Plan of military encirclement of Egypt by Turkey

The most important event in the Middle East went completely unnoticed last week and involved the inauguration of a huge Egyptian military base.

On January 15, 2020, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated the Berenice military base in the presence of representatives of foreign delegations.

It is estimated to be the largest military base in the Middle East and Africa and the largest military base in the Red Sea.

The new base is located near the city of Aswan, Egypt's largest port on the Nile River bordering Sudan.

Its area covers 150,000 acres and compares in size with the state of Qatar (this is a symbolism, since Qatar is actually much larger (2,859 million acres), but the message of Egyptian propaganda in favor of the UAE is clear here.

According to the jane's defense news agency, the Egyptian Armed Forces base has a naval base, an air base with 18 hangars for fighter aircraft, a military hospital, on-site units and administrative personnel, as well as landing areas. of available weapons, located in the arsenals of the Egyptian army.

It also has its own desalination plant with a capacity of 34 thousand cubic meters per day, and there is also a civilian airport nearby (capacity - 600 passengers / hour), as the base is connected by access roads 40 km long.

Strategically, the Egyptian military base will perform a number of tasks:

1. Defense of the southern border of Egypt from any threats. In this context, we are talking about control by Ethiopia, which is building the Great Barrier on the Upper Nile.

Although Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, through Washington's mediation, have reached preliminary agreements on the Khedashi tank on the so-called Blue Nile on January 17, there are still serious tensions between Egypt and Egypt.

In particular, Cairo is absolutely reluctant to establish an Ethiopian military base in the Red Sea, (Djibouti).

2. Cairo also sends a clear message to Turkey that it does not like excessive military activity in the Horn of Africa. Especially the plans for the development of the Turkish army in Somalia and Sudan.

3. Following Iran's challenges with ships in the Persian Gulf in 2019, Egypt will protect the safety of navigation in the Red Sea, especially in the Suez Canal. The base will also be an important element in curbing Iran's military expansion in the region.

Also, the Berenice base will be able to accommodate US troops (which will be gradually withdrawn from Iraq) so that they do not leave the area completely and have the ability to reach crisis areas quickly.

4. The base will strengthen coordination between the UAE and Egypt in the Red Sea region, as the Emirates already has a number of new military bases in Eritrea and Yemen's Socenra islet.

In short, al-Sisi has built a huge military base as Turkey seeks to encircle Egypt on all sides, most recently Libya, from which it has so far failed.

The Egyptian president is the only leader in the region to implement a massive plan to halt the Ottoman Empire's dream of revival, and a few days ago the French who once ruled in those areas also woke up.

The Turkish war machine is not only treated with diplomacy (which is always necessary), but it requires thorough military preparation and plans to contain it in all its extensions.