Turkish Forum

Category: Middle East & Africa

  • Official: Aliya from Turkey to double

    Official: Aliya from Turkey to double

    By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
    The number of Jews expected to immigrate to
    Israel from Turkey this year is likely to double compared to last year,
    but the level remains extremely low despite surging anti-Israel and
    anti-Semitic incidents in the predominantly Muslim country, a Jewish
    Agency for Israel official said Sunday.

    A
    Turkish demonstrator displays a shoe on a banner during a protest
    against Israel at the Kocatepe mosque in Ankara, Turkey, Saturday.
    Photo: AP

    Separately,
    the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Venezuela said Sunday that he doubted
    whether the South American country held any future for the Jewish
    community, following the Friday night vandalism of the oldest synagogue
    in the country.

    About 250 Turkish Jews are expected to immigrate to Israel this
    year, more than double the 112 who did so last year, said Eli Cohen,
    director-general of the Jewish Agency’s Immigration and Absorption
    Department in Jerusalem.

    The number of expected immigrants from Turkey this year makes
    up only 1 percent of the 25,000-strong Jewish community that traces its
    roots in the nation back more than five centuries, dating to the
    Spanish Inquisition.

    RELATED
    • Turkey: The longer view (Editorial)
    • A climate of fear

    “We
    would prefer that the main reason for aliya today [be] the ideology of
    those immigrants who come from Western countries, but we see that the
    anti-Semitic incidents, as well as the global economic crisis, are what
    is furthering aliya today,” Cohen said.

    He noted that many of the Turkish Jews seeking to make aliya
    were students or young couples wanting to study at Israeli universities
    or to live in Israel.

    Relations
    between Israel and Turkey hit a nadir last week after Turkish Prime
    Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been a leading and vitriolic
    critic of Israel’s recent military operation against Hamas in Gaza,
    stormed out of a panel discussion with President Shimon Peres at the
    World Economic Forum in Davos.

    At the same time, the Jewish Agency official said Sunday that
    there was “a large interest” in immigration to Israel among Jews living
    in Venezuela. About 14,500 Jews live there, and only 60 immigrated to
    Israel last year.

    All Israeli representatives were kicked out of the country last
    month during Operation Cast Lead, but the agency is in daily contact
    with Jewish groups there, Cohen said.

    Meanwhile, Rabbi Pynchas Brener of Venezuela said Sunday that
    he was doubtful that there was any future for the Jewish community
    there.

    “There is a psychological mechanism which makes people within
    the country think things are not as bad as they seem,” Brener told The Jerusalem Post
    in a telephone interview from Caracas. “For psychological reasons,
    people who live in the country tend to justify actions taken against
    them.”

    His comments came after the main Sephardi synagogue in Caracas was vandalized by a group of attackers.

    Two security guards were overpowered by about 15 people who
    ransacked the synagogue’s sanctuary and offices late Friday, shattering
    religious objects and leaving graffiti such as, “We don’t want
    murderers,” and “Jews, get out.”

    The incident forced the synagogue to cancel Saturday services.

    “Reason makes us believe that this was done with the consent –
    if not the instigation – of some central power in Venezuela,” he said.

    He noted that Israel and Jews were viewed as synonymous in the
    South American country, adding that an upcoming vote on whether the
    president could be reelected indefinitely could prove to be a harbinger
    of things to come.

    “I do not know if in this environment there will be a future for the Jewish community here,” he said.

    The New York-based Anti-Defamation League called the synagogue incident “a modern day Kristallnacht.”

    “This violent attack, occurring on the Jewish Sabbath, is
    reminiscent of the darkest days leading to the Shoah, when Jews were
    attacked and synagogues and Torahs vandalized and destroyed under the
    guard of the Nazi regime,” said ADL National Director Abraham H.
    Foxman.

    Foxman said the heinous anti-Jewish hate crime was not random,
    but was “directly related to the atmosphere of anti-Jewish intimidation
    promoted by President Hugo Chavez and his government apparatus.”

    The organization called for Chavez to “abandon the official
    government rhetoric of demonization of Israel and the Jews and to
    publicly denounce this wanton act of anti-Semitic violence.”

    Separately, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center said
    Sunday that Chavez’s attacks on Israel and the Jewish community had
    “set the stage” for the incident.

    “This was no mere hate crime from the margins of society, but a
    reflection of President Chavez’s campaign to demonize Israel and her
    supporters,” the organization said. “For this dangerous escalation of
    hate against a minority to stop, President Chav


    From: Haluk Demirbag,

    Subject: Official: Aliya from Turkey to double

    Israil senelerdir sayıları az bile olsa değerleri çok olan Turkiyeli Musevi

    kardeşlerimizi İsraile göçe itmek için çok yol denedi. Tayyip ve Simon

    amcaların danışıklı döğüş yapabileceğini neden kimse düşünemiyor?

