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The Grand Turk
Former German FM: Turkey Might Acquire Nuclear Weapons To Threaten The West
2018-08-20
The article is in German. I'll summarize the part about former FM Sigmar Gabriel's remarks. The rest of the article is about the German domestic political debate re aid payments to Turkey.
[Welt] Gabriel says that it is in Europe's and Germany's own interest to make every effort to keep Turkey as part of the West. If not, a politically isolated Turkey might acquire nuclear weapons in the long term.

Germany and Europe must send a clear signal that they will not participate in Donald Trump's effort to economically destabilize Turkey.

The US is applying sanctions to push an economically damaged nation over the cliff. This is impermissible conduct amoong NATO allies.

In a Turkey distancing itself from NATO nationalist forces would acquire nuclear weapons to make themselves invincible - just as in Iran and North Korea.
Sigmar Gabriel is a close associate of former chancellor Schroeder, who is Erdogan's closest ally in German mainstream politics.

During Gabriel's tenure as FM in 2017/18 he was criticized for being to accommodating, if not subservient to Turkey.

IMO Gabriel is relaying a direct message from the Erdogan regime.
Erdogan does not yet dare to openly threaten the West with nukes so he's using a deniable channel.
Posted by:Elmerert Hupens2660

#11  Specifically, Erdogan wants to scare Germany and Europe into paying danegeld right now,

They've been paying Turkey millions for several years in order to keep the Muslim migrants from continuing into Europe, a flow Turkey has stopped or released ever since as the mood siezes them.
Posted by: trailing wife   2018-08-20 21:12  

#10  Just be sure to activate cratering and demolition charges in all US built bases when we finally leave the Jerks Turks. Incirlik should definitely be missing some hangars, ammunition and POL facitlites, and the runways and taxiways should have multiple large and deep craters.
Posted by: Boss Spoper5850   2018-08-20 12:41  

#9  America just might soon be backing a United Kurdistan - taking territory from Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. The Kurds are the best people in the region - 'tough as woodpecker lips, Islamic but secular, smart, dependable - even their (often gorgeous) women fight as infantry. Aside from the Israelis, the Kurds could be the strongest player in the region. And - if Turkey nukes up, we give the Kurds nukes (or at least a "nuclear umbrella". Heh, heh. Maybe it is time to reconquer Constantinople???
Posted by: Lone Ranger   2018-08-20 11:29  

#8  Nuclear weapons are expensive, I suspect, and Turkey has a bit of a debt and income problem.

Turkey wants to extort money which could in turn finance future Turkish nuclear weapons.

Specifically, Erdogan wants to scare Germany and Europe into paying danegeld right now, which would undermine present symbolical US sanctions and the threat of possibly serious US sanctions.

This is an irrational, vile and vicious move which also betrays the Turkish government's panic.

Which is why the Turks used this deniable channel.

I don't really doubt that this is an authentic message from the Turkish government. Gabriel would not idly talk about a nominal ally threatening Europe with nuclear annihilation.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660   2018-08-20 10:51  

#7  Mussolini was a smarter man than Erdogan, brilliant on some accounts, and look where his Imperial Ambitions for Italy wound up. This will not end well...
Posted by: magpie   2018-08-20 10:00  

#6  After all nuke Pakistan and nuke NKor effectively end 2 silk roads.
Posted by: 3dc   2018-08-20 09:58  

#5  I doubt China wants Turkish nukes that Turk terminus of one of the Silkroads.
Posted by: 3dc   2018-08-20 09:57  

#4  Nuclear weapons are expensive, I suspect, and Turkey has a bit of a debt and income problem. How does Herr Erdogan (given it’s a German publication) intend to square that circle?

Thank you for reading and translating the German press for us, Elmerert Hupens2660.
Posted by: trailing wife   2018-08-20 09:28  

#3  Wiki: whilst the 2011 census states that 2.7 million German residents have at least one parent from Turkey, this may not be a true representation of the total ethnic Turkish population. In 1997 the former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl had already stated that there were 3 million Turks living in Germany.
Posted by: Hupusing Claitch6798   2018-08-20 08:52  

#2  Lessee. Who would the likely vendor be?
Posted by: M. Murcek   2018-08-20 08:34  

#1  Threatening us with nuclear weapons. Wow, what a friend!

Oh wait he's only threatening Europeans. That's OK, they've repeatedly assured us they don't want and don't need American help. Ami go home, remember?

If only Europe wouldn't have been ripping us off on trade and funded their fair share of NATO...none of this would happen. But Europeans decided it had to be this way. So be it.
Posted by: Herb McCoy   2018-08-20 05:59  

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