Yervant1 Posted June 6, 2014 Report Share Posted June 6, 2014 TURKISH FALSE FLAGS AND THE INVASION THAT ALMOST WASby David Boyajian / June 4th, 2014Dissident Voice (see URL for live links)http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/06/turkish-false-flags-and-the-invasion-that-almost-was/Turkey seems fond of so-called 'false flag' operations. In 1955,for example, the Turkish government covertly bombed its own consulatein Thessaloniki, Greece and blamed it on Greeks. The following day,Turkey stage-managed massive anti-Greek riots in Istanbul that killedover a dozen Christians and caused hundreds of millions in damage.Fast forward to March 2014. A leaked audiotape caught Turkishofficialsplotting to stage 'false flag' military attacks on their ownterritory and blame them on Syrians. Turkish Foreign Minister AhmetDavutoglu, General YaÅ~_ar Gurel, and Intelligence chief Hakan Fidanplanned to use the attacks as an excuse to invade Syria. The titleof this article could easily apply to that plot.To close observers of the Caucasus, however, it could also describea failed covert Turkish plan to attack Armenia two decades ago andturn the geopolitics of the region upside down.In October 1993, two years after the USSR had splintered, an ethnicChechen Muslim named Ruslan Khasbulatov - the Speaker, believe itor not, of the Russian Parliament - led a coup against beleagueredRussian President Boris Yeltsin. According to American, French, andGreek officials, Khasbulatov and Muslim Turkey had a secret agreement.If his coup succeeded, Khasbulatov would order Russian troops towithdraw from Armenia, where they helped guard the latter's borderwith Turkey. That would pave the way for Turkey to invade thelandlocked Christian nation of just three million inhabitants.History tells us that Turkey has always wanted to overrun Armenia.Doing so would create a path to Turkic-speaking Muslim Azerbaijan,the Caspian Sea, and, eventually, Central Asia.It's called pan-Turkism.In 1993, of course, Azerbaijan was losing its war with Armenians overthe ancient, majority-Armenian province of Karabagh. Azerbaijan was,therefore, eager for Turkey to attack Armenia, and Turkey was readyto help Azerbaijan turn the tide.The Plot Fails Harkening back to the Armenian genocide, TurkishPresident Turgut Ozal had threatened to teach Armenia "the lessonsof 1915." Tansu Ciller, Turkey's prime minister, warned Armenia thatshe wouldn't "sit back and do nothing." Turkey was massing forceson Armenia's western border and supplying Azerbaijan with weapons,military advisors, and paramilitary forces. Chechen militants andAfghan Mujahideen were already fighting alongside Azeris.A successful Turkish attack on Armenia - Russia's only militarypartner in the Caucasus - would have all but destroyed Russianinfluence in the region. That, in turn, would have increased thelikelihood that Chechnya, and much of the Muslim North Caucasus,would eventually escape the Russian Bear's grip. For a native-bornChechen like Khasbulatov, it would all be a dream-come-true.But bombarded by Russian tanks, Speaker Khasbulatov, V.P. AlexanderRutskoi, and hundreds of rebel parliamentarians and supporterssurrenderedthe Parliament building on October 4, 1993.The coup and the plot to invade Armenia had failed.The Secret Pact The Khasbulatov-Turkish pact was first revealed byLeonidas T.Chrysanthopoulos in his book Caucasus Chronicles (London: Gomidas,2002). He was Greece's ambassador to Armenia from July 1993 toFebruary 1994. Chrysanthopoulos, now 68, has served as ambassadorto Canada and Poland, and was recently Secretary General of the12-country, Istanbul-based Black Sea Economic Cooperation organization.Caucasus_Map France's ambassador to Armenia, Mme. France de Harthing,told him that "French intelligence sources" confirmed that "the Turkishincursion into Armenia would take place immediately after Khasbulatovwould have withdrawn the Russian troops from Armenia." "Thisinformation,"wrote Chrysanthopoulos, "was later confirmed to me bymy United States colleague," Ambassador Harry J. Gilmore.As a "pretext," Turkey would claim to be targeting Kurdish PKK militantbases, which, in fact, have never existed, in Armenia.Such a "pretext" is similar, though not identical, to a 'false flag.'The Turkish strike would be "incursions of a limited nature," thoughit's unclear what "limited" meant. More likely, as Turkey wouldn'tfind any PKK, the aim was to forge a permanent corridor across Armenia,link up with Azeri forces, and cleanse Karabagh of Armenians.The U.S. and France have never, as far as is known, publicly denied theexistence of the Khasbulatov-Turkish plot. Moreover, Chrysanthopoulosgives no indication that any country tried to talk Turkey out of itsdeal with Khasbulatov.Is any of this relevant today?NATO Ambitions Yes, because current Turkish, American, and NATOpolicies in the Caucasus strongly echo the 1993 Khasbulatov-Turkishplot. For two decades, the West has been trying to penetrate anddominate the Caucasus - Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia -andeventually cross the Caspian Sea into energy-rich Central Asia.One piece of the plan has already been partially implemented:constructing oil and gas pipelines from Azerbaijan through Georgiaand Turkey.NATO's remaining goal: absorb the entire Caucasus. NATO would therebythreaten Russia from the south, just as it now pressures Russiafrom the west with its absorption of much of Eastern Europe (and,NATO hopes, Ukraine).Georgia and Azerbaijan are inclined to eventually join NATO.Armenia, however, is not, though it has excellent relations withNATO and the West. Armenia has little choice but to ally itself withRussia because the former faces an ongoing existential threat fromNATO member Turkey, the 1993 plot being one example.Armenia is the Caucasus's linchpin. Had the Khasbulatov - Turkishquasi-'false flag' operation against Armenia succeeded, Russia wouldprobably have lost, and NATO would have gained, the entire Caucasus.New provocations, including 'false flags,' by Turkey and NATO cannot,therefore, be ruled out.Turkish, American, and NATO leaders must also be interrogated as towhether their policies in the Caucasus are leading to peace or war.David Boyajian is a freelance journalist. Read other articles by David. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onjig Posted June 7, 2014 Report Share Posted June 7, 2014 You do gather some interesting information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yervant1 Posted June 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2014 Thank you, just trying! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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