    Bir taşla iki kuş vuruluyor:

    1. Tayyip secimler için müthiş bir hamle yapıyor
    2. Simon amca da, senelerdir danışmanlarının Israil’e çekebilmek için akla
    karayı seçtiği Türk milletinden ayrılmak istemeyen Türkiye Musevilerine,
    bilet kesiyor…

    Yakın zamanda Gürcistan’ı hatırlayalım…

    Siyonizmin güçlenmesi için sahte ve kontrollü anti-semitizm ispatlı ve iyi
    yazılmış çizilmiş bir yoldur.

    Eski tüfek Simon amca da Tayyip de ne yaptığını biliyor kendi hedefleri açısından…

    Türkiye’de olabilecek herhangi bir anti-semitizim çıkışına karşı
    herkesin duyarlı ve uyanık olması lazım. Biz asırlardır bağrımızda
    sakladığımız, koruyup kolladığımız sevgili Musevi dostlarımızı ve
    peygamberlerin torunlarını kimseye vermek istemiyoruz, Israil dahil,  onlar
    bize Osmanlı atalarımızın emaneti!!!

    Official: Aliya from Turkey
    to double

    ez’s hate campaign must be denounced by all leaders in the Americas and beyond.”

    —————–

  • Monthly bulletin about Turks in Iran

    Monthly bulletin about Turks in Iran

    Iranian authorities have increased the repression of Azerbaijani activists who hope to end discrimination against minorities in Iran. These activists organize ceremonies of that are of cultural significance to Azerbaijani Iranians. People participating in these ceremonies are arbitrarily detained without being tried or even informed of the reason for the detention. They are usually denied access to a lawyer and are generally tortured or subjected to other ill-treatments.

    Three Azerbaijani activists detained over two months without trial

    Abdullah Abbasi Javan, an architect and lecturer at Tehran’s University of Shahid Rajai and his nephew Huseyn Huseyni (Hossein Hosseini), the former president of the students union at the University of Razi, Ardebil were arrested on November 13, 2008 while participating in the anniversary of Settar Khan celebrations. (Settar Khan is a national hero for Azerbaijani Iranians, who lead the constitutional movements in 1906-14.) The two were taken to the notorious section 209 of Evin Prison, which is run by the Iranian Intelligence Service. Recent efforts by family members of the two prisoners to establish their whereabouts have been in vain. They were intimidated by security agents and asked to stop referring to courts of justice. The only communication between the victims and their families since the men were imprisoned over two months ago has been a less than one-minute telephone call by Javan to his brother on the tenth day of the detention, November 23.

    Two Azerbaijani prisoners of conscience recently released from section 209 of Evin Prison said in a statement that Javan had informed them he will start a hunger strike on the December 13 to protest his illegal detention and the deprivation of his basic human rights as a prisoner.

    Azerbaijani journalist and women’s rights defender Shanaz Gholami, who was detained on November 9, 2008 in Tabriz, has resorted to a hunger strike since November 20 to protest the length and degrading conditions of her detention. She is reportedly in poor health and needs medical attention. She is being held in the women’s section of the Tabriz prison. She has had no trial and is reportedly undergoing intense interrogation.

     

    Gholami is the moderator of a blog for Azerbaijani-Iranian women, azarwomen. She was sentenced to six months imprisonment on charges of “propaganda against the regime.” She was released on bail and is now waiting for a hearing by an appeal court. Last year, she was detained for a month for writing articles objecting to the use of force by the government during peaceful Azerbaijani-Iranian protests. Gholami was also in prison for five years in the late 1980s as a result of her political activities.

    New Detentions

    Seveal Azerbaijani activists were arrested on December 11, 2008 during the 21 Azer ceremonies, which mark the anniversary of the establishment of the autonomous government of Azerbaijan in 1945-1946. Navid Soltani, Said Mahmudi, Hojjat Mahmudi, Setare Ghasemi (ulduz), and Rahman Ghasemi were released on bail of 300 million rials ($30,000) on January 5, 2009.

    These activists were arrested on December 10 and 11 at their homes in Urmiye, the second-largest Azerbaijani in Iran. Security forces searched their houses and took their personal computers, books, CDs and documents. All five activists were released on bail after three weeks in detention. They were held in Urmiye Intelligence Service custody, interrogated continuously, tortured and subjected to other ill-treatments. The detainees were not allowed access to a lawyer and their families were not permitted to visit them.

    Azerbaijani ethnic rights activist Tohid Hasanpur was arrested on December 6, 2008 for publicizing the anniversary of the 21 Azer ceremonies in Urimye. He was been released on bail of 100 million rials ($10,000) on December 14. He was detained by the Urmiye Intelligence Service.

    Vahid SheykhBaghlu, a graduate student in economics at Azad University in Tabriz and a former member of Arman Student Organization, was arrested on December 24, 2008 in Tabriz and was taken to Tabriz Intelligence Service heaquarters. He has been transferred to Tabriz Prison after 10 days in detention in Tabriz Intelligence Service custody. Since the day of detention he only been able to call his family once and there is no information about why he has been detained.

     

    Vahid had been arrested before in Tabriz while participating in a ceremony celebrating the release of nine student activists after months of detention. He was released after hours of interrogation. He was also detained for 50 days in 2006 during the Azerbaijani-Iranian demonstrations of a cartoon in Iran (a state-run newspaper) which compared Azerbaijani-Iranians to cockroaches. He was released on bail and was sentenced to 91 days of suspended imprisonment.

