Turkish saber-rattling continued unabated on Wednesday, with an aide to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan boasting that "not the sixth, but not even if the 66th fleet can put Turkey on her knees if it comes to the eastern Mediterranean"
Turkish saber-rattling continued unabated on Wednesday, with an aide to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan boasting that "not the sixth, but not even if the 66th fleet can put Turkey on her knees if it comes to the eastern Mediterranean"
The latest "tough talk", this time from one Yiğit Bulut, is indicative of an increasingly erratic Turkish leadership, and coincides with reports that US warships are steaming into Cyprus' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as US energy giant ExxonMobil beginning exploratory drilling in the sea region (block 10). The 6th fleet refers to America's permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean.
The often inflammatory journalist-turned-presidential adviser added that "nothing can stop us".
Ankara sent warships last month to another part of Cyprus' EEZ to block an ENI research vessel from conducting similar exploratory drilling.
Speaking on Turkish public television, Bulut also combined nationalism with religion, another increasingly overt political trend in Erdogan-dominated Turkey.
"When this people (Turkish) rises up to its stature, and it has already done so... no power, not even a global one, can bend it; and I say this as a part of the Turkish people and the Islamic nation," he said.