Turkey's Operation Barbarossa aims to establish a naval and air force presence on six world seas while making a grab to wrest oil and gas from Israel and Greek Cyprus (Jews and Christians). DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military experts note that the Turkish Navy has 19 frigates, 14 submarines, 7 corvettes, 75 navy aircraft and 108 fast attack craft, manned by a total of 48,600 personnel. They are not up to challenging the US and European Mediterranean fleets and would be outmatched qualitatively even by Israel's much smaller navy ...

The Arab revolts have resolved themselves ten months on into a US effort to damp down the Turkey-Israel, Egypt-Israel fires before they blow up - at best into limited military confrontations, whereas Russia, disenchanted with America's removal of Muammar Qaddafi, has stepped in to rescue Syria's Assad.

Israel and Greece have invoked their new, secret mutual defense pact to counter heavy Turkish sea and air movements in the eastern Mediterranean. debkafile discloses that Israel may gain the new advantage of a military presence at Greek bases following a long phone conversation Wednesday night Sept. 14 between the Israeli and Greek prime ministers. They also agreed to share intelligence. Israel's expanded cabinet of eight was called into session over the Turkish threat to its off-shore oil and gas rigs.

The Obama administration has turned down a Turkish request for drones or for the deployment of US Predators at Turkish bases until Ankara stops threatening Israel with armed attack, debkafile's military and Washington sources report.  Turkey's lack of functioning drones has crippled its military campaign waged against the Kurdish PKK rebels in conjunction with the US and Iran at a critical juncture. Since expelling the Israeli technicians, Ankara has been unable to operate 10 Israeli-made Heron drones.

Turkey sharply ratchets up its threat of war with Israel. Three Turkish frigates were ordered to the eastern Mediterranean and instructed to disable Israeli military ships if encountered outside Israel's 12-mile territorial waters. This was reported by Turkish naval sources Sept. 12 as Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was due in Cairo for a controversial visit - in defiance of the Egyptian government's effort to cool the crisis in relations with Israel.

By ordering Turkish warships to escort aid ships to Gaza and stop Israel's offshore gas exploitation, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is muscling his way into the eastern Mediterranean and taking his dispute with Israel to the brink. He is also challenging Greece and Cyprus. Cairo and Riyadh are ...

The US, Turkey, Iran and the Iraqi Kurdish government have joined hands to liquidate the Kurdish rebellions against Ankara and Tehran. They have been temporarily distracted from their campaign against Syria's Bashar Assad.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan this week coolly moved his country towards an armed clash with Israel – not just over the Palestinian issue, but because he covets the gas and oil resources found opposite Israel's shores. He has ordered Turkish warships to enter the eastern Mediterranean in the belief that by breaking Israel's Gaza blockade, he will win kudos as the first Muslim leader to challenge Israel militarily on behalf of the Palestinians and Arab acclaim as the big shot of the region.

The Syrian ruler has ordered his military chiefs to get set to launch their biggest operation to destroy the protest movement bedeviling his regime for nearly six months, debkafile's military sources report exclusively. All units are deployed on full preparedness around the protest centers for coordinated strikes in the coming days and all leaves cancelled.The five divisions posted on the Israeli border have been pulled back. Aleppo has staged its first major anti-Assad rally.

Home Front Commander Maj. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg warned Monday, Sept. 5 of the increasing peril of a total Middle East war in the wake of the Arab revolts and Israel's rift with Turkey. His comments shocked Israel's policy-makers and defense establishment out of their placidity. The defense minister's adviser Amos Gilead, hurriedly denied this prediction. "Israel's security situation has never been better," he said insisting "The Arab regimes around us are stable."
debkafile: The general's wake-up call was both apt and timely.

debkafile's US sources disclose that the Erdogan government may act as though it calls the shots in the region to cow Israel, but Turkey is fast sliding into deep economic slump. In Washington, the Erdogan government's threat to incite an "Arab revolt" against Israel is seen as beyond acceptable diplomatic bounds, while its other threat on maritime movement in the Mediterranean is ridiculed: "The Turkish Navy is no match for Israeli missile boat technology, electronic jamming and tracking systems, submarines and close air cover."

For two years, Turkey has tirelessly maligned Israel, aided its enemies and schemed to destroy its army's strategic value as a key American ally. This campaign hit a serious contretemps in the UN report out Friday, Sept. 2 which justified Israel's Gaza blockade and its navy's interception of a Turkish vessel bent on breaching that blockade, although Israel was assailed for its "excessive response" to the violence of Turkish extremists.  Ankara thereupon expelled the Israeli ambassador and suspended its military accords with Israel.

Bashar Assad took the extra 10-15 days awarded him by US and Turkey as a grace period to finish his military slam against protest and introduce reforms. This was not intended and so Barack Obama finally told him he must go.

After ruling out direct military intervention, most governments concerned in the drive to oust Bashar Assad find that arming the rebels and pumping thousands of Sunni volunteers into Syria are the only feasible option.  But before this plan is up and running, he is expected to preemptively employ the Lebanese ...

Saudi Arabia, which embarked on building a strategic Sunni Muslim bloc six months ago, has done a lot better in a shorter time than even king Abdullah's strategic and intelligence advisers predicted. Harnessing Turkey, a major military power and NATO member, to their grouping is an unforeseen windfall.       By jumping aboard the Saudi ...

Taking advantage of the 15-day leeway granted him by the US and Turkey, Bashar Assad Monday, Aug. 15, sent tanks and mechanized infantry into Homs, a town of 1.5 million inhabitants. Heavy shelling rings out as clouds of smoke rise over the city. Homs is Syria's third largest town and the biggest the Syrian military has attacked. In Latakia, Syrian tanks continue to battle armed Palestinians and in Brussels, NATO and Turkey get set to send the rebels anti-tank weapons.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's Damascus mission started with a military ultimatum and ended on a weak note which drew a contemptuous reaction from Bashar Assad. Damascus is working against the clock. Assad hopes to have broken the back of the anti-Assad protest. Otherwise, zero military conscription will break ...

Less than 24 hours after Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu handed Bashar Assad in Damascus "a final warning," to stop the bloodshed or else, Assad demonstrated coolly that he is not scared by the prospect of Turkish or NATO military intervention or deterred by new US sanctions against Syria's biggest bank and mobile phone company. The day after his Turkish guest departed, Wednesday, Aug. 10, Assad launched provocative military assaults on three towns in the Turkish border region - following receipt of a missile shield guarantee from Iran.

Turkey's foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu left Damascus empty handed after six hours of talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad Tuesday, Aug. 9. Assad indicated the military operation against the protesters would soon be over, but refused to commit to a deadline. That was up to the rebels, he said, not him or the Syrian army. He pledged to "pursue the terrorists." It remains to be seen whether Turkish Prime Minster Tayyip Erdogan makes good on his ultimatum of military intervention unless the bloodshed ends.

As his tanks and artillery stormed the eastern Syrian town of Deir al-Zour, killing 100 civilians in one day, the US and Turkey Sunday night, Aug. 7 began to turn the screw on President Bashar Assad: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked Turkey's foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu to press Syria to "return its military to the barracks," during his visit to Syria Tuesday. The Syrian ruler with Iranian backing spurned the ultimatum even before the minister reached Damascus.