Horloge
05-03-2018, 17:22
Turkey's Erdogan Threatens to Give Trump a Lethal Ottoman Slap
Turkey warns that Ankara's relationship with Washington has reached a 'critical point' that would either be 'fixed' or 'totally destroyed.' The U.S. is willing to swallow Turkey's 'chutzpah' as long as it keeps away from Russia
As legend has it, Sultan Murad IV, who was known for his brutality, in 1634 killed with a slap two janissaries who assaulted his grand vizier. The incident was the origin of the so-called Ottoman slap (Osmanli tokadi in Turkish), which Ottoman soldiers were trained to perform. Such a slap, so it was said, could crack a man’s skill and even kill a horse.
Some two weeks ago, the Ottoman slap returned to the political lexicon. After the U.S. administration threatened to returned fire if its troops in Syria’s Kurdish areas were attacked, Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded with a threat of his own. “Those who say that they would respond if they are hit have never tasted an Ottoman slap,” the Turkish president warned. His foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, had warned a few days earlier that Ankara’s relationship with Washington had reached such a “critical point” that they would either be “fixed” or “totally destroyed.”
Two days after Erdogan’s “Ottoman slap” speech, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stopped in the Turkish capital for a three-and-a-half-hour meeting with the Turkish president and foreign minister. It’s doubtful that Tillerson understood the term “Ottoman slap,” since in a departure from protocol he did not bring his own translator or aides to the meeting, relying on the translation skills of Cavusoglu. The media briefing held after the meeting did not hold out cause for optimism. The United States and Turkey agreed to establish three coordinating committees to discuss points of disagreement. The first is scheduled to convene Friday. Working groups of this kind are generally created between rival countries; allies don’t need them, they simply pick up the phone and talk. But the bad blood between Ankara and Washington is so poisoned that last week, too, Erdogan waved a warning finger at the Trump administration, saying he expected deeds and not words from the United States, as if Turkey were a superpower telling a client state how to behave.
Concurrently, the U.S. Congress is in an uproar over plans to impose sanctions on Ankara in the wake of its attitude to Washington. There has even been talk on Capitol Hill of placing visa bans on senior Turkish officials and prohibiting imports of Turkish-made handguns, which generate an estimated $100 million in annual revenue for Turkey. The proposals are anathema to the U.S. State Department, however, which believes that Turkey’s “chutzpah” notwithstanding, its cooperation is vital to America’s unfocused policy in Syria; above all, sanctions could push Turkey even closer to Russia and perhaps even lead Ankara to leave NATO.
http://https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/turkey/.premium-turkey-s-erdogan-threatens-to-give-trump-a-lethal-ottoman-slap-1.5870204
Turkey warns that Ankara's relationship with Washington has reached a 'critical point' that would either be 'fixed' or 'totally destroyed.' The U.S. is willing to swallow Turkey's 'chutzpah' as long as it keeps away from Russia
As legend has it, Sultan Murad IV, who was known for his brutality, in 1634 killed with a slap two janissaries who assaulted his grand vizier. The incident was the origin of the so-called Ottoman slap (Osmanli tokadi in Turkish), which Ottoman soldiers were trained to perform. Such a slap, so it was said, could crack a man’s skill and even kill a horse.
Some two weeks ago, the Ottoman slap returned to the political lexicon. After the U.S. administration threatened to returned fire if its troops in Syria’s Kurdish areas were attacked, Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded with a threat of his own. “Those who say that they would respond if they are hit have never tasted an Ottoman slap,” the Turkish president warned. His foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, had warned a few days earlier that Ankara’s relationship with Washington had reached such a “critical point” that they would either be “fixed” or “totally destroyed.”
Two days after Erdogan’s “Ottoman slap” speech, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stopped in the Turkish capital for a three-and-a-half-hour meeting with the Turkish president and foreign minister. It’s doubtful that Tillerson understood the term “Ottoman slap,” since in a departure from protocol he did not bring his own translator or aides to the meeting, relying on the translation skills of Cavusoglu. The media briefing held after the meeting did not hold out cause for optimism. The United States and Turkey agreed to establish three coordinating committees to discuss points of disagreement. The first is scheduled to convene Friday. Working groups of this kind are generally created between rival countries; allies don’t need them, they simply pick up the phone and talk. But the bad blood between Ankara and Washington is so poisoned that last week, too, Erdogan waved a warning finger at the Trump administration, saying he expected deeds and not words from the United States, as if Turkey were a superpower telling a client state how to behave.
Concurrently, the U.S. Congress is in an uproar over plans to impose sanctions on Ankara in the wake of its attitude to Washington. There has even been talk on Capitol Hill of placing visa bans on senior Turkish officials and prohibiting imports of Turkish-made handguns, which generate an estimated $100 million in annual revenue for Turkey. The proposals are anathema to the U.S. State Department, however, which believes that Turkey’s “chutzpah” notwithstanding, its cooperation is vital to America’s unfocused policy in Syria; above all, sanctions could push Turkey even closer to Russia and perhaps even lead Ankara to leave NATO.
http://https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/turkey/.premium-turkey-s-erdogan-threatens-to-give-trump-a-lethal-ottoman-slap-1.5870204