    Served Sentences

    Asghar Akbarzade, an Azerbaijani student activist in Ardebil, has been sentenced to five years imprisonment and exiled to Zahdedan, a city in southeast of Iran far from Azerbaijani provinces. He is charged with participating in a “movement against state security” and Akbarzade says he was not given any opportunity to defend himself, even though there has been no investigation to confirm the claims of Iranian Intelligence Service. The judge asked only two questions during the trial, which was over in about 10 minutes.

     

    The judge gave the sentence based on the following accusations: being part of an Azerbaijani national movement, participating in the funeral of Moham Ali Farzane a Pan-Turkist activist, participating in student meetings, participating in Azerbaijani dance classes, making a wolf symbol (the symbol of Turks) with his hand, sending incorrect news to foreign organizations, groups, media and websites, providing CDs and distributing separatist propaganda.

    He was not allowed access to a lawyer and his trial was held in private.

    Asghar Akbarzade, a chemistry student at Ardebil Payame Noor University, was arrested on June 20, 2008 by security forces in front of the university and released after 28 days on bail of 300 million rials ($30,000). During the detention his family was not informed of his place of detention or the reason for the detention. Akbarzade said he endured both physical and psychological torture while in detention. Several days later after his release he was charged with spreading propaganda for groups that are against the regime and sentenced to six months of suspended imprisonment which was postponed for two years. His verdict has been distributed on the Internet.

    Akbarzade has been detained several times in the past for participating in demonstrations of Azerbaijanis against the offensive cartoon in 2006. He was charged with “moving against the regime,” “propaganda against the regime” and was fined. Amnesty International released two urgent actions about Asgharzade in 2006 and 2007 stating their concern for his health.

    Ali Sadighi, Vahid Hamid Rezayiniya, and Albar Huseynzade, three Azerbaijani ethnic rights defenders were charged “propaganda activities against regime” and “moving against national security” for distributing a CD including invitations of people for the second anniversary of the cockroach cartoon targeting ethnic Azerbaijanis in Iran newspaper in May 2006. They were sentenced to one year’s imprisonment. A CD found in their homes was used as evidence against them.

    They were tried in private and without a lawyer in the Tabriz Revolutionary Court. They were also detained for two months on May 15, 2008 and released on bail.

    Salman Iragi, a former president of the Azerbaijan Promotion Union at Khoy Payame Noor University and a member of the NGO Evrin, Salar Iragi a mechanical engineering student at Urmiye University, Hojjat Iragi, a mechanics student at Urmiye Technical Education Centre, Payam Elm Gholilu, a graduate student in management at Ghazvin Azad University and Ali Akbar Abdullahi, a mechanics student at Urmiye Technical Education Centre, all Azerbaijani student activists in Khoy, were arrested on May 15, 2008 by security forces and released after seven days on bail of 500 million rials ($50,000). They were charged with participating in activities against the regime and sentenced to one year of suspended imprisonment, all of which are postponed for two years.

     

    Ebrahim Abdullahnejad, Ali Helmi, Ali Huseynnejad Asl, Mohsen Huseynzade, Saber Beytollahi and Bahman Nasirzade, all Azerbaijani activists based in Maku have been sentenced to 10 months to a year’s imprisonment related to demonstrations against the cockroach cartoon in 2006.

    Abdullahnejad has been sentenced to one year in prison; Ali Helmi to one year suspended imprisonment. Asl and Husyinzade were each ordered to pay a 5 million rials ($5,000) cash fine and are charged with “propaganda against regime”.

    Saber Beytollahi, and Bahman Nasirzade, a teacher and poet, respectively, were sentenced to a year’s imprisonment, but objected to the fact that they were unable to defend themselves before the verdict. Their trail was repeated on November 30, 2008. They are waiting for the verdict.

    They were detained for 27 days on June 17, 2006 by security forces and were released on bail of 500 million rials ($50,000).

    Situation of Other Azerbaijani Cultural Activists

    Mohammad Reza Levayi, an Azerbaijani poet, writer and journalist, was arrested on November 21, 2008 by security forces in Khoja (a town near Ahar in East Azerbaijan) and transferred to Tabriz. He was released after 23 days of imprisonment on December 14. He suffers from heart problems and on the eleventh day of detention he was transferred to the hospital, where he received treatment for 12 days, and was then released. His family was not informed of his place of detention and the reason for the detention. According to Levayi, he was detained because of writing a paper about “Cultural Dictatorship and Culture of Dictatorship” and he will be called to court in the near future.

    Rahim Hajizade, a cultural activist from Ardebil, was arrested on September 25, 2008. He was released after 61 days’ of detention on bail of 800 million rials ($80,000). Hajizade said he was charged with propaganda against regime for distributing the second volume of his book, Iliyatiha (a book about Azerbaijani folks).

    Amir Ali Zebihi, an Azerbaijani student activist in Tabriz, has been taken to Tabriz Prison to serve his eight-month sentence. He is a civil engineering graduate from Azad University in Tabriz. He was detained for 45 days after the 2006 demonstrations against the cartoon assaulting Azerbaijanis and was released on bail.

