World View: The Fall of Morsi in Egypt Is Significant Blow to Turkey

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Taliban involvement in Syria threatens Turkey’s security
• The fall of Morsi in Egypt is significant blow to Turkey
• Survey finds increasing political corruption around the world
• JP Morgan advisor defrauds 82 year old grandmother

Taliban involvement in Syria threatens Turkey’s security

Morsi supporters rally in Istanbul on Sunday (Zaman)

The new announcement that the Pakistan Taliban is sending hundreds offighters to Syria to join with the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra front is athreat to Turkey’s security, according to a Turkish analyst. Turkeyblames the rapid growth of al-Qaeda in Syria on the U.S. and the Westfor repeatedly failing to support the secular opposition to the Basharal-Assad regime back in the early days of al-Assad’s bloody slaughterof women and children, when supporting the opposition might have donesome good. Instead, the West sat back and watched as Russia toprovide an unlimited supply of heavy weapons to Syria, and asIran-backed Hezbollah invaded Syria to support al-Assad.

But the build-up of al-Qaeda linked terrorists in Syria presents athreat to Turkey and its more moderate Islamist government. It alsocomplicates Turkey’s support for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Syria,because there’s a three-way looming in Syria, with al-Assad, the FSAand the al-Qaeda militias all opposing each other. Zaman (Ankara)

The fall of Morsi in Egypt is significant blow to Turkey

Will millions of people in Egypt protesting for and against thenow-ousted president Mohamed Morsi, Turkey’s president Recep TayyipErdogan has been concerned for months that those protests would spreadto Turkey. But the concerns grew much greater when Erdogan’s ally,Morsi, was ousted, and his Muslim Brotherhood party was driven frompower by the army. Since the ouster, Egypt’s army arrested numerousBrotherhood officials, including Morsi, froze Brotherhood funds, shutdown Brotherhood television stations, and killed dozens of Brotherhoodprotesters last week in a confrontation.

For Erdogan, the problem is that none of the remaining power groups inEgypt is a potential partner for Turkey. Erdogan’s Justice andDevelopment Party (AKP) is considered an ally of the MuslimBrotherhood, and so also an enemy of Egypt’s army. Egypt’s al-Nourand other Salafists parties distrust Turkey for not being “Islamic”enough, while the revolutionary and democratic forces are more alliedwith the Erdogan’s political opponents.

In fact, the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has resulted inloss of influence by Brotherhood-allied political parties throughoutthe region, with the result that Erdogan has also lost influencethroughout the region.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned on Monday that ifother countries, in a “reverse domino effect”:

“People or institutions from the old system could sayforeign countries – or at least they have remained silent aboutdeclaring it illegitimate – so we can do the same then.”

There are some elements that have remained from the old system inYemen, Tunisia and Libya. Our foremost mission is to eliminate thepossibility of making a reverse domino effect over externallegitimacy. If we all allow something wrong in Egypt, there willbe a reverse domino effect.”

Davutoglu did not indicate what steps Turkey would take to accomplishthis “foremost mission.”

Erdogan has seen his dreams of Turkish regional leadership go down thedrain, as Turkey now has good relations with only two of itsneighbors: Hamas in Gaza and Israel. Al-Monitor and Hurriyet (Istanbul)

Survey finds increasing political corruption around the world

60% of Americans say corruption has increased in the past two years,with political parties perceived as the most corrupt institutions.More than three-quarters of Americans say that political parties arethe most corrupt, followed by the legislature, the media, publicofficials and businesses. Those surveyed said that the military,non-governmental organizations and the education system were the leastcorrupt. The survey by Transparency International found majority ofpeople around the world believe that their government is ineffectiveat fighting corruption and corruption in their country is gettingworse. 114,000 people were surveyed in 107 countries. Transparency International and US News

JP Morgan advisor defrauds 82 year old grandmother

Long-time readers of Generational Dynamics will not be surprised bythe above report that corruption is increasing in politics.Politicians in Washington and analysts on CNBC openly lie all thetime, as I’ve reported frequently. But it takes a storylike this, posted in the Generational Dynamics Forum, to really bring the concepthome:

“Had dinner with Mom last night. She’s 82 years oldand slowly dying of skin cancer and congestive heart failure. Shewas feeling fine last night. After dinner she asked me to look atsomething. She shoves a Chase Bank (JP Morgan) account statementin front of my face and asks if it looks right. I serve as herfinancial advior and executor of her estate. Didn’t even know shehad this account. She had rolled over a CD paying zero interestand the bank thief rep had advised to her to put into a JPM bondfund to “get a better yield”. Since beginning of year bond fundhad lost principal due to rising interest rates, but here is thekicker… These guys had been consistently charging her $50 amonth, yes, that’s right $50 a MONTH, to “manage” her measleyaccount. Current balance $13,500. $600/year (4.4%) in managementfees for the privilege of losing her hard earned money? … Theboldness of these thieves is extraordinary.”

As I’ve been writing for years, the same people who caused thefinancial crisis are still in the same jobs in JP Morgan and otherbanks finding new ways to defraud people, especially older people.Those tens of trillions of dollars in fraudulent subprime mortgagebacked synthetic securities didn’t just grow out of thin air, youknow. They were created by the banks, and then sold to investors,like this grandmother, by advisors who said that they were AAA-rated.The Obama administration has adamantly refused to investigate andprosecute even the most obvious of these crimes, because these samecriminals donate large sums of money to him. So none of these crookshave gone to jail or have even lost a night’s sleep. The people whocreated and sold those fraudulent securities are still in the samejobs in the same banks, finding news ways to defraud people. And whynot? Since no one is going to even investigate their crimes, they candefraud as many people as they want, and just sit back and enjoy theirwinnings and laugh at the suckers they defrauded.

If there’s an older person in your life with some investments, youshould make sure that you warn that person, and provide as muchsupport as you can.

Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail