Turkey – exploiting a vacuum to cause trouble

Turkey is increasingly a cause for concern with the authoritarian President Recep Erdogan seeking even more draconian powers in an April 16^th vote on constitutional reform, batting off insults at EU countries, cosying up to Saudi Arabia and Russia and now in a war of words with Greece.

Greece refused to extradite Turkish military officers involved in a recent coup against Erdogan; and now Turkey is brewing up a historic argument about where the border between the two countries lies. The fear is of an accidental flare-up that blows out of control with almost daily dogfights between armed jets and naval incursions of Greek waters by Turkish research vessels. If Turkish nationalism, being fanned at the moment, spilled over into an attempted invasion on Greek soil, it’s difficult to know with the mayhem in Washington and NATO being constrained quite what the global response would be.

The Turkey chart is certainly moving into a highly-strung, fanatical eighteen months with tr Neptune conjunct its prominent Uranus in Pisces, which is tied into a Water Grand Trine. Interfacing with reality may not be that easy; plus the February eclipse was conjunct Uranus which will produce a lightning bolt effect. Tr Uranus opposes the 4^th house Mercury Saturn in Libra through April, across the vote, so it’ll be a time of high tension and excitability. What’s ominous is a Solar Arc Mars opposition the Turkey Pluto (again on one leg of the Grand Trine), exact with a couple of months – that could be completely blocked but can also point to ruthlessness and rage as a response. Into 2018 tr Neptune squares the MC (start time being accurate) which is lack-lustre and not pro-active.

Relations between Turkey and both the Greece 25 March 1821 and Greece 24 July 1974 charts look dire over the next two to three years. Tr Pluto is conjunct the composite Sun, Saturn Venus on one at 18/19 Capricorn; with a peak of tensions  from this May onwards. On the other relationship chart there’s aggravation this year and next with tr Pluto trine the Sun and Mars; and possibly worse in 2018/19 with tr Pluto conjunct the composite Jupiter which usually ends up in a macho stand-off.

Erdogan’s 2014 Presidency chart was always odd with a Virgo Sun opposition Neptune and trine Pluto – on one reading, it looks weak, but on another it’s megalomaniac. And there’s certainly a brutal Mars Saturn conjunction in Scorpio which is getting the tr Pluto sextile in 2017/18, so military involvements were always going to loom large. The February Pisces Eclipse impacted on the Sun and Neptune, so it’ll be interesting to see which way the April 16^th vote goes. His personal chart also caught the Eclipse with his Pisces Sun within a degree – and that is usually a good going crisis. He looks on edge at the moment, less than confident and thoroughly boxed in by Sept/Oct; with an over-pushy 2018/19 landing him up with dented enthusiasm and possibly financial problems; at the least the balloon of his idealistic flights of fancy bursting.