    Azerbaijani Student Journal Closed Down

    The cultural council of Azad University in Mahabad decided to close down the Azerbaijani Turkish-Persian student journal Bulud in December 2008. The former director editor of the journal has graduated and the application of the new candidate for the director has not been accepted by the council. The council asked the candidate for director to fill in some forms at the Intelligence Service of Mahabad. The new director and writers at the journal refused, and the council decided to close down the journal.

     

    Many Azerbaijani student journals have been closed down by the government over the last year. Some of them include: Ulus, Nasim, Araz, Ozluk, Oyanish, Sattar Khan, Kimlik, Yoldash, Yagish, Aydin Gelecel, Gunesh, Yarpaq, Telenger, Yashil, Yol, Anayurdu, Achiq Soz and Sayan.

  • Gilad Atzmon: Israel needs Turkey

    Gilad Atzmon: Israel needs Turkey

    The world famous Israeli- born musician Gilad Atzmon said to TIMETUR:“Turkey’s friendship is very important for Israel and Israel needs Turkey.”

    Hasan: Dear Gilad, How do you evaluate the Israeli carnage in Gaza?

    Gilad: Dear Hasan, I don’t really think that it is a matter of evaluation. We are all aware of the level of destruction brought upon innocent civilians by the Jewish state. Gaza looks as if it was nuked. Yet, as we know, the devastation is not the outcome of a single atomic bomb. It was actually a merciless and lengthy campaign conducted by a national and popular army that employed a chain of heavy bombardment using conventional and unconventional shells.  Gaza’s carnage is the outcome of a sinister, continuous, intense air raid against civilians in the most populated spot on this planet.  Hence, rather than evaluating the carnage itself, I am very interested in the evaluation of the people who are capable of bringing such destruction about. In other words, I am interested in the Israeli and the Jewish collective identity. I wonder how is it possible that the Israelis, the people who were ‘raised from the ashes’, have matured collectively into the embodiment of modern evil. How is it that Diaspora Jews happen to institutionally support Israel and its crimes against humanity?

    Hasan: Why does Israel always break the international laws and does not obey the agreements?

    Gilad: I assume that the Israeli is imbued with feelings of superiority that have something to do with the secular interpretation of the notion of Jewish Chosenness. At the end of the day, Israel is the Jewish state. Though Israel is largely a secular society, it manages to maintain the Judaic heritage of racial supremacy. It is actually the secular nationalist interpretation of Judaic tradition that had evolved into a collective murderous inclination. It is important to note that while within the Judaic context, chosenness is interpreted as a moral burden in which Jews are demanded to stand as an exemplification of ethical behaviour, in the Jewish state, chosenness is interpreted as an entitlement to dominate and kill. Since the Israelis regard themselves as the chosen people, they clearly feel free of any ethical or moral concerns. Moreover, they are not concerned at all with other peoples’ or nations’ judgment or thought. This arrogant philosophy was defined by Israeli PM David Ben Gurion in the 1950’s when he said, “it doesn’t matter what the Goyim (Gentiles) say, the only thing that matters is what the Jews do.”

    Hasan: What is the importance of PM Erdogan’s reaction in Davos?

    Gilad: For me it is clear that PM Erdogan was rather courageous in confronting the Israeli lie on an international stage. Moreover, he really hit the nail on the head by exposing the ultimate symbol of this very lie. I am referring here to war criminal President Shimon Peres, who in spite of his devastating past (Kefar Kana, Nuclear reactor Dimona etc.) has managed to grab a Nobel Prize for peace. Considering his contribution to the Dimona WMD project, a Nobel Prize in nuclear physics would be more appropriate.

    Hasan: How does / can the Jewish lobby work against PM Erdogan and the Jews with conscience?

    Gilad: This is a very good question, I am not an expert on Jewish lobbying tactics. However I am fully aware of their influence. As long as British Labour finance is run by rabid Zionists such as Lord cash Machine Levy and as long as White House chief of staff is a rabid Zionist, we should expect Zionist interests to shape our reality and this means a lot of conflicts, carnage and blood of innocent civilians.

    However, we have to bear in mind that the tide is turning. What we see and hear in Gaza brings about a mass indignation against Israel and its lobbies around the world.

    It is hard for me to predict what the measures taken by Jewish lobbies against PM Erdogan will be. He can probably expect himself to be presented as their new anti-Semite protagonist.  As we know it doesn’t take a lot to become one. While in the old days, anti-Semites were those who didn’t like Jews, nowadays, anti-Semites are those the Jews Hate.

    Nevertheless, we must bear in mind that Turkey’s friendship is very important for Israel. Turkey had been Israel’s only friend in the region. Lately, it had been a negotiator with Syria.  In short, Israel needs Turkey.

    Hasan: How can the Israeli-Turkish relations be effected after the Erdogan-Peres clash in Davos?

    Gilad: I really prefer not to answer this question, I am not exactly an expert on the subject…

    Hasan: What kind of days are waiting for Israel and Turkey in the global political arena?

