Turkey's Tantrum.

The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) are currently negotiating with Iran over sanctions imposed on the country. The US has arbitrarily placed a deadline of yesterday (31/3/15) for the negotiations to be completed. At the same time Saudi Arabia's attack on Yemen has cruelly exposed the flaws in the US middle-east strategy or lack there of.

The net result has been widespread global chaos. Unfortunately I can't really go into detail about much of it while the P5+1 negotiations are ongoing. Yesterday the US equally arbitrarily extended its self-imposed deadline until midnight tonight. In the meantime though I can talk about what Turkey has been up to because they are not party to the negotiations and they have certainly been busy over the last couple of days.

Things began on Monday (30/3/15) when a Turkish Airlines flight from Turkey to Brazil had to make an emergency landing in Casablanca, Morocco amid a bomb scare. Apparently someone found a piece of paper in the aircraft's toilet with the word "Bomb" written on it. I don't think it is particularly a secret to point out that the crash of GermanWings flight 4U9525 in France has been the big international story of the week. International air travel is still a very small world occupied by the same group of professionals so having an air incident of its own should have helped Turkey participate in the GermanWings story.

Within international air travel and other international activities Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is considered the universal time. As a result I keep the time on my cellphone clock set to Casablanca because it remains on GMT regardless of whatever day lights savings times are going on anywhere else in the World. Also Morocco has decided to participate in the Saudi war on Yemen.

Things took an even more dramatic turn on Tuesday morning when Turkey's entire national power grid collapsed plunging the country into a blackout that lasted several hours and is apparently not yet fully fixed. National electricity grids are considered important just generally. However they are considered particularly important within economic development in Africa. One of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's key achievements that help Nigeria overtake South Africa as Africa's largest economy has been his work improving electricity supplies in the country. South Africa's power grid has deteriorated so badly many people now joke; "Q. What did South Africans use before candles? A. Electricity."

Therefore if the ouster of Goodluck Jonathan is allowed to proceed the biggest loser is likely to be Nigeria while the biggest winner is likely to be South African President Jacob Zuma. After all with the competition eliminated Zuma won't look quite so bad by comparison.

Also Turkey's power failure knocked out I think 14 of the 16 control towers that control civilian air traffic over the country. This forced air traffic controllers in Turkey's neighbours and any airlines attempting to fly over Turkey to co-ordinate very carefully with Turkey to make sure that no planes crashed into each other. This of course gives Turkey another route into the world of international air travel that has been rocked by the GermanWings crash.

Mainly though the incident gave Turkey plenty of opportunity to complain about its lack of power during these twin and interconnected middle-eastern crises.

Just as electricity was returning across Turkey two gunmen stormed a Court house in Istanbul and took Prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage. Kiraz was investigating the death of protesters during the 2013 Gezi Park protests. Apart from the illegal medical research a main driver behind the mistreatment of my grandmother was a desire to force her to sell he home which sits on a prime development site close to a park to a developer that wants to build a retail park. In May 2013 that developer tried to have me jailed for offences equivalent to attempted murder. Therefore then Turkish Prime Minister now President Erdogan started the Gezi Park protests and the brutal crack down against them as a way to show his support for the developers and his opposition to me.

Officially the hostage taking was carried out by a revolutionary Communist group known as the DHKP-C. However that group has recently been closely linked to Erdogan himself. For example they were blamed for a suicide grenade attack against an Istanbul police station back in January 2015. It later emerged that the woman who carried out the attack was the sort of devout Muslim which makes up the base of Erdogan's AK Party but is far less likely to be a member of an aggressively atheist group like the DHKP-C.

The main reason for the  DHKP-C's recent resurgence in Turkish politics is that their revolutionary Communist agenda is somewhat similar to the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and their logos are almost identical. Erdogan is currently trying to rush through a peace process with the PKK in order to justify - to Turkish nationalists - relying on Kurdish support at June's upcoming election. Due to Erdogan's attempts to wipe out Syrian Kurds in places like Kobane the relationship between Erdogan and Turkey's Kurdish parties has deteriorated. Therefore it appears that Erdogan put on the siege in order to smear the Kurds in an effort to gain support from the Turkish nationalists instead.

After some poking by the Germans Turkish police moved into end the siege on Tuesday evening killing all attackers and the hostage in the process. This high death toll raises questions about Erdogan's security bill that was passed on Wednesday which effectively gives the Turkish security forces blanket permission to kill anyone who protests against Erdogan's rule.

While the siege was taking place another Court in Istanbul overturned the convictions of 236 people who'd been convicted as part of what is known as the "Sledgehammer Conspiracy." In explaining his actions the Judge pointed out that the much evidence had been falsified by someone with an Islamist agenda but he stopped short of naming Erdogan individually.

Turkey is a fiercely and proudly secular country and members of its establishment known as the "Deep State" think nothing of removing public officials who threaten that with an Islamist agenda. As a result Erdogan was initially prevented from taking up the role of Prime Minister. Eventually though he did take power and immediately started the Sledgehammer case to imprison all those who opposed him. These purges have continued throughout Erdogan's rule most recently against Fethullah Gulen whom Erdogan baselessly accuses of being a CIA agent working to overthrow him.

The release of 236 of their colleagues involved in the Sledgehammer case is likely to please the Turkish nationalists that make up the Deep State immensely so was a further attempt by Erdogan to win their support. However if you are one of Erdogan's paranoid Islamist supporters the Sledgehammer acquittal happening at the same time as the Court house siege would make it appear that the Deep State was once again trying to oust Erdogan encouraging you to step up your support for him. Central to the Sledgehammer accusations were plans to mount terror attacks similar to the Court house siege in order to justify a coup.

Today a man burst into the HQ of the AK Party and waved a sword and a Turkish flag from the window before being overpowered. Although no-one is quite sure what he was ranting about this seems intended to further appear as though Turkish nationalists are trying to oust Erdogan's AK Party further adding to the paranoia of their supporters.

Also today another Turkish Airlines flights - this time to Japan - was forced to make an emergency landing amid another false bomb scare. Again this was intended to help Turkey participate in the GermanWings story.

15:40 on 1/4/15 (UK date).