Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Whoa!! Turkey Takes a Page Out Of Hitler's Playbook

Hitler's excuse for invading both Czechoslovakia in 1938 and Poland in 1939 was protection of German minorities, the Volksdeutsche, in those countries.
We put together a thumbnail history of this part of the Nazi strategy, If interested see after the jumps.

From Ekathimerini, March 16, 2019 :
Turkish FM accuses Greece of failing to protect rights of minority in Thrace
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has criticized Greece of failing to uphold the rights of its Muslim minority in Western Thrace and of forbidding its members to call themselves “Turks.”
He was speaking after the 54th meeting of the European Union-Turkey Association Council on Friday, during which Brussels reiterated its concerns over the candidate country’s continuing backsliding in the areas of fundamental rights and the rule of law, as well as the deterioration of the independence and functioning of the judiciary.

“Greece does not recognize the religious rights of the minority and the muftis [Muslim religious leaders] cannot exercise their rights,” said Cavusoglu, who is also Turkey’s chief negotiator, in response to a journalist’s question.

He added that Turks who live in Greece cannot call themselves “Turks” despite previous rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the matter.
And why is this scary?
A story in five headlines:
Every Night There Is War in the Aegean, Says Greece’s Navy Chief 
Turkish navy drill 'extremely successful, satisfactory'
Reports of Planned Turkish Naval Base Stokes Tension Between Greek, Turkish Cypriots
Greek navy needs major upgrade to face Turkey - columnist
Greek government plans crowdfunding for new warships
And our mini-history of the Nazi's propaganda creation of their cause célèbres:
  • On February 20, 1938 Hitler made his "Protection of German Minorities Speech".
  • On March 4, 1938 Czech Prime Minister Hodza declared that Czechoslovakia would defend itself against foreign interference.
  • On March 12 the German Army marched into Austria and annexed the country.
  • On September 26, 1938 Hitler made his "This is my last territorial demand" speech.
  • On September 29 the Munich Conference chopped Czechoslovakia up with the Sudetenland going to Germany,
  • On September 30 Chamberlain did his "Peace for our time" and WWII was pretty much baked in the cake.
  • On March 15, 1939 Hitler reneged on the Munich Agreement and invaded Czechoslovakia.
  • During this time Hitler was working the same approach to take over the free city of Danzig (Gdańsk) and the 'Polish Corridor' which allowed Poland access to to the Baltic:
http://paradoxmind.com/1302/Prelude%20to%20War/Danzig_Map.jpg
As part of the strategy the Nazis claimed mistreatment-to-the-point-of-massacres of the Volksdeutsch in the corridor and the Free City.
On September 1, 1939 the Nazis invaded Poland and by September 5 had captured the corridor and entered Danzig.
In 1940 the Nazi propagandists published an apologia for the invasion:

EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE FOREIGN OFFICE 
AND BASED UPON DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE 
SECOND REVISED EDITION 
BERLIN 1940 

Compiled by Hans Schadewaldt
VOLK UND REICH VERLAG BERLIN 

It's all bullshit of course but the Nazis felt the need to tell the lie.
In print form.
229 pages