Strong Turkey unwilling to accept help fro the West to tackle wildfires

Turkey believes that the response from Western international locations to its measures to place out forest fires demonstrated an try to make Turkey appear to be a weak and incapacitated state. The extent of distrust between NATO companions has been rising.

Turkey wildfires exacerbate the break up between Turkey and the West

Turkey has been combating forest fires for six consecutive days. #Helpturkey hashtag was ranked first on Twitter with 2.4 million retweets.

“I wish to attraction to all international locations that may assist us. We’re being devastated by 112 fires. The fires which might be nonetheless burning are very sturdy. We would not have sufficient planes to extinguish them. Eight folks have been killed, a number of animals have perished in wildfires as effectively. We’ve got misplaced our forests. Please assist us. Please unfold this message. We want our voices to be heard ASAP, we’d like assist from all around the world,” a message posted by Danla Bilic, a well known Turkish blogger stated.

Many celebrities and influencers have supported her marketing campaign by sharing the tweet on their social media accounts.

Nevertheless, neither EU nor NATO international locations seem amongst Turkey’s primary supporters in its efforts to extinguish forest fires.

Europe prefers to observe Turkey burn

The subject of Turkish wildfires receives an in depth protection in European media. Particularly, the Europeans wish to know why Turkey appears to be unable to deal with the catastrophe, although Turkey despatched water bombers to neighboring international locations a couple of years in the past.

German publication Süddeutsche Zeitung finds it outrageous that Turkey doesn’t have sufficient firefighting plane prepared for motion, nor does the nation have sufficient personnel. Inappropriate disaster administration and unpreparedness for pure disasters trigger nothing however detrimental response in Europe, the publication stated, including that the tanks of Turkish water bombers had not even been loaded with gasoline. Turkey depends on the Russian water-dumping plane, as a substitute of counting on those of its personal, the newspaper stated.

Authoritative Berlin-based newspaper Die Tageszeitung was horrified to seek out out that Turkey doesn’t have sufficient water bombers. The paper quoted the top of the Communications Workplace of the Turkish Presidential Administration, Fahrettin Altun, who stated that the wildfires had been began by “terrorists”. Based on the newspaper, that is being achieved as a way to divert public consideration from failed actions of the Turkish authorities.

On Sunday, August 1, the European Fee despatched one Canadair plane from Croatia and two Canadair from Spain to Turkey, Disaster Commissioner Janez Lenarcic stated. He didn’t clarify which mannequin of the plane they had been precisely. EU’s firefighting fleet contains each the previous Canadair CL-215 and the brand new CL-415.

USA is ready for Turkey to ask for assist

US State Division spokesman Ned Value stated on Twitter that they had been ready for a request for assist to come back from Ankara:

“The USA understands how devastating wildfires may be for communities, and we provide our heartfelt condolences to the victims and households affected in Turkey,” State Division spokesman Ned Value stated on Twitter. “We stand with our NATO Ally and are prepared to answer requests for help.”

The US Embassy in Ankara additionally set out condolences to firefighters and victims of Turkish wildfires, thus implying dissatisfaction with Ankara’s actions.

Vladimir Sotnikov, Senior Researcher on the Institute of Oriental Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, instructed Pravda.Ru that the EU and Turkey had been “education” one another, as a result of Turkish President Recep Erdogan has “particular angle” in the direction of the EU, and much more so in the direction of Greece.

The Germans criticise Turkey for its incapability to make use of fireplace extinguishing means — which means that Germany, let alongside the EU on the whole, is unwilling to assist, the professional famous.

Based on Vladimir Sotnikov, essentially the most actual assistant underneath these situations for Turkey is Russia. Certainly, Russia was one of many first to ship water-dumping plane and EMERCOM forces to Turkey.

“By attracting Russia, Turkey reveals its allies that it has different methods to get assist. The European Union desires to make Turkey consider that Russia’s assist isn’t very welcome, as a result of the relations between Russia and the European Union have been cooling down recently,” Vladimir Sotnikov stated.

Turkey doesn’t thoughts to show its allies a lesson both

EU Excessive Consultant for International Affairs and Safety Coverage Josep Borrell had a phone dialog with Turkish International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Borrell later introduced through Twitter that the EU was prepared to offer assist to the nation.

Nevertheless, Turkey requested help from international locations corresponding to Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Iran. Furthermore, Ankara left Greece’s proposals unanswered on account of “inadequacy of airborne fireplace extinguishing means.”

Fahrettin Altun helps #StrongTürkiye hashtag

“Our Turkey is robust! Any assist and contribution with good intentions is a requirement for our nationwide unity. Nevertheless, from this night on, the so-called assist marketing campaign, which got here from overseas and from the unified heart, was launched with ideological motives to weaken our state, to weaken the unity of the state and the nation,” he stated on Twitter.

Individuals responded to Fahrettin Altun’s statements.

A person revealed the next assertion: “For many who thought that the nation can be captured due to the #helpturkey header, we’ll say #WeDontNeedHelp, and we won’t even ask these buddies for his or her passports on the exit.”

“Twitter stays underneath the occupation of insidious folks from FETO. These bastards have virtually established a parallel state there … Our nation should urgently put an finish to it,” one other person wrote.

Is Turkey sturdy sufficient?

One may reward Turkey for a robust stance on its sovereignty, however a fireplace division officer of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) instructed t24.com.tr on situations of anonymity that “no person was placing out fires the place wanted.”

“There is no such thing as a such factor as a disaster heart right here. The brigades of the Ministry of Agriculture work actually badly. Ought to this continues — I say this brazenly — Marmaris will burn down utterly,” he stated.

Based on Vladimir Sotnikov, when man-made cataclysms, corresponding to fires, happen, the Turks all the time look to seek out out if it was a terrorist assault, particularly, an arson assault by militants of the Kurdistan Employees’ Get together.

“If the Turks discover out that it was a terrorist assault certainly, it won’t be simply a global scandal. Ankara will reply to this subsequent problem accordingly,” the professional added.

Noteworthy, Turkey celebrated the fifth anniversary of the failed army coup on July 15.

Practically 300,000 folks had been arrested on fees of cooperation with the Fethullah Gülen motion, which the federal government refers to because the Fethullah Terrorist Group (FETO). About 150,000 civil servants have been suspended or fired. 5 years later, mass arrests nonetheless happen regularly. On Monday, prosecutors within the western metropolis of Izmir issued warrants for 229 troopers and cadets. Turkey accused the USA of orchestrating the failed coup in 2016. The relations between Turkey and the West have been in disaster since then.