The year opened with Russia and Turkey as enemies, exchanging economic blows and locked in proxy warfare across Syria in the aftermath of Turkey's treacherous shoot down of a Russian SU-24 bomber in November 2015. 2016 closes with Turkish president turned despotic strongman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accusing Washington and its allies of supporting not only the Kurdish militants of the PKK but also the Islamic State terrorists, plus rumors of Russian air strikes in support of Turkey's troops struggling to make gains against Daesh at al-Bab.
As the Russia Analyst predicted as far back as August 7, 2015, the Obama Administration would eventually try to make Erdogan the fall guy for the spectacular rise of ISIS, only to have the Sultan blame Washington in reply. We also predicted along with the rest of team RogueMoney and some friends of RM such as Dr. Jim Willie and Joseph P. Farrell, that Turkey would pivot East -- as the alternative would be winding up 'on the menu' with its own territorial integrity in question due to the Kurdish issue. We just did not envision it occurring in this way, with the Russian-Turkish-Iranian troika talking about a nationwide ceasefire across Syria in 2017, and the U.S. State Department and EUnuchs pointedly NOT invited to the peace table...