In his 2017 and 2025 inaugural addresses, President Donald Trump pledged to “Put America first.” His 2017-2021 term, however, put Turkey and Turkish President Erdogan first. And his second term is looking even worse. In Trump’s Turkish Problem (2022), I cautioned the would-be candidate to “ditch his Turkish investments, Turkish-tainted cronies, and Turkish fixation … […]
Azerbaijan is Utterly Unfit to Host UN’s Climate Change Conference
Hard to believe but true: A greenhouse-gas-spewing, polluting, corrupt, repressive, genocidal, international-terrorism-supporting regime is hosting the UN’s annual Climate Change/Global Warming (CCGW) conference in mid-November. The regime’s head is President Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s blood-soaked despot. About 32,000 persons and perhaps 150 countries will reportedly attend the 12-day event, dubbed COP29. COP refers to the UN’s […]
The Day(s) That Turkey’s Erdogan Humiliated America
Weak. Deceitful. Cowardly. Those describe America’s ongoing responses to the savage, unprovoked attack on peaceful protestors by Turkish President Erdogan’s security detail in Washington, DC. It happened on Tuesday afternoon, May 16, 2017, following his meeting with President Trump. Shortly after his motorcade arrived at the Turkish ambassador’s Sheridan Circle residence, where protestors had lawfully […]
Putin Punishes Russia’s Key Ally
Oddly, few Western writers on the South Caucasus have ever grasped Christian Armenia’s significance as Russia’s only ally and military outpost among the region’s three countries. Simply put: Were Russia to lose Armenia, the U.S./NATO/EU and pan-Turkism would inevitably dominate the Caucasus/Caspian and, perhaps, beyond. Putin understands this. Georgia and Azerbaijan are, after all, headed […]
Azerbaijan = Corrupt + Terrorist + Evil
There may be no regime more loathsome and deserving of U.S. and European condemnation and punitive sanctions than that of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his crew of criminals and monsters. Corrupt to the Core The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an international crime and corruption watchdog, named Aliyev its 2012 Organized Crime […]
Crisis in the Caucasus: Two Facts You Aren’t Being Told
Armenia is more critical to Russia’s security than Ukraine is Armenia is Russia’s sole ally in the Caucasus, a region I’ve often termed Ground Zero for Cold War 2.0. Without its Armenian partner, Russia would lose the Caucasus (Georgia/Armenia/Azerbaijan) and the Caspian Sea — and possibly Turkic Central Asia — to pan-Turkism and NATO. Pan-Turkic […]
Erdogan Triumphs as Putin Stabs His Own Best Ally in the Back
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been making some astonishing demands, including: NATO mustn’t admit additional countries near Russia, such as Ukraine and Georgia. NATO must cease military activity in non-NATO territories: Georgia, Ukraine, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and parts of eastern Europe. Yet, incredibly, Putin has himself been enabling a NATO member’s aggression bordering […]
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Fails to Question Nominee for US Ambassador to Turkey about Terrorism
Several times this year, the U.S. State Department and Treasury Department have cited Turkey as a financial base for ISIS and al-Qaeda. Turkey has long sponsored ISIS and other international terrorist organizations. No serious analyst disputes this. Turkey has armed, financed, and deployed terrorists in such locations as Syria, Libya, and Azerbaijan. On September 28, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee […]
The Afghan Crisis, Turkey, and Washington’s Global War on Terrorism
As America’s presence in Afghanistan draws to a close and the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, it’s worthwhile to consider the countries that sponsor global terrorism and Washington’s response to them. One country stands out: Turkey. NATO is purportedly a bulwark against attacks on Western civilization. Yet NATO member Turkey has long supported ISIS […]
What Lies Beneath: Biden’s Deceptive Acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide
Joe Biden’s April 24 statement acknowledging the Armenian Genocide (1915–1923+) carried out by Turkey was welcome, but flawed. Indeed, “Turkey” appears nowhere in the document. Moreover, the State Department swiftly undermined Biden’s virtuous-sounding words. American acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide isn’t even new. The U.S. House has passed several resolutions on the Genocide. And […]