    Gilad: Again, international affairs isn’t exactly a topic I specialise in.

    Hasan: Do you have a final message for the world and the Turkish people?

    Gilad: I do not like to come with final messages for three reasons:

    1.      I do not like final statements, I insist upon reserving the option of regretting and want to be able to revise my views on every possible topic.

    2.      I believe that people who come with ‘final messages’ must be very important and clever. I am more of an artist. I look into myself, and I share what I see with my listeners and readers.

    3.       Unlike politicians who know what is right and wrong for other people, I hardly know what is right for myself.

    However, my politics, so to say, are very simple. I am looking for an ethical voice. It means that in any given circumstance, I would try to find out myself what is right and what is wrong. I do not believe in dogmatism. I insist that the ethical search is a dynamic process of shaping and reshaping.

    A week ago or so, a friend of mine, the legendary musician Robert Wyatt, helped me put it into words in the most eloquent and simple way. “My politics”, he said,  “is very simple, I am just an anti-racist”.  This is really what it is all about, being an ‘anti-racist’.

    I am totally against any form of racist politics and this is why I despise any form of Jewish politics left, right and centre. I am tired of all these ‘Jew only’ settings. Whether it is the ‘Jews only state’ or ‘Jews for peace’. I am against it because; it is there to promote Jewish tribal interests rather than humanity and brotherhood. The Jewish political experience is somehow always racially orientated and chauvinist to the bone.

    Though I believe that people are entitled to fight for their rights e.g., the Palestinian national struggle, I also believe that people should know how to reinstate peace and harmony. As far as Israel and Jewish politics is concerned, this is exactly what we lack. All we see is vengeance and anger that lead to more and more violence. It is rather apparent that Israelis are not familiar with the notion of mercy and compassion. Jesus’ spiritually harmonious suggestion known as ‘turning the other cheek’ sounds to the Israeli as an amusing ludicrous concept. Apparently, for them, ‘shock and awe’, sounds far more appealing. They democratically vote for carnage, destruction and genocide. At the end of the day, they are entitled to vote. They are the ‘only democracy in the Middle East’, at least this is what they claim to be.

    Source:  , 07 February 2009

  • Talking Turkey About Israel

    Talking Turkey About Israel

    Philip Giraldi *

    The Israeli invasion of Gaza and the slaughter of civilians was such an egregious error in judgment that the usual suspects are working overtime to make it all look like a heroic defense of democratic values. The expected beneficiary of the “defensive action,” the ruling Kadima Party, so miscalculated that it is now likely to lose today’s election, with the Israeli electorate convinced that an even more extreme right-wing government is the only solution to the moderate right-wing bungling.

    Israel will likely choose hard-right nationalism by electing Bibi Netanyahu as the next prime minister. Netanyahu has never let any values, democratic or otherwise, stand in his way in his quest for a Greater (Arab-free) Israel encompassing all of the West Bank and running from the Litani River in Lebanon in the north to the Suez Canal in the south. He has already promised that if elected he will not turn any occupied land over to the Palestinians.

    There have been numerous signs that the world is no longer buying into the Israeli creation myth, even in the United States, where the suffering of the Gazans, neatly concealed by most of the mainstream media, nevertheless produced an outpouring of sympathy. The beleaguered little state of Israel founded as a homeland and refuge for the victims of persecution in Europe has become a regional military superpower ruled by a corrupt political class, with a socialist economy kept afloat by the U.S. taxpayer. Israel continues and even expands its occupation of the lands of its neighbors and engages in the brutal suppression of those who resist. Far from seeking a political solution that would create two states side by side, it has deliberately aborted every genuine peace initiative and now seeks absolute regional hegemony, pressing forward with racist policies that marginalize its own citizens of Arab descent. Most of the world has finally realized that claiming perpetual victimhood as a shield against criticism does not work very well when you can muster Merkava tanks, helicopter gunships, and white phosphorus against a civilian population.

    The sharp exchange between Israeli President Shimon Peres and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at Davos on Jan. 29 exemplifies Israel’s public relations problem and also casts light upon what steps the Israeli government and its friends in the United States are taking to counteract the negative press. Media reports suggest that Israel preceded its attack on Gaza by alerting a network of supporters to post comments on blogs, saturating the Web with the Israeli government’s justification for its action. This was evident on a number of blogs, including Huffington Post and the Washington Note. Many of the posters were Israelis, and it is believed that a number of them were active-duty military personnel selected for their fluency in English and other European languages as well as their familiarity with the Internet.

    The coverage of the Erdogan-Peres exchange was carefully managed in the U.S. media, but less restrained in Europe and the Middle East. In a one-hour discussion of Gaza moderated by David Ignatius of the Washington Post, an odd choice for such an important discussion, Peres was allowed 25 minutes to speak in defense of the Israeli attack. Erdogan and two other critics on the panel were given 12 minutes each. The YouTube recording of the debate shows Peres pointed accusingly at Erdogan and raised his voice. When Erdogan sought time to respond, Ignatius granted him a minute and then cut him off claiming it was time to go to dinner. Erdogan complained about the treatment and left Davos, vowing never to return. Back in Turkey, he received a hero’s welcome.

