TURKEY: Public censure for Israel amid reports of private overtures

If you are confused about Turkey's current policy towards Israel, you are not alone.

The former Israeli strategic partner continues to demand that Israel be held accountable for last month's deadly raid on a Gaza flotilla, even as reports emerge that the Turkish foreign minister held a secret meeting Wednesday with an Israeli lawmaker in Europe.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu reportedly met with Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Israel's industry, trade and labor minister in an unnamed European capital in an effort to defuse the diplomatic crisis between the two nations, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

In the wake of the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara aid ship, which left eight Turks and one Turkish-American activist dead, Turkey has taken a tough stance on Israel while trying not to jeopardize its good relations with the United States and Europe, or even Israel itself for that matter.

This week, it banned Israeli military planes from flying over Turkish airspace after reportedly canceling all defense contracts and joint military maneuvers. Despite all this, Ankara insists that it has no intention of severing ties with Israel, and even admitted to using Israeli drones to monitor Kurdish rebel movements in Northern Iraq.

"In the Middle East, we are friends with Israel as well," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Charlie Rose this week from Toronto, Canada, where he was attending the G-20 summit.

"But more recently, because of the position that Israel has taken and also because they attacked in international waters three ships where there were Turkish citizens . . . this has made it difficult because there is no explanation," he said. "This is state terror; it would be impossible to define it in any international legal terms."

Erdogan also called on the U.S. administration to "take ownership of the situation" following the death of Furkan Dogan, the American citizen. "The families have a right to ask their governments what happened," Erdogan said.

Turkey has said that relations with Israel will remain strained until Israel meets all four of Turkey's conditions: offer a formal apology, pay compensation to the families of the victims, allow an international investigation and lift its embargo on the Gaza Strip. Israel has announced that it will ease restrictions of goods flowing into the Gaza Strip, but has so far refused to allow an independent, international inquiry into the flotilla disaster.

Turkish officials deny that Turkey's foreign policy has shifted eastward, but some observers wonder if Turkey has overplayed its hand.

"Did the AKP [ruling party] sincerely believe that it could push Washington to take a position against Israel, dump it if necessary and support the Turkish position all the way?," read one editorial in the Hurriyet Daily News.

"Turkey now seems to be put in a doghouse in Washington for a while," it continued. "This stonewalling attitude of the U.S. administration does not mean necessarily it wishes to alienate the Turkish administration. However, it does signal that it will not tolerate some of the harsher rhetoric that repeatedly comes from there."

— Meris Lutz in Beirut

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talks to Charlie Rose. Credit: Meris Lutz via YouTube video

Comments

[Lee]

No need for subterfuge! What happened was plain and simple the massacer of 'unarmed' Turkish humanitarian workers by the IDF aggressors in International Waters PERIOD!

Israel shall be made to yield to Turkey's requests as her long term survival may depend on it in a region where her one and only friend who helped the Jewish people throughout history may shut th door on her face permanently.

The pious and secular alike in Turkey deplore the killings of the Turkish civilians by IDF backed by a zionist Israeli Administration out of control.

[sam]

you cant board a plane .or leave an airport without checks of all kinds.why send aid in this way when you know the problems it will cause for years to come ? and give those who love to cause the problems even more ideas.(more boats) .go to port get cleared and get delivered easy.there is no shortage of food and when was the last time you saw a starving terrorist.

[tony]

Nobody sees to care and the media sure doesn't comment about when North Korea sunk a South Korean ship killing 40+ soldiers. But when Israel wants to make sure “Humanitarian” goods don’t contain weapons to be used against them, the media sure covers that. Go Israel and every one else can shove it.

[Henryk Spanlang]

1.Erdogan's Islamist inclinations were already known when he ascended to throne.
2. It is already estalished that the RaviMarmara was supported by the Tukish authoritis. They also proclaimed so openly.
They also knew the AGGRESSIVE aim of the "peace" expedition.
3. Now it is already clear that there was no essential shortage in Ghaza.
4. Hamas is a very good pupil of Goebels :
If you constantly proclaim that day is night, eventually people will belieave it.

[ABG]

If nine people (out of 700) dying on the Mavi Marnara was a massacre (comment #3) then what was Turkey killing 22 Kurds with a bombing raid a couple weeks later? A Mega-Massacre?

[S_toren]

For Israel, the deterioration of her relations with Turkey is regretable, but people shouldn't be misled: this is a deliberate policy change being implemented by the AKP and Erdogan. Realignment with the Islamic countries of the Near East is part and parcel of the Islamiist AKP and it is natural that Israel-Turkey relations would suffer from that.

As to the usual bunk about Jewish Turkey relations, in order understand the long histories of both people one should learn them first and as far as the Jewish people are concerned , it is definetly a mix bag and not a excuse for Israel to submit to any Turkish extortation. At any rate, it isn't even clear who needs who more , and economically both countries have benefitted from close realtions and suffer when those relations are degraded.

