Turkish Forum

Category: Israel

  • Where Will Turkish-Israeli Relations Go After Gaza?

    Where Will Turkish-Israeli Relations Go After Gaza?

    Where Will Turkish-Israeli Relations Go After Gaza?

    Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 11
    January 19, 2009
    By: Saban Kardas

    As Israel’s only ally in the region, increasingly vocal criticism from Ankara and the streets of Turkey about the operations in Gaza raises questions about the future of Turkish-Israeli relations. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had refused to talk to Israeli leaders before a ceasefire was reached. Nonetheless, in response to growing calls from across the political spectrum for breaking off ties with Israel or imposing sanctions, Erdogan said that this was out of question, stressing that Turkey could not afford the political consequences of such a decision (Anadolu Ajansi, January 17).

    Likewise, on a live TV show Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan ruled out severing diplomatic relations with Israel, because such a populist move would not serve regional stability and would undermine Turkey’s mediation attempts by closing channels of communication. Nonetheless, Babacan confirmed earlier press reports that he had refused to meet Israeli Foreign Minister “Tzipi” Livni, who wanted to visit Ankara. Babacan told Livni on the phone that unless she wanted to discuss conditions for a ceasefire, “it did not make sense to pay a good-intentions visit” (www.ntvmsnbc.com, January 16). Earlier, Babacan had indirectly criticized American support for Israel, by saying, “Israel will continue its operations as long as it gets a green light from some countries” (www.kanaldhaner.com, January 15).

    Erdogan uses every opportunity to express his criticism of Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the silence of the international community. He has addressed large public gatherings, such as party meetings preceding municipal elections, which have been important forums for airing his views on Gaza. During a party congress, for instance, he questioned the silence of the international community over Israel’s disregard of numerous UN Security Council resolutions (www.cnnturk.com, January 16). Similarly, when UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Ankara on Friday, Erdogan told him that Turkey had expected the UN to be more proactive (Star, January 17).

    Before his departure to Brussels on Sunday, Erdogan called on the Western leaders to demonstrate a resolute attitude toward Israel. Criticizing international efforts to reach a settlement by excluding Hamas from the negotiation table, Erdogan maintained that “Hamas is a party that won elections. The West, which has failed to respect Hamas’s democratic openings, is responsible for the current situation” (Cihan Haber Ajansi, January 18).

    When addressing the representatives of the Turkish community in Brussels, the developments in Gaza and Turkish diplomatic efforts again occupied a central place. Although he found Israel’s unilateral declaration of a ceasefire important, he said that the continuing presence of Israeli forces in Gaza was an issue of concern and asked Israel to give assurances that it would allow uninterrupted humanitarian aid. Referring to Hamas’s decision to halt its military activities, Erdogan maintained that the new situation approximated what he had sought to achieve through his earlier diplomatic initiatives (www.ntvmsnbc.com, January 18).

    Erdogan’s claim of credit for Turkey’s contributions to regional diplomacy is not baseless. Despite its critical tone toward Israel, Ankara has maintained ties with both parties to the conflict, hoping to find a peaceful solution. In addition to its own diplomatic efforts (EDM, January 5), Turkey has supported the Egyptian plan of January 6, which was also backed by France and called for an end to violence first, followed by talks on allowing access into Gaza and ensuring the security of Gaza’s borders.

    In the run up to Sunday’s Sharm el-Sheikh summit, co-hosted by Egypt and France, a Turkish delegation led by Ahmet Davutoglu shuttled between Cairo and Damascus meeting with Hamas leaders in Syria in an effort to mediate between the parties. On Friday, Turkey had offered the parties its own draft agreement for a ceasefire, which Babacan called a “solid offer.” On Saturday the Turkish delegation told reporters that parties were close to a mutual understanding on the terms of a ceasefire. On Sunday Israel and then Hamas declared a ceasefire (Anadolu Ajansi, January 17).

    President Abdullah Gul represented Turkey at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, which was also attended by leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Germany, Spain, Britain, Italy, and the Czech Republic, as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Secretaries General of the UN and Arab League. Gul welcomed the conclusions of the summit but asked Israel to pull out from Gaza entirely and to lift the embargo. He also emphasized the need to reach reconciliation between Palestinian factions for a sustainable peace in the region, which Turkey had advocated since the beginning of the crisis (Hurriyet, January 19).