    Four days later the Washington Post featured an op-ed entitled “Turkey’s Turn From the West” by Soner Cagaptay, a Turkish-born, American-educated academic who is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP). WINEP was founded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Cagaptay is also on the board of the American Turkish Friendship Council, one of several Turkish lobbying groups that are supportive of the Israel-Turkey relationship. A review of Cagaptay’s writings reveals that he is AIPAC’s go-to guy for any argument that Turkey is becoming more anti-Western and religious.

    That Cagaptay is a genuine expert on the country of his birth is clear, but his view on developments there is very much shaped by who pays him. He finds anti-Semitism lurking everywhere in Turkey and being “spread by the political leadership.” He is astonished by Erdogan’s assertion at Davos that Israel is “killing people.” He finds inexplicable the prime minister’s belief that there was “Jewish culpability for the conflict in Gaza” and that the “Jewish-controlled media outlets were misrepresenting the facts.” For good measure, Cagaptay believes it “doubtful whether Turkey would side with the United States in dealing with the issue of nuclear Iran,” and he sees a regrettable Turkish “solidarity with Islamist regimes or causes.”

    AIPAC’s Turkey expert might be surprised to learn that most of the world, which saw the images of dying Palestinian children on nightly television, would probably agree with Erdogan. Israel planned its invasion of Gaza six months in advance, timed the assault for maximum political benefit for the ruling party and to engage the incoming U.S. president in its policies, committed war crimes against a largely defenseless civilian population, and then kept journalists out of the combat zone so it could lie about everything that it was doing. The U.S. media in particular chose to ignore the carnage and present the Israeli point of view. Though it would be unfair to claim that the media is controlled by any ethnic or religious group, it is certainly true that Jewish organizations mobilized to make sure that pro-Israel commentary far exceeded any reporting of Palestinian suffering.

    Cagaptay likewise fails to see what the rest of the world sees regarding Iran. No one admires Iran’s government, but America’s European allies, not just Turkey, will not support yet another war in the Middle East, even if Tehran does move closer to acquiring a nuclear weapon. Turkey’s development of closer ties with the Islamic world, which Cagaptay tellingly insists on calling “Islamist,” is also an understandable response to being repeatedly snubbed in its bids to join the European Union, something that even WINEP’s reliable scholarly claque surely knows to be true.

    Efforts to control and spin the narrative, to turn black into white, have been unrelenting since the Israelis decided to attack Gaza. Cagaptay is only a part of that effort, but his smearing of Turkey and its elected leaders is unfortunate, particularly as his newspaper audience probably knows little about Turkey and will assume that the analysis is credible. Anyone who knows Turks well knows that they are an exceedingly stubborn and honorable people who will invariably say what they think to be true. Prime Minister Erdogan spoke the truth in Davos and has been speaking the truth about the invasion of Gaza. Attempts to label him anti-Semitic and to denigrate the Turks in general will certainly have some impact, most certainly on the U.S. Congress, which will rapidly fall into line and comply with AIPAC’s instructions on an appropriate punishment. But Israel’s attempt to portray itself as always the victim of a global anti-Semitic, anti-Western conspiracy just will not stand any more, no matter how many Soner Cagaptays are paid by AIPAC to write for the Washington Post.

    Source: www.antiwar.com, 10.02.2009

    * Philip Giraldi is a former officer of the United States Central Intelligence Agency who became famous for claiming in 2005 that the USA was preparing plans to attack Iran with nuclear weapons in response to a terrorist action against the US, independently of whether or not Iran was involved in the action. He is presently a partner in an international security consultancy,  Cannistraro Associates.

  • THE DEPKA REVIEW

    THE DEPKA REVIEW

    Summary of DEBKAfile’s Exclusives in the Week Ending February 5, 2009
    Hamas fires first shore-to-ship C-802 missile 31 Jan.: DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal a formidable addition to Hamas’ arsenal: The missile fired from Gaza out to the Mediterranean last week was not a Qassam as reported but a C-802, the Iranian shore-to-ship Nur C-802 missile, which is based on the Chinese “Silkworm.”

    It was launched by Iranian officers who are training Hamas operatives in its use before delivering a large consignment. With its 120-km range and 165-kilo warhead, the C-802’s mission is to break Israel’s 40 km blockade of Gaza’s waters. This is now the key objective of Tehran and the Palestinian Islamists.
    The Israeli Navy’s first brush with the C-802 was in the 2006 Lebanon war. On July 14, it was used by Hizballah to cripple the Hanit missile ship opposite Beirut.

    Our sources affirm that arms smuggling to Gaza continues by land and sea at the pre-war tempo notwithstanding the brave talk in Jerusalem, Washington and Cairo of a concerted effort to stem the flow.

    Since 2006, military experts note, Iran has upgraded the C-802 in an important respect. A new version, of which 1,000 have been delivered to Hizballah, operates without radar. It has the attributes of a cruise missile with small radar reflectivity, a strong anti-jamming capability and the ability to skim as low as 5-7 meters from the water’s surface under the targeted ship’s radar. Tehran claims 98 percent targeting effectiveness for its updated Nur anti-ship missile.