[Ariely]

theatre presents: " Hypocrites" in 3 acts

Act 1: THE FROZING SILENS

The global actors- Goverments, UN, NGO's are silent.
All are busy verifying their petrol backlog

On a corner a small news board displays:
** People killed by Islamists worldwide: 742 in May 2010: 556 in Jul 2010
The Islamic terrorists hid in civilian areas, dressed as civilians, sometimes wearing burka
Places, numbers, killing methods in: www.thereligionofpeace.com/index.html#Attacks
** Muslims Kyrgyz and Uzbeks are killing each other-over 2000 civilians and 800.000 fled

Nobody pay attention-SILENCE

Act 2: "VICTORY"
The global actors- Governments, UN, NGO's some are cheering "Victory" some are silent

The news board displays:
Victory!!! A terrorist was killed together with his wife, 3 daughters, a grandchild and other men, women and children by a long range missile
Ref_ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37440747/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

The action was 10.000 miles away from the countries shores treated by the terrorist
The terror group agenda is to impose Islam worldwide

Act 3: THE CHILLING HYPOCRACY

The global actors- Governments, UN, NGO's are paying for petrol supply with a small coin named Israel
All are shouting:
"Israel- open the arms supply channel to Hamas"

Children dressed with suicide bombing jackets lead by their teachers are marching holding Hamas charter slogans:
1: Peace &quiet would not be possible except under Islam
2: The Day of Judgment will not come until Moslems kill the Jews
3: Sharia goes for any land the Moslems have conquered by force till the Day of Judgment
Hamas charter link : http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm

Chamberlin (masked as Obama) holding Czechoslovakia and Israel maps - cheered by EU, Russia leaders says;
"I am bringing peace to mankind once again as before WW2"

In a corner Ataturk cries: Erduan Islamism was not by dream for Turkey

A Lilliput with an Israeli flag faces the bashing chorus holding a board:
I will defend my existence

[atrayu]

When is Turkey going to be held accountable for the murder of innocent Kurds?

[Erdogan losing credibility both for himself and Turkey]

Forget about everything else: The fact that Turkey cannot get Israel and US agree to an international investigation of the incident shows that the Israelis have zero respect for Turks and view Turkey as an dispensable ally. What a sad state of affairs when Turks had always watched out for their Jewish neighbors.

Obama administration is instilling extra confidence and bravado in the Israelis who now correctly believe that they can get away with just about anything including a massacre. It's Turkey who's lost citizens in the raid but Obama-Biden feel US should stonewall the Turks. Where's the fairness in all of this? Even if the people on the ship were to share the blame, why is Israel being rewarded for the raid but Turkey being punished?

If Turks have half a brain they should stop purchasing Herons from Israel and either manufacture the equipment themselves or buy it elsewhere. Erdogan should at least take the flotilla case to an International Court like ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) if he does not want to lose all credibility.

Turks should not have to count on the humanity of others because none is forthcoming. Stop begging Israelis for an apology. Take the case to a court of law!

[TKaplan]

The battle between Turkey and Israel is a significant turn of events and affects US policy in the Middle East very much. The Los Angeles Times has covered the issue quite well. But I am confused as to why the LA Times has also not covered the news that the "Woodrow Wilson Center", established and funded by Congress, awarded Turkey's Foreign Minister Davutoglu its top prize last month.
Many writers have noted the irony of this.
Congressmen like Gary Ackerman (D-NY) have expressed outrage (see http://ackerman.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=186&sectiontree=4,186&itemid=1029). A Woodrow Wilson descendant, Don Bush, has blasted the Wilson Center over this (see
http://usaarmenianlife.com/PawnForTheWrongPresident.html and
http://usaarmenianlife.com/PresLegacyforSale.html ).

There was also an expose of the Wilson Center.
http://www.countercurrents.org/boyajian060510.htm

What is going on, LA Times?

[Citizenoftheworld]

The deterioration of a friendship that dates not just from Turkey’s recognition of Israel in 1949, but extends back through the centuries ranging from providing refuge to the Sepharadim by Sultan Beyazit II during the Spanish Inquisition to Turkish diplomats risking their lives to save Jews during WW2, is sad indeed.

However, neither Turkey, nor any other nation of conscience, should ignore the escalating human tragedy resulting from Israel’s failed attempt at forcing the removal of a democratically elected Hamas government in Gaza by blockading them for nearly three years and forcing 1.6 million people to live in subhuman conditions akin to what the Jews suffered in the Warsaw Ghetto during WW2.

I am appalled to see how a people who have suffered as much as the Jews, can turn around and so readily inflict similar suffering on others to further their own geopolitical goals under the guise of self-protection. Talk about man’s inhumanity to man. Almost every week, the Turks suffer far greater violence perpetrated against them by Kurdish PKK terrorists than that perpetrated by terrorists from Gaza against Israel, yet they have not occupied the Kurdish regions of northern Iraq. Nor have they blockaded the Kurdish population living in southeastern Turkey behind walls and barbed wire so as to force them not to support the PKK.

Sometimes, by its own actions, Israel is its own worst enemy. Instead of storming the vessels at night with armed commandos shooting blanks and dropping stun grenades, why could they not have followed the flotilla to Gaza and prior to allowing them to dock, inspected the vessels and their passengers as most civilized nations do in customs? Especially considering that Israel has defacto control over Gaza both on land and sea.

The present day government of Israel, with what unfortunately appears to be the support of a majority of Israelis, has become a heavy handed bully used to getting its way regardless of the consequences. It is this attitude which has gradually chilled the good relations that had existed between Israel and Turkey. Otherwise until now, most present-day Turks had ambivalent feelings towards the Arabs whom they saw as having betrayed them by siding with the British during WW1.

Finally, if a resolution declaring the deportation of the Armenians in 1915 as genocide passes in Congress due to lack of Jewish support, so what? Several other nations have passed similar historically incorrect resolutions, but what have they accomplished other than to generate more animosity between the Armenians and the Turks? On the other hand, the erosion of Turkish-Israeli ties will have far greater consequence for Israel, both in the short and long term. Something supporters of Israel would do well to consider.