Mick Hartley

Here's Erdoğan in full ranting mode. No, nothing to worry about here. A nation led by an increasingly deranged fascist strongman flexing its muscles in the Eastern Mediterranean…. 

"As some historians have said, we are not a society that has an army – we are a nation that is itself an army.  […]

"When we combine our technological superiority, our fully developed human resources, and our spiritual power… With Allah’s permission, there is no power that can stand in the way of this country.  […]

"Now, with a more booming voice, with a more sincere faith, and with more trust in ourselves than yesterday, we say to our enemies: “Bring it on.” Everyone who would stand against us on land, at sea, and in the air has seen Turkey’s legitimacy and its determination in protecting its rights, interests, and capabilities based on international law. Be sure that those who have not seen it will face this reality in the field, at the diplomatic table, and in international platforms. We do not run away from a fight. We will not hesitate to sacrifice martyrs and wounded people in this fight. For our independence and our future, we will not hold back from roaring all together as 83 million people, and running over the dams that get in our way, like a flood.  […]

"The real question is this: Can those who oppose us in the Mediterranean Sea and around it accept the risk of the same sacrifices? Do the people of Greece accept what will happen to them because of their greedy and incompetent leaders? Do the people of France accept the price they will pay because of their greedy and incompetent leaders? Are the brotherly peoples of some North African and countries in the Gulf content with their futures growing darker as a result of their greedy and incompetent leaders? The citizens of countries that are tens of thousands of kilometers away and are eyeing Turkey’s democracy, constitutional state, and regional interests – do they realize that this process will turn around and harm them?  […]

"Throughout its history, Turkey has never been an aggressive country. The Turkish nation is one of the rare peoples that does not have the stain of colonialism in its past. Certainly, our civilization is one of conquest, but our understanding of conquest is not based on taking control of underground and above ground riches along with land. On the contrary, our understanding of conquest is first the conquest of hearts."

Not only did the Armenian Genocide never happen: neither did the Ottoman Empire.

The man seems to be contradicting what he said in an earlier speech, again courtesy of MEMRI TV:

"In our civilization, conquest is not occupation or looting. It is establishing the dominance of the justice that Allah commanded in the [conquered] region. […]

"First of all, our nation removed the oppression from the areas that it conquered. It established justice. This is why our civilization is one of conquest."

He's a bit confused about this conquest business. He seems to believe that everyone in the Ottoman Empire was happy to be ruled by the Turks. Just as, presumably, all those Armenians were happy to be slaughtered….