    Although following the summit the European leaders went to Israel to a dinner hosted by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Gul returned to Ankara. Turkish reporters speculated that Gul had not been on the invitation list and interpreted this as Israel’s grave disrespect toward Turkey (www.stargundem.com, January 18). Gul, however, dismissed these claims and maintained that the European leaders went to Israel to discuss the details of an earlier deal between Israel and the United States, which would regulate American involvement in monitoring the border crossings between Gaza and Egypt (www.ntvmsnbc.com.tr, January 18).

    Since the beginning of the crisis, Turkey has said that it was ready to send troops to the region as part of an international force to monitor either a ceasefire or patrol the border between Gaza and Egypt in order to allay Israel’s concerns about weapons smuggling. Gul told reporters that there had been no decision to for such an international force in Sharm el-Sheikh. As a matter of fact, specific arrangements for monitoring weapons traffic remained unresolved at the summit, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledging that the European leaders would provide Egypt and Israel with the necessary technical, military, and naval assistance.

    Gul also emphasized that Turkish-Israeli relations would continue, although Turkey would not hesitate to criticize Israel’s blatant human rights violations, which outraged the entire Turkish population. He maintained that such misguided policies were the greatest threat to Israel’s own security and noted that the Palestinian problem was the source of many problems throughout the world. He asked the incoming Obama administration to contribute to the peace process, noting that “the just and determined involvement of the United States will go a long way toward a long-term resolution of the problem” (ANKA, January 18).

    Turkey’s policy toward the Israeli invasion of Gaza continues to reverberate in its external relations. Whereas Erdogan is praised by people in Muslim countries (EDM, January 15), Ankara is criticized by Western observers who view the recent developments as potentially damaging to Turkey’s relations with the West. According to Dr. Ian Lesser, Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund, although Turkey’s initiatives are worthy of praise, by departing from “the transatlantic consensus on how to deal with Hamas,” Turkey “loses credibility as an interlocutor” (Hurriyet Daily News, January 18).

    https://jamestown.org/program/where-will-turkish-israeli-relations-go-after-gaza/

  • Norman Finkelstein: Israel is committing a holocaust in Gaza

    Norman Finkelstein: Israel is committing a holocaust in Gaza

    Jewish-American Professor Norman Finkelstein has said Israel, a state built on the ashes of the Holocaust, is now committing a holocaust against Palestinians in Gaza.

    American Jewish Professor Norman Finkelstein has heavily criticized Israel over its operation in Gaza. A son of Holocaust survivors, Finkelstein has been barred from Israel for 10 years and was denied tenure at DePaul University in Chicago because of his critical stance on Israeli policies.

    According to Finkelstein, Israel, a state built on the ashes of the Holocaust, is now committing a holocaust against Palestinians in Gaza. In a telephone interview with Today’s Zaman, Finkelstein said Israel was a “terrorist state” created by the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948. Praising Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Turkish people for their courage in supporting Palestinians, Finkelstein referred to Israel as a  “satanic” and “lunatic” state. Finkelstein’s parents survived the Nazi camps in World War II and then immigrated to the US.

    After his book “The Holocaust Industry,” in which he accused many prominent Jewish leaders of abusing the victims of the Holocaust, was published, Finkelstein was almost declared persona non grata by America’s influential Zionist circles.

    What does Israel want to achieve with this operation?

    Basically, Israel wants to achieve two goals: to restore what it calls its deterrence capacity — that means to spread fear among Arab states about itself. This is a core principle of Israeli strategic doctrine. Arab states have to be afraid of Israel, afraid of its military might, and Arabs should do what Israelis want. They shall follow Israeli orders.

    Israel’s military deterrence suffered a setback in May 2000, when Hezbullah succeeded to expel Israeli occupying forces from south Lebanon. Almost immediately in the aftermath of the failure, Israel planned another war with Hezbullah to re-establish its deterrence capacity. In 2006, after long preparation and using its air force, Israel suffered another ignominious defeat in Lebanon against Hezbullah.