    Ahmadinejad: Iran’s Islamic Revolution not limited to its borders 31 Jan.: Iran’s government spokesman is quoted as saying Saturday, Jan. 31 that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of Khomeini’s overthrow of the shah that Iran’s Islamic revolution was not limited to its borders. His response to the US president Barack Obama’s overtures was a demand that America apologize for 60 years of “crimes against Iran” and its new president carry out a “deep and fundamental change.”

    Gaza rocket alarms Ashkelon Saturday in another Hamas ceasefire breach

    31 Jan.: Hamas again breached its own ceasefire declared Jan. 19 Saturday, Jan. 31, with a Grad rocket against the town of Ashkelon to the north. It exploded harmlessly on open ground after a siren alerted the population. An Israeli air strike hit the rocket team. Last Tuesday, a roadside bomb on the Israeli side of the Gaza border killed an Israeli soldier and injured three, drawing minor Israeli responses followed by two rounds of Qassam fire. The flare-up accompanied the first trip to the region of Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy George Mitchell. Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, cancelled his talks in Washington with US defense secretary Robert Gates last Wednesday amid expectations of a major Israeli response to Hamas violations.

    Egyptian-Hamas talks on a long-term ceasefire in Gaza limp along after Hamas-Damascus rejected Cairo’s first proposals out of hand.

    Meshaal urges Iranian students to join Islamist liberation of all Palestine 2 Feb.: On the third day of his talks with Iranian leaders in Tehran, Hamas’ supreme leader Khaled Meshaal urged Iranian students to join his Islamist movement in helping liberate all of Palestine, secure the return of all Palestinians and retake Jerusalem so that “we can pray together.”

    DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources disclose the three topics uppermost in Meshaal’s talks with Iranian leaders:
    1. Tehran is playing tough in Middle East, including Gaza, to intimidate the Obama administration ahead of direct talks.

    2. Iran will torpedo Hamas’ long-term truce talks in Cairo so as not to grant president Hosni Mubarak any advantages on the Palestinian playing field.

    3. Hamas needs urgent injections of military and economic assistance to shore up its rule in the Gaza Strip.

    If Tehran holds back, the Palestinian Islamists may turn to Cairo and Riyadh for the proffered Saudi-Egyptian aid package for reconstruction. If Iran delivers, Meshaal will instruct the Hamas delegation to ditch the Egyptians and their proposals.

    Israel air raids blow up six Hamas tunnels after Palestinian missile-mortar salvoes 2 Feb.: After 14 missiles and mortar rounds were fired into Israel Sunday, Feb. 1, Israel launched air strikes against a Hamas building in central Gaza and six out of roughly 300 smuggling tunnels running under the southern Gazan border corridor with Egypt.

    The building was empty after Israel forewarned dwellers by telephone of the coming attack. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that although missile, rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel have been building up for the past week , defense minister Ehud Barak stands fast against demands for a major reprisal.

    He maintains that the main threat to Israeli security now emanates from Hizballah.

    Hizballah terror teams fan out in six countries prompting maximum Israeli alert
    DEBKAfile Exclusive Report     2 Feb.: The Lebanese Hizballah has deployed terrorist teams in six countries for attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in revenge for the death of its military chief Imad Mughniyeh who it accuses Israel of killing a year ago.

    This intelligence prompted the counter-terror bureau in Jerusalem to publish Sunday, Feb. 1, an exceptionally high alert for traveling Israelis to beware of assaults and abductions. Security is also high in Israel and at embassies and Jewish institutions worldwide.

    Hizballah also believes it can disrupt Israel’s general election on Feb. 10 by assassinating a senior official.
    According to our sources, terrorist teams have also been drawn from the covert spy and terror cells Hizballah maintains in other parts of the Middle East as well as Africa and Europe.

    Israeli travelers were specifically warned to avoid Arab and Muslim countries – especially Sinai – watch out for unusual occurrences, refuse tempting offers and invitations from strangers, rendezvous with contacts only in public places along with trusted companions and avoid patronizing the same locations, such as hotels and restaurants, with predictable regularity.
    Israeli holidaymakers in Sinai were warned to leave at once.

    Long-range Grad rocket explodes in central Ashkelon 3 Feb.: The Grad rocket from Gaza which exploded in central Ashkelon Tuesday, Feb. 3, damaged vehicles in central Ashkelon and left three people in shock. A busload of passengers escaped to safety with seconds to spare.

    Iran’s first spy satellite launch Tuesday signifies nuclear-capable rocket in hand 3 Feb.: The launch of Omid (Hope), Iran’s first home-made satellite into orbit early Tuesday, Feb. 3, is a breakthrough demonstrating the Islamic Republic has managed to develop long-range, three-stage ballistic rockets propelled by solid fuel and capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

    Cont. Next Column

    		 Israel and Western officials have been playing down this fast-developing capability while proving helpless to hold back Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

    DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report the new satellite is designed for tracking, research and tele-communications and carries digital measuring instruments. Iran’s top-secret “Military Group” – the team of scientists and technicians working on its clandestine nuclear bomb program – is clearly moving ahead undisturbed by UN sanctions or technical difficulties.

