Is the US planning a new operation for Turkey?

When U.S. State Secretary Rex Tillerson was suddenly dismissed from office one morning with a seven-line tweet, the term “Tillersoned” was coined in social media – meaning, “The one who was left without notice.”

The gossip aside, we cannot disregard that the matter is too serious to joke about.

Mike Pompeo, who replaced Tillerson, being someone who has astonishing views, and the “torturous” identity of Gina Haspel, who replaced him as the head of CIA, reveals the gravity of it all.

American analysts, who hold reasonable views, summarize Tillerson’s departure as, “From now on, there are very few people left around [U.S. President Donald] Trump to prevent him from behaving foolishly and carelessly.”

What should we make of this? Trump, who, more recently, ignited trade wars by placing a quota on steel and aluminum, may be readying to set sail to new adventures in the upcoming period with his more “likeminded” team now that a torturer has also joined them.

Will the view on Turkey change?

Let’s focus on the part that concerns our country.

In the comments made after the U.S. secretary of state was dismissed with an insulting method, we didn’t see anyone other than Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) members that connected Turkey to this.

Could Tillerson displaying an attitude in the recent period supportive of Turkey’s position on Syria, steering toward actions appreciative of Ankara against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), be the reason Trump made such a decision?

As I said, there is nobody, other than FETÖ, that interprets what has happened in this way yet. But if you were to ask whether this could also be among the reasons, I cannot possibly disregard this question.

Egypt/UAE/Saudi Arabia’s victory

When we look at the matter with focus on the Tillerson issue, I can say that we are face to face with a series of new doubts.

As I said, even though there aren’t really any comments directly associating Tillerson’s departure to Turkey, the number of those who see this as a victory of the Egypt/UAE/Saudi Arabia trio is not small.

Therefore, let us continue to follow the trace from there.

Mohammed bin Salman, who, even though is not the official king of Saudi Arabia, is the physical king, recently made two extravagant visits, first to Egypt, then to the U.K.

Salman, who will be going to Washington on March 19, is going to be hosted by President Trump.

Thus, we can stop and ask: Is it possible to associate the timing of Tillerson’s discharge with this visit?

If we are going to consider this as the victory of this trio, then yes, it is possible.

Did the crown prince make that comment or not?

The part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s traffic that concerns us is in relation to a statement that he is claimed to have made in Egypt, but whether he indeed said it has not been confirmed.

The statement he is claimed to have made is: “Iran, Turkey and terrorist groups are the triangle of evil in our time. The Ottoman’s under [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan’s control want to use the Muslim Brotherhood and reinstate the caliphate.”

It was an Egyptian journalist, who said that he too was there, that announced that the crown prince made such a statement. Saudi Arabia’s Ankara Embassy, immediately after, made a statement refuting this claim, saying, “The crown prince meant the Muslim Brotherhood with that statement, not Turkey.”

The full text for that statement was as follows:

“A news article stating that the crown prince told media outlets in Cairo that there were evil forces in the region was published. Some of these media sources wrongly announced that he was talking about Turkey. We would like to make it clear that his honorary crown prince was talking about the Muslim Brotherhood and radical groups.”

Even though we are in a position to rely on the statement by the Saudi Arabian embassy, it is not that easy to get rid of the feeling/suspicion of, “Are they cooking up something again somewhere.”

Also, we have another reason: We know what came out of the “glowing orb show” displayed during Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia.

Weren’t comments made in more than one incident, primarily the Qatar crisis, “These are all because of that glowing orb”?

We are now waiting for the crown prince’s 19 March visit to Washington.

In the case a few new oddities emerge before or after that trip, it means we will think, “So Tillerson was discharged to prevent him from being a wedge in all this business.”