    The second goal was to defeat the Palestinian peace offensive. This has been another basic principle of Israeli doctrine: You do not negotiate with Arabs. You give them orders. The Palestinian organization Hamas was becoming too moderate; it was transmitting, giving the signal that it was ready to go along with the two-state settlement based on pre-1967 borders. The leadership of Syria and the West Bank have also been making statements like this. So Israel started to get worried that it would be obliged to negotiate a settlement which the international community has been supporting for the last 30 years.

     

    Those who are against this settlement are the US or Israel, backed by the US. So when Hamas was becoming moderate and holding to the cease-fire it agreed in June 2008, it was showing herself to be a credible negotiating partner. Hamas was standing by its word. In the meantime, Israel has neglected another core principle of cease-fire, namely easing the blockade. So Israel had to defeat this Palestinian peace offensive. It always does this. It provokes Palestinians into reacting, and it wants to either destroy Hamas or inflicts so much damage that Hamas will have to say it will never negotiate with Israel. That is exactly what Israel wants. Israel never wants a moderate negotiating partner because if there is one, pressure on Israel will grow. Hamas is willing for a settlement; Hamas stands by its word. But Israel does not want to negotiate.

    What you are basically saying is that Israel is not interested in peace at all.

    Israel wants peace in its terms, and its terms are that West Bank should belong to their state.

    Will the operation be successful?

    First of all, we have to use proper language. There is no operation, and there is no war. What is happening is a slaughter, a massacre. When you have 200 to 300 kids killed, that is not a war. When you have a strong military going in against a defenseless population, that is not a war. When you shoot a fish in a barrel, we do not call it a war. As an Israeli columnist put it, it does not need too much courage to send jets and helicopter gunships to shoot inside a prison. What just happened was not a war. One-third of the casualties were children. It was not a war; it was a just a massacre.

    In terms of the Israelis’ goals, you have to say it was successful. It inspired fear among Palestinians and Arabs generally that Israel is a lunatic state and that you have to follow its orders. No. 2, it destroys Hamas as a negotiating partner. You now hear from Hamas that it will not negotiate peace. That is what Israel wanted.

    On your Web site, there is an argument that the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors are doing to the Palestinians exactly what was done to them by the Nazis. Do you agree with that?

    I think Israel, as a number of commentators pointed out, is becoming an insane state. And we have to be honest about that. While the rest of the world wants peace, Europe wants peace, the US wants peace, but this state wants war, war and war. In the first week of the massacres, there were reports in the Israeli press that Israel did not want to put all its ground forces in Gaza because it was preparing attacks on Iran. Then there were reports it was planning attacks on Lebanon. It is a lunatic state.

    But do you agree with the characterization?

    Look at the pictures and decide for yourself. I am not going to tell people what they should think about it. But what I say is they should look at the pictures and decide for themselves. (For the pictures go to: )

    Why have you been barred from entering Israel for 10 years? As the son of Holocaust survivors, you cannot enter Israel.

    Let’s be clear on a certain point. I was not entering Israel; I have no interest in going to Israel. I was going to see my friends in the occupied Palestinian territories. And Israel blocked me to go and see my friends in the West Bank. Under international law, I do not think they have any right to do that! I was not posing any security threat to Israel. The day after I was denied entering Israel, the editorial of Haaretz was asking, “Who is afraid of Norman Finkelstein?” They were also saying that I was not a security threat. I do not have any particular interest to go and visit that lunatic state.

    There are Jewish intellectuals who now call Israel a “terrorist state.” Is that a correct naming?

    I am not sure how you cannot agree with that. The goal of the operation was to terrorize the civilian population so that Palestinians would be afraid of Israel. This is the dictionary definition of terrorism. The dictionary definition of terrorism is targeting a civilian population to achieve a political goal. The goal of this operation or rather massacre was to terrorize the civilian population and to wreck and destroy as much civilian infrastructure such that the Palestinians would submit. When you attack schools, mosques, ambulances, hospitals, UN relief organizations, what is that? If this is not terrorism, then what is terrorism?

