Very humanitarian

‘Look at that!’, says S. ‘You don’t believe there are any nurses on board that ship, do you?’ No, I don’t believe so. I’m sitting on a terrace at the Bosporus with Dutch friend A. and her Turkish boyfriend S., while the American warship USS McFaul is passing by. At first Turkey didn’t allow the ship to enter Turkish territory, but in the end permission came anyway for the ship to go through the Dardanelles (south of Istanbul) and the Bosporus to sail to Georgia. Prime Minister Erdogan will benefit from it somehow, says S., and he speaks for many Turks. Officially the ship is on its way to take blankets, bottled water, baby food and nappies to the Georgian people in need. Of course the ‘baby food and nappies’ in particular sound very humanitarian. But in the end it is of course rather cynical to use baby food and nappies to show the other party in the conflict, Russia, your muscles.