijan to be in conflict so that it can manage both sides. What Armenia and Russia did not calculate is that Azerbaijan’s military has been modernized and taught by Turkey for the last 25 years. Therefore the Azerbaijan military along with Turkish drones has made it a superior military force. On the other hand, the Armenian military is still using the old Soviet Union mentality and Russian upgraded Soviet military hardware.

Let’s talk about the U.S. Just where does the U.S. fit in? First of all, the U.S. no longer considers Turkey a U.S. strategic partner. The U.S. has started partnering with Eastern European nations through NATO; including Bulgaria, Romania, and Czechoslovakia, which are all members of NATO.

So what does the U.S. want? To bring conflict in the Black Sea region. Because the Black Sea region was settled during Soviet times, there is no conflict between the Black Sea consortiums. The maritime border between Russia and Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, and Georgia in Black Sea was settled.

Why is the U.S. angry with Turkey? Because the U.S. needs Turkey, but also wants to control Turkey and is not managing either. The U.S. does not want Turkey to partner with Russia, China, and Iran. So the U.S. already bought ports in Greece including the one in DEDE Agac on the Turkish-Greek border.

The purpose is to control Turkey and Russia. However, the problem is that Turkey bought Russian-made S-400 and that is a problem for the U.S. Ironically, Turkey tested their S-400 last week at the same time Greece tested their Russian-made S-300 system.

How is it then the U.S. looks the other way when Greece tests its S-300 system but is uncomfortable with Turkey testing its Russian-made system? Double standard. The U.S. does not want Turkey be strong and prosperous; it wants Turkey to be just like the Arab Nations so that it controls and secures Israel.

Back to Armenia. Pashinyon is supported by SOROS and the Armenian Diaspora in the U.S. Now Armenia is losing and its armed forces chain of command is broken. Its solders are in retreat. Even the Armenian defense minister in his press conference admitted he does not know the number of soldiers who have died or been captured by the Azerbaijan military.

Pashinyon tries hard to spread conflicts to Turkey and Russia by firing ballistic missiles into Azerbaijan’s populated cities including one in the Nahcivan area. Nahcivan is an Ozark province where Turkey and Russia hold security guarantees.

Putin and even the Armenians want Pashinyon to go. Pashinyon is supported by the nationalists and Armenian Diaspora both in the U.S. and in France. There is also a strong Armenian Diaspora in Russia as well. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov is an Armenian as well as high-ranking official in Russia.

Pashinyon continues to blame Turkey and frequently fires ballistic missiles into Nahcivan and into the Azerbaijan civilian population. Mind you, this is a war crime and he will be brought to justice by the International War Crimes committee just like the Serbian leader was. If Pashinyon succeeds in bringing Russia and Turkey into this war then stakes are much higher.

Nagorna-Karabag = Mountainy Geography By Behcet Kaya

The Armenian Diaspora has powerful political influence in U.S. politics. They can and do buy U.S. Freshman Congressman and Senators. In other words, by backing these new and uninformed members they use them for their own agenda. Some of the Armenian backed house members include Congressmen Shift and Menendez, as well as many more.

They have done this many times. And not just members of Congress. For example, the Mayor of Glendale, California wanted to lower the U.S. flag half-way for the so-called Armenian Genocide. Of course this made the U.S. veterans angry; flying half-staff is reserved for veterans.

In 2018, the U.S. backed Nikol Pashinyan became the new prime-minister of Armenia. Pashinyon thought he had the full backing of U.S. Yes, the U.S. supported him in his quest to come to power, but that didn’t mean the U.S. would support him in international affairs. Clearly Pashinyon is an American puppet.

In the meantime, Russian President Vladimir Putin became uncomfortable with Pashinyon being the prime-minister of Armenia. Putin even warned him. But Pashinyon is half-crazy like all other Armenians and is full of hatred for all Turks.

With the Soviet Union’s disintegration, Armenia and Azerbaijan both gained their independence. But Russians have backed Armenians since then. Even today Russia has 5000 troops stationed in Armenia and their borders are protected by Russian military.