    In your famous book, “The Holocaust Industry,” you argue that the state of Israel, one of the world’s most formidable military powers, with a horrendous human rights record, cast itself as a victim state in order to garner immunity to criticism. Have we seen this during the Gaza operation?

    They tried to use the Holocaust; it was funny in a very sick way. The leader of the American Jewish Committee, David Harris, wrote an article, and he said it is no coincidence that this war in Gaza is occurring around Jan. 27, which is Holocaust Remembrance Day. He wants to pretend some connection. In fact there is a connection, and the connection is Israel is committing a holocaust in Gaza. But that is not the connection he had in mind. He wanted to play the Holocaust card; I think that it is not working very much anymore. It was clear that during this last massacre in Gaza, liberal Jewish public opinion turned against Israel. If you look at the petitions, demonstrations, letters, support to Israel, not only in the international community but also among the Jewish community, is diminishing. So the Holocaust card, the anti-Semitic card, is not working as efficiently as it was working once.

    You will probably be called anti-Semitic as well.

    I do not think this propaganda is successful anymore.

    In your book “Beyond Chutzpah,” you argue that Israel was created after the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, but the question whether it was premeditated remains to be answered. If it is premeditated, then can it be called genocide?

    Well, it was premeditated, and I think the record is pretty clear. Even Israel’s former minister of foreign affairs, Shlomo Ben-Ami, in his book published several years ago called “Scars of War,” said that it was quite clear that it was a premeditated expulsion in 1948 and it was anchored in the Zionist philosophy of transfer. Ethnic cleansings are ethnic cleansings, and they are war crimes.

    Why do you think US media is so one-sided and so pro-Israeli?

    I think it has two components. First of all, Israel serves American interests in the region and American media always give a free pass to those states that serve American interests. That is the overall picture and not much different from other parts of the world. The horrendous governments like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, they also get free passes in the American media. This is the larger context. And there is, of course, the secondary factor, which is the ethnic element. In many of these newspapers and the media in general, there is a large Jewish presence, and there is a sense of Jewish ethnic solidarity, which plays a role. But I think we have to qualify the secondary factor in two ways. We should not lose sight of the primary factor, which is Israel is the client state of US. No. 2: In this past war, the liberal Jewish population mostly under the age of 40 completely defected from the war, the massacre. They have been opposed to the massacres from the first day.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been very critical of Israel on Gaza, and some American circles lambasted him in return. What do you think about his stance?

    I wish he had done further. I wish he had gone as far as Qatar, Mauritania, Bolivia and Venezuela in breaking diplomatic relations with that lunatic state. But as far as he has gone, the point on which he stands, has been terrific. And I was glad to see Hamas respected the gestures of the Turkish government and said they would be willing to have Turkish troops stationed on “our border.” That is a very high praise for the Turkish government.

    Turks are showing Palestinians compassion, decency and justice. All the Turkish people should take pride of this stance as was the case on the eve of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. It was the Turkish people and government who showed courage. Ninety-six percent of Turkish people opposed the war in Iraq. The Turkish government refused to give Americans use of their land to attack Iraq. Now Turkish people and Turkish government are redeeming themselves again by standing on what is right, what is decent and what is just. I say the highest praise for Erdoğan and the Turkish people.

    How do you feel about Israel’s operation in Gaza personally as the son of Holocaust survivors?

    It has been a long time since I felt any emotional connection with the state of Israel, which relentlessly and brutally and inhumanly keeps these vicious, murderous wars. It is a vandal state. There is a Russian writer who once described vandal states as Genghis Khan with a telegraph. Israel is Genghis Khan with a computer. I feel no emotion of affinity with that state. I have some good friends and their families there, and of course I would not want any of them to be hurt. That said, sometimes I feel that Israel has come out of the boils of the hell, a satanic state. Ninety percent of the population continues to cheer, to exalt and feel proud and heroic. They send a Sherman tank to a playground and torch children. Is this heroism? Is this courage?

    You were not allowed to teach at DePaul University despite a very good academic record and also had some problems in getting your Ph.D. from Princeton. Why?