    Obama administration gravely concerned by first Iranian satellite 3 Feb.: The White House and Pentagon issued strong statements Tuesday, Feb. 3 about the dangers posed by the launch of Iran’s first homemade satellite into space. DEBKAfile notes that none of the leading contenders in Israel’s Feb. 10 general election, including the defense and foreign ministers – or even prime minister Ehud Olmert – saw fit to react to the event.

    White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said any effort to develop missile delivery capability, continue an illicit nuclear program, threaten Israel and sponsor terror is an “acute concern to this administration.”

    Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters that Iran poses “a real threat and a growing threat.” DEBKAfile’s Washington sources report that the Obama administration is getting fed up with Tehran continually laying down hard facts ahead of any dialogue begins between the two governments.

    Our Iranian sources see no sign of Tehran softening its attitudes on nuclear or missile issues ahead of those talks.

    Barak loses Gaza truce gamble, Cairo decides to slam Rafah door shut4 Feb.: Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak held off responding to ten days of missile-mortar salvoes from Gaza in the hope of Cairo successfully negotiating a long-term truce deal with Hamas.

    DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Egypt’s announcement Wednesday, Feb. 4, that as of Thursday, its only border crossing with Gaza at Rafah would be closed down for all traffic signaled the breakdown of those negotiations. It followed Cairo’s discovery that Hamas was under orders from Tehran to keep the truce talks dragging on aimlessly together with daily missile and mortar fire against Israel. Barak’s policy of relying on Egypt for results has been discredited. Hamas is expected to respond to its cutoff from Egypt by stepping up cross-border attacks against Israel.

    Wednesday, Christopher Guinness, spokesman of the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNWRA, complained that Hamas police raided its warehouse in Gaza City and stole 3,500 blankets and nearly 500 food packages that were to have been distributed to poor Gaza families. UNWRA demanded their immediate return.

    Five days to Israel’s poll: Frontrunner Netanyahu is slipping
    DEBKAfile Special Analysis     5 Feb.: The man certain to form the next Israeli government after the general election of Feb. 10, Likud’s Binyamin Netanyahu, who started out with a handy lead of well over 30 Knesset seats (out of 120), is losing ground to Avigdor Lieberman’s right-wing Israel Beitenu.

    His campaign blunders include his apparent choice of the unpopular Labor leader, Ehud Barak, to carry on as defense minister in the next government. Another is his refusal to name a finance minister for a country worried sick by the slide into serious recession and growing unemployment.

    Both those decision deny the voter hope for a much needed change – especially a new defense minister to replace Ehud Barak, whose policies are widely condemned.

    The average, middle-of-the road voter is worried about national security and therefore leans to the right – away from his Labor party. Polling-day falls amid high security alerts on two potential warfronts, Gaza in the South and Lebanon in the north. The gap between this fraught situation and Barak’s claims of restored deterrence equals his credibility gap.

    His policy of tying Israel’s security to Cairo’s uncertain good offices instead of letting the military do its job crashed with the ill-fated Egyptian-Hamas negotiations in Cairo for a long-term truce. Day by day, Hamas violates its ceasefire pledge by blasting Israel with missiles and mortars. IDF reprisals are confined to aerial bombardments of empty buildings and sandy expanses in the Gaza Strip.

    On top of this unpopular alliance, Netanyahu is unclear on his future policies. It took him until this week to come out with an explicit statement on a key security issue, when he said: “Iran will not acquire nuclear arms. Period.” While promoting an “economic peace” plan for the West Bank, the Likud leader has never come right out and stated his views on George W. Bush’s two-state solution of the conflict.

    Israeli Beteinu is therefore cutting into Likud’s support and threatening to overtake foreign minister Tzipi Livni’s Kadima.

    But although the right-of-center bloc can count on a Knesset majority, the Likud leader will deny the country stable government if he insists on handing out the key defense and finance portfolios to figures outside that bloc for the sake of “a national unity government.” By linking his Likud to Labor, Netanyahu will reach his second term as prime minister from a position of weakness rather than the strength he started out with.

    Israeli naval commandoes board a Lebanese aid ship

    5 Feb.: After the captain refused to heed the Israeli navy’s orders to leave embargoed waters, Israeli seamen boarded the ship and had it towed to Ashdod port. No arms were found on the vessel only a small amount of aid destined for Gaza and a number of Syrian and Lebanese pro-Hamas activists who were taken off for interrogation. They will be sent back to the ship which on no account will be allowed to dock at Gaza.

    Barak: More Iranian ships bound for Gaza
    DEBKAfile Special Report

    5 Feb.: Although defense minister Ehud Barak did not confirm that the Iranian ships on their way to the Gaza Strip carry arms for Hamas, DEBKAfile’s military sources report that they are in fact arms vessels. Tehran will try and break the blockade on Gaza, encouraged by the failure of the US, Egyptian and Israeli navies to confiscate the arms aboard the Cypriot-flagged arms ships now docked at Limassol. Some are already on the way, expected to enter the Gulf of Suez and waters opposite Gaza over the weekend and try