My remarks covering the re-blog on PM Netanyahu citing the Bible in Davos referred to Daniel Pipe’s article in Washington Times which describes the Middle East as ‘The sick man of the world’.

Pipes writes, “…two examples point to a larger conclusion: maladies run so deep in the Middle East (minus remarkable Israel) that outside powers cannot remedy them”, and then provides a quick summary of catastrophic failures of the Muslim Middle East.

Through Wednesday to Friday last week, and today, I put my planned material in the pending tray to run three unexpected posts on the significance of Turkey’s turn-around to re-engage with Iran. I was most surprised that many readers and visitors took notice and tripled this blog’s average of daily hits, for which I heartily thank you all.

Obviously, with the easing of international sanctions Erdogan must have been looking to Iran as the region’s new rich-man – and a nuclear power – with immense reserves of minerals.

Now, David Goldman, a Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum, opens a paper entitled Turkish Financial Crisis Adds to Region’s Chaos as follows:

More than coincidence accounts for the visit to Iran by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on January 28, the same day that his economic policy collapsed in a most humiliating way…Erdogan’s prestige was founded on Turkey’s supposed economic miracle…

Hailed as”the next superpower” by John Feffer of the Institute for Policy Studies, and as “Europe’s BRIC” by The Economist, Turkey has become the Sick Man of the Middle East.

Reinforcing my reference to the PM’s friendship with POTUS, Goldman refers to his own foresight in a humorous manner:

US President Barack Obama told an interviewer in 2012 that Erdogan was one of his five closest overseas friends, on par with the leaders of Britain, Germany, South Korea and India. Full disclosure: as the Jewish banker who has been most aggressive in forecasting Turkey’s crisis during the past two years, I have had no contact with Opus Dei on this matter, much less the mythical Illuminati.

He proceeds to explain this and goes on to state how the corruption surfaced (omitted from this quotation) :

Erdogan was always a loose cannon. Now he has become unmoored. Paranoia is endemic in Turkish politics because so much of it is founded on conspiracy…

The conspiracy of international bankers, Opus Dei and Illuminati that rages in Erdogan’s Anatolian imagination has triumphed, and the aggrieved prime minister will not go quietly. As Erdogan abhors old allies who in his imagined betrayed him and seeks new ones, the situation will get worse.

One of the worst ideas that ever occurred to Western planners was the hope that Turkey would provide a pillar of stability in an otherwise chaotic region, a prosperous Muslim democracy that would set an example to anti-authoritarian movements. The opposite has occurred: Erdogan’s Turkey is not a source of stability but a spoiler allied to the most destructive and anti-Western forces in the region.

To my mind, the above closing paragraph clearly indicates that Erdogan is not alone. Western financiers, politicians and diplomats are also clueless and incompetent.  This is clearly demonstrated not only above but also by European and White House policies in believing Islamic cultures can build satisfactory and sustainable democracies. But they discriminate against anyone of different beliefs and background. For example, Obama’s policy speeches in Ankara and Cairo opened up the way for the Arab Spring and advancement of Muslim nations – but the beast of Islamist fanaticism went into self-destruct; not to mention its  criminally pathological hatred of fellow humanity!

However, I’m open to persuasion that I may be mistaken. But first, please take time to read David Goldman’s brief, incisive paper here