    Well, I had some problems. I really cannot discuss my problems in the face of what is going on in Gaza. It will be so silly, trivial and stupid. Three hundred or so children — they were incinerated to death; phosphor bombs were thrown indiscriminately over Gaza. Everything these people wanted to rebuild, rebuild and rebuild was destroyed again. This state invaded in 1978, again in 1982, again in 1993, again in 1996, again in 2006, and 2008, and it always destroys, destroys and destroys. And then these satanic narcissistic people throw their hands up in the air and ask, “Why doesn’t anybody love us? Why don’t our neighbors want us to be here?” Why would they?

    19 January 2009, Monday
    SELÇUK GÜLTAŞLI  BRUSSELS

    Todays Zaman

  • THE CALIFORNIA COURIER: ANGERED BY TURKISH CRITICISM OVER GAZA, ISRAEL MAY RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

    THE CALIFORNIA COURIER: ANGERED BY TURKISH CRITICISM OVER GAZA, ISRAEL MAY RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
    14 January 2009, Resource : Panarmenian

    Enraged by the abrasive tone of Turkey’s condemnation of Israel’s attack on Gaza, Israeli officials and Turkish analysts are now raising the possibility that Tel Aviv may retaliate either by recognizing the Armenian Genocide or refusing to help Turkey to lobby against a congressional resolution on the genocide, according to the Publisher of The California Courier.

    “This unexpected turn of events was in response to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan’s continued harsh criticisms, accusing Israel of “perpetrating inhuman actions which would bring it to self-destruction. Allah will sooner or later punish those who transgress the rights of innocents.” Erdogan qualified Israel’s attack on Gaza as “savagery” and a “crime against humanity.” He also refused to take calls from Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and rejected a request by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to visit Ankara.

    While it is unlikely that Israel would reverse its long-standing refusal to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, it may decide not to accommodate future Turkish requests to have American Jewish organizations to lobby against a congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide. Ankara has long depended on Israel to act as a conduit to Washington and to American Jewish organizations who have frequently acted as a kind of surrogate lobby for Turkey in Washington. In the past, Jewish organizations have been instrumental in helping Turkey block efforts to introduce resolutions in Congress recognizing the Armenian genocide of 1915,” Harut Sassounian writes.

    On December 27, 2008, Israel launched a military campaign codenamed Operation Cast Lead, targeting the members and infrastructure of Hamas. As of 12 January 2009, 13 Israelis and 898 Palestinians are estimated to have perished in the conflict. All but three of the Israeli casualties have been soldiers, while 333 of the Gaza casualties have been women and children. 257 children in Gaza have been killed, making up a third of Palestinian casualties.
  • Hamas agrees to Turkish force at border between Gaza and Egypt

    Hamas agrees to Turkish force at border between Gaza and Egypt

    Hamas is set to announce that it is willing to allow a Turkish force to deploy at Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, despite earlier insistence that it would treat any international presence along the border as an occupying force, according to a report on Tuesday. Turkey’s PM said there was a possibility that Israel would attend ceasefire talks in Egypt. (UPDATED)

    Hamas would agree to a Turkish deployment of forces, because it “harbors respect to Turkey as an Islamic nation,” a Hamas source told the London-based Arabic daily Al Hayat; Israel’s Jerusalem Post reported.

    Turkey has urged for the formation of an international monitoring force for Gaza and has said it is ready to participate. Turkey currently actively participates in peacekeeping missions in the West Bank city of Hebron and Lebanon in the Middle East, as well as in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

    However, the details of the mission – where it would be located, what exactly it would do, who would be involved, what the role of the Palestinian Authority would be – were still being formulated. There is some talk about carving out a “neutral zone” along the border where the team would operate.

    Hamas would only consent to the deployment of Turkish forces in the Strip if all of the crossings into Gaza are opened, Hamas sources told Al Hayat.

    The group has resisted the idea of international monitors because it wants control of the Gaza border, and Egypt has opposed the presence of foreign forces on its soil as a violation of its sovereignty. Egypt would prefer that Fatah man the border on the Gaza side and does not believe it needs outside help to monitor its own crossing.

    ISRAEL MAY ATTEND TALKS
    Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday Israel is also expected to join ceasefire talks in Egypt, adding this could make it closer to reach a solution.

