Recep Tayyip Erdoğan started as a moderate Muslim Turkish politician who wanted to fight injustice and bring Turkey to the 21st century. At least this was what he projected in the beginning and he was a sign of hope in an era the whole middle east was on fire once more and a new, global this time, appeared from the region.

Turkey could have become the compass and the example for change in all the Muslim world and a membership in the European Union would have made things even better showing that religion should have never been an obstacle in the relations between nations. That’s how the west saw Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. What happened since then nobody knows and most suspect that it was all a deception, a political game from Erdoğan to climb in power without any problems from the west that as the past had proved, could change things internally at will with the army often serving offices outside Turkey.

The last few years Erdoğan became everything the west accuses Vladimir Putin without the global influence Putin has and Erdoğan envies. A corrupted dictator with strong nationalistic motives, who manipulated democracy using religion as the instrument to unite around him the Muslim masses who are the vast majority in Turkey. Just like Putin, Erdoğan used judicature enforcing number of laws to cover his actions and of course he made sure that his family and he will never be poor again.

In the meantime and while the average Muslim follower and supporter of Erdoğan continued living in life standards that reach poverty believing in the return of the Ottoman Empire and the illusion that one of their own was in power, Erdoğan established a regime of fear. Every opposition is dealt with violence and most of his enemies have seen one way or another prison cells. Only mentioning Erdoğan’s name in the social media in a negative way is enough to send anybody to prison. Still Erdoğan enjoys the support of the people and every single election the last fifteen years at least have called him winner.

Erdoğan’s foreign policy has been equally confusing for the west who were expecting him to be the last champion against radicalism and extremism. Erdoğan proved to everybody that he was an equivocal ally who was serving personal dreams dangerously away even from logic. On his way to establish Turkey as a regional superpower among the Muslim world Erdoğan was ready to alliance even with the evil and arrogant as he is he also believes that he can handle and manipulate the evil turning it into a servant who would serve unquestionably and in this case do all the dirty job.

For Erdoğan the situation in Syria was a good chance first of all to demolish a neighbour regime that was an accountable force against his plans for regional domination, expand Turkey’s influence in Iraq and finally terminate or at least limit the Kurdish issue, the biggest fear of every Turkish leader the last seventy years. For all that ISIL seemed like a present from hell. Definitely against Assad, definitely against the Kurdish friendly Iraqi government, definitely not tied to the Iranian mullahs, definitely funded strongly by the powers that fund all extremism the last few decades in middle east and finally with a psychotic hate against the Kurds. There was also a bonus, they are not just psychopaths; they are murderous psychopaths with conscious and using religion as a veil.

Erdoğan never made an open alliance with them, how could he after all. Turkey is a member of NATO and had signed a pact against ISIL. They also left American and allied planes to land and refuel in the American bases in Turkey while attacking ISIL in Syria. But that was it. They didn’t do anything else. They could actually see ISIL slaughtering people just a few yards away in the border line and never moved even to help innocent people.

On top of that Turkey became the pathway for ISIL fighters to enter or exit Syria at will and elegantly became the man in between for ISIL to access petrol and weapons. All that with Erdoğan making a show off as the protector of the Palestinians and every Muslim in Balkans and all around the world.

Suddenly, last Friday, everything changed; Erdoğan send Turkish planes to bomb ISIL positions inside Syria. A terrorist attack from behalf of ISIL that coasted the lives of tens of people in Turkey was the excuse for this change but was that enough. Has Turkish policy suddenly changed or this is another move in Erdoğan’s plan for the return of the ottoman times? Was it planned since American air-bombings and political pressure in the region has definitely weaken ISIL in both, military and financial way? Or Erdoğan suddenly felt threaten. Then it is the Kurds.

The Kurds were proven a tough enemy for ISIL who managed not only to stop their continually advance in northern Iraq but also managed to cause serious damage to both, their supposedly god given unstoppable power among their followers and their hard to beat reputation abroad. Now they are just psychotic fanatics who run away when they face a determine opposition. So Erdoğan decided to wear again the shining armour of the liberator and move on with his plans.

The fact that the west has dealt with silent curiosity and quiet surprise with Erdoğan’s latest actions and attacks on ISIL, shows the doubt that clouds everything. Everybody has understand him by now and they are just waiting to see his real motives. The same time ISIL is not an easy enemy for Turkey, they know each other too well and they have used each other for so long to know all their secrets. This is a war that will not finish in a few weeks and it will cause a lot of damage to both sides especially since ISIL has access to the Muslim radicals and extremists in Turkey, an access Erdoğan gave them for long.

Erdoğan’s mistakes, manipulations and risky policies have brought the war and ISIL closer to Europe. Suddenly it’s not Turkey the last frontier and the war moves to Mediterranean Sea where the refugees’ problem has increased dramatically with thousands of people trying to escape to the west.