Turkey and Russia Bury the Hatchet...so do Israel and Turkey

Last year Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet that supposedly strayed into Turkish air space while bombing "militants" in Syria.

Needless to say, Putin was not happy.

Many of us wondered how this event was going to play into the Ezekiel 38-39 prophecy that many prophecy watchers believe mentions Russia, Iran and Turkey leading a coalition against Israel.  It seemed like two huge steps back for any Russian-Turkish cooperation.

Today we find out they just made friends again....so maybe prophecy can also take one step forward, two steps back or two steps forward, one step back?

But please also notice that while Russia and Turkey have buried the hatchet...SO HAS TURKEY AND ISRAEL!!

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan are too alike to remain enemies for long. On Monday, the Kremlin's official website published excerpts from Erdogan's letter to Putin in which the Turkish leader apologizes for the downing of a Russian warplane in November and offers compensation to the dead pilot's family.

There may be economic reasons for the unexpected apology, but the two leaders' ideological closeness -- and their interest in doing deals -- probably also helped end the spat.

After the Russian plane flying a mission in Syria briefly crossed the border into Turkey and was downed by the Turkish air force, Putin demanded an apology and an offer to compensate Russia for the damage, but Erdogan insisted that it was Putin who should apologize for the airspace violation. Both sides accused each other of backing terrorists in Syria; at times, the rhetoric appeared too heated for the rift ever to be healed. 

To punish Turkey, Moscow shut down package tours to Turkey, forbade Turkish construction firms to build in Russia and banned Turkish fruit, vegetable and poultry. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development estimated last year that the Russian sanctions would cut Turkey's economic growth between 0.3 to 0.7 percentage points in 2016, but Erdogan was undeterred.

The number of Russian visitors to Antalya, in previous years one of Russians' favorite seaside destinations, dropped 95 percent this year. It would have been tolerable -- Turkey traditionally gets about five times more tourists from Europe than Russia -- but this year Britons and Germans are also staying away because of perceived security threats, so the total number of tourists is down 45  percent compared with last year. This could have influenced Erdogan's turnabout, but the Turkish leader's calculus is probably more complex. 

Just as the Kremlin published Erdogan's apology, Turkey and Israel announced the normalization of diplomatic relations, severed six years ago after eight Turks died in an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. This may allow Turkey to diversify its energy supply: Israel can now build a gas pipeline to Cyprus, which would help Turkey become less dependent on Russian gas. Gazprom, the Russian state-owned producer, supplies about 55 percent of Turkey's needs.

Russia is dead set against the pipeline proposal. Israel is aware of the risk to the project, and it has alternative plans to send gas to Egypt, liquefy it there and export it using ships, not pipelines. To make the pipeline possible, Erdogan needs to talk to Russia, perhaps reviving shelved plans for a new Russian pipeline to Turkey to create a hub for further export to southern Europe.

Turkey's position as a Middle Eastern gateway requires friendly relations with the major players. Erdogan is volatile, but he's also wily, and he must understand that it's easier for him to maintain a pragmatic, quid-pro-quo relationship with Putin than, say, European Union leaders.

Here;  http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-06-27/here-s-why-erdogan-is-burying-the-hatchet-with-putin

Prophetic events continue marching on folks!  Can you see a day when Russia, Iran and MAYBE Turkey form a coalition that seeks to take what Israel has?

Ezekiel 38
7 “‘Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them. 8 After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety. 9 You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land.

I will remind you that MOST prophecy watchers have come to the conclusion that the events of Ezekiel 38 will happen AFTER Christ comes to snatch his bride away from a world ripe for judgment....so if we can see the players falling into place for something that happens AFTER the rapture....how close might we be to hearing the trumpet call of God with the voice of the archangel?