In 1994 the Armenian military committed genocide in a place called Hocali. 630 Azerbaijani men, women, and children were killed. The Armenian military, with the help of Russia, then took Nagorma Karabag. A geographical area in Cacasia which is very mountainous.

In reality the Russians turned the other way and let the Armenian military commit genocide and then take Karabag. There have been on and off wars between Azerbaijan and Armenia since then and thirty thousand Azerbaijani have been killed. One million Azerbaijani have been displaced from Karabag and moved to Azerbaijan.

It is crucial to explain the Russian motive in allowing the Armenian military to take the Karabag area. The Russians, even going back as far as the czar times, wanted a buffer zone between Azerbaijan and Turkey so that Turkish influence in the other Turkic republics in Central Asia would be reduced.

Turkey and Azerbaijan are two countries, but one nation.

Pashinyon is not a balanced man. According to him, the entire lands of Turkey are their land. Ironically, the Greeks claim the same area as theirs. Having said that, Pashinyon can easily be managed for proxy wars. Against who? Against Turkey.

So, the U.S. sees Turkish strength in the Mediterranean and that Turkey will not back down from their claim of a marine-seashore. That is why the U.S. supports excluding Turkey in the Mediterranean oil and gas consortium.

The U.S. besieged Turkey by supporting the PKK/YPG in Syria and Iraq. In the Mediterranean Sea and in the Aegean Sea the U.S. has bought Greek ports and established naval bases and port management in Dede Agac, Greece. Also in Bulgaria, Romania through NATO, as well as Georgia in the east, and Ukraine in the North.

Turkey is currently involved in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and now Greece in the Aegean Sea. The U.S. wants to open another front for Turkey in the east – that being Armenia and Azerbaijan, knowing full well that Turkey will stand with Azerbaijan.

The U.S hopes that Turkey will directly engage in war with Armenia, hence Russia will be involved. So the U.S. will kill two birds with one stone because the U.S. is not happy about the Russian/Turkish alliance.

What happened next? On July 12, 2020, Pashinyon attacked Azerbaijan lands in Tovuz where the Baku-Tiflisi Ceyhan oil pipeline, the Azerbaijan -Turkey rail road line, and the TANAP pipeline, which carries natural gas from Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan thorough Turkey to Europe, are all located. Tovuz has strategic importance for Turkey.

The U.S. built a natural gas depot in Bulgaria aiming to sell U.S. LPG gas to Europe and to stop the Azeri/Turkmen natural gas going into Europe.

On September 27, 2020, Armenia attacked Azerbaijan again in a different front and today’s war is all we are hearing about. Now why would Armenia attack Azerbaijan again? Armenia’s economy is devastated;virtually living off support from the Armenian Diaspora in the U.S. and France. In addition, the Armenian military totally depends on Russia. Armenia’s three million people live with virtually no economy. Pashinyon’s government was being used for other purposes for U.S. and France.

France is another country that is unhappy about Turkish influence in Libya and Africa.

Azerbaijan has ten million people. Since declaring independence, Turkey has been training Azeri military from the ground up. The two countries cooperate in defense, military, economy, and in every aspect of trade. Since then the Azerbaijani military has become powerful. They have bought Russian made rapid rocket systems and Russian made tanks that have been upgraded by Israelis. They have bought Israeli made Kamikaze drones and Turkish drones and have trained in how to use them effectively.

Now Armenia is spreading misleading information on social media about Turkey sending trained Syrian troops to Azerbaijan. It is not true. Azerbaijan has more than enough troops of their own. Besides, Azerbaijani men lined up to register for the military. In comparison, Armenia settled a million PKK terrorists in Negorna-Karabag since it was taken in 1994. It is no wonder the Azeri military has superiority over Armenia.

Now Pashinyon is desperately looking for help from the U.S. and Russia, all the while lying to international media, and pleading for Turkey to stop giving Turkish drones to Azerbaijan. Russians are aware of the U.S. plans and is not helping the Pashinyon government at the present time. I do hope that both Russia and Turkey do not engage in war over Negorna- Karabag. Azerbaijan will not stop until the Karabag is freed from Armenia.