    “Talks are at a better phase when compared to two weeks ago. It is distressing that there is such a negative process despite the U.N. Security Council,” he said when asked about some news reports that parties were coming closer to an agreement and that Turkish troops would ensure security of the tunnels.

    “However, talks in Egypt progress at a positive direction in the past 3 days,” he was quoted by the Anatolian Agency as saying.

    Turkish officials are engaged in ongoing shuttle diplomacy in the region in a bid to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.

    A Turkish delegation led by Ahmet Davutoglu, chief advisor to Erdogan, met both Egyptian and Hamas officials in Cairo and Damascus.

    Diplomatic sources say Turkey is playing a key role in the talks because Hamas, due to its tensions with Egypt, currently has more confidence in Turkey than it does in Egypt.

    According to the Israeli sources, in the current talks Turkey is acting as the mediator between Egypt and Hamas, and not between Hamas and Israel. One Israeli source said Israel’s relationship with Turkey has been set back considerably because of Erdogan’s extremely harsh criticisms of the Israeli military operations.
  • The Torah Position on the Current Conflict in Gaza

    The Torah Position on the Current Conflict in Gaza

    Jan 4, 2009

    "The Zionists do not make Jews into heretics in order to have a state, they want a state in order to make Jews into heretics."–Lubavitcher Rabbi Sholem Schneersohn

    Once again, we find ourselves reading horrifying headlines regarding the unrest in the Middle East. In one long chain of tragedies and civilian bloodshed, residential neighborhoods have been transformed into war zones, the daily lives of civilians distorted by ever-present shadows of terror and fright.

    Our readers have long been familiar with the Torah position; let us re-announce it boldly and clearly:

    The Zionist ideology is antithetical to the Torah. Zionism was deviously designed to replace the Torah and its holy, God-given commandments with nationalistic, power-driven ideals that are devoid of holiness, godliness, or spirituality.

    God-fearing Jews believe that the ultimate Redemption of the Jewish Nation will come about only through the Hands of God, and that at the time of the Redemption, peace will reign in the entire world. Any other type of forced redemption is but a sinful transgression, condemned by God and His Holy Torah.

    What more proof does one need than the fact that for centuries, Jews have lived peacefully in Arabic countries, enjoying the respect and friendship of their neighbors? The tragedy of Zionism changed all of that. The painful truth is that in the eyes of the Zionist government, Jews are merely the cannon-fodder needed for the State of Israel to achieve its agenda.

    Obviously, the State of Israel has absolutely no connection with either Jews or Judaism. Furthermore, Torah-true Jews did not participate in the founding of the State, and for decades, we have announced our disapproval and disassociation from the State of Israel at every opportunity.

    “The following explanation clarifies this issue beautifully: Would the Jews be held responsible in a conflict between North Korea and South Korea? Obviously not! In the same way, Jews should not be held responsible for the Zionists conflicts with their neighbors. The State of Israel has as much to do with Jews and Judaism as does New Zealand or Zimbabwe,” said Rabbi Hersh Lowenthal.

    May it be clear to every nation, to every person in the entire world: JEWS ARE NOT ZIONISTS!

    The Zionists are neither our representatives nor our spokesmen. They have absolutely no right to speak in the name of world Jewry. It is a terrible mistake to confuse Jews with Zionism, or to blame Jews for Zionist actions. We truly wish to live in peace with every nation in the world. We pray for our Jewish brethren as well as for the non-Jews in the Middle East, that they may be saved from danger and peril.

    And most of all, we await that great day when G-d’s glory will be revealed in the entire world, and there will be peace for all of humanity.

    Amen.

    TRUE TORAH JEWS:

    Source:  www.jewsagainstzionism.com

  • Who in the world is Tuncay Guney?

    Who in the world is Tuncay Guney?

    Immigration
    In Turkey, the former reporter was embroiled in a political trial he insists will lead to his murder if he’s forced to return. In Cairo, he was accused of being an Israeli spy. In Toronto, Mr. Guney presents himself as a rabbi seeking refugee status, though the Jewish community has rejected him. ‘Tuncay Guney has 1,000 faces. Only God knows which is the real one’

    NICHOLAS BIRCH AND TU THANH HA

    Nicholas Birch is a freelance reporter

    January 9, 2009

    ISTANBUL and TORONTO — In his native Turkey, he is a key figure in one of the country’s biggest political trials, a convoluted, explosive tale of assassinations and conspiracy.

    He has also figured large in a Cairo court, where he was alleged to be an operative for Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, who recruited a Canadian to spy for Israel on Arab bank customers.

    Here in Canada, Tuncay Guney presents himself as a rabbi, with hat and black coat – though the Jewish community says he’s not one of their own.

    A cagey, unassuming-looking 36-year-old with shaky English, the former reporter left a path of intrigue and controversy on three continents before turning up in Toronto as a refugee claimant.

    “Going back to Turkey would mean arranging a date with the Angel of Death,” he said in an e-mail in Turkish.

    For the past six months, few days have gone without him being on the front page of a Turkish newspaper.

    He is the informant behind the closely watched Ergenekon trial, in which leading intellectuals and military officers are accused of attempting to overthrow the Muslim-rooted AK party that governs Turkey.

    United only by their hatred of the AK, the 85 right-wing nationalists and hard-line secularists in the dock are accused of being part of a secret organization called Ergenekon and charged with plotting high-level killings to destabilize society and force army intervention.

    “I sparked a revolution in my country. The masks fell,” Mr. Guney said in his e-mail. “If I talk, everything will change.”

    The case began in 2001 when police in Turkey pulled him in for selling a stolen car.

    The man was a nondescript sort: a failed journalist with a primary school certificate and a thick Anatolian accent. Then he began to talk.

    “I’ve never seen anybody like Tuncay Guney,” recalled Ahmet Ihtiyaroglu, the organized-crime interrogator who took over from his gobsmacked colleagues in small crimes. “It was as if somebody had sent him in to reveal everything.”

    The police called in investigative magistrates. But out on bail, Mr. Guney fled to the United States.

    He left behind 140 pages of depositions and six boxes of documents – some top-secret – that hold a prime place in the indictment. Mr. Guney is mentioned more than 400 times in the indictment and named as a “suspect on the run.”

    In his deposition, Mr. Guney said he worked for General Veli Kucuk, a former military intelligence chief suspected in dozens of homicides.

    This week, the trial heard that his aliases included Daniel Levi, Kemal Kosbag and Tuncay Bubay.

    Those names had cropped up before, in a spy case against an Egyptian-Canadian CIBC employee in Toronto.

    In 2007, a Cairo court sentenced Mohamed el-Attar to 15 years in prison after he was arrested in Egypt while visiting family. The prosecution said that Mr. el-Attar worked for Mossad, while in Turkey and Canada, and had been recruited by Daniel Levi, Kemal Kosba and Tuncay Bubay.

    According to Newsweek’s Turkish edition, a former housemate said Mr. Guney once introduced Mr. el-Attar to him as a friend. The Israeli consulate said the Mossad allegations were “madness.”

    Daniel is also the name Mr. Guney uses in his Toronto life – as rabbi Daniel T. Guney.

    Jacob House, the congregation he says he represents, appears to be little more than a website and a postal box.

    The Toronto Board of Rabbis and the Canadian Jewish Congress say Mr. Guney is not a member of the community and appears to be associated with the Messianic Judaism movement, evangelical Christians who try to convert Jews.

    According to the Turkish media, Mr. Guney became acquainted with evangelical Christians while in New York. When his asylum demand in the United States was rejected, a Kurdish convert drove him to Canada in 2004.

    “People let him enter their lives because they felt sorry for him. He always appeared a poor, weak character,” says one Turkish journalist who first met him in 1994.

    “Tuncay Guney has 1,000 faces. Only God knows which is the real one,” said Hasan Yilmaz, editor of the Toronto-based newspaper CanadaTurk.

    Mr. Guney, meanwhile, is in no hurry to be back where he triggered so many shockwaves.

    “The state is not in control of the streets or the prisons. Look at the seniority of the Ergenekon suspects and what they did. Do you think they would permit me to live in liberty or in jail?”

    Source:  www.theglobeandmail.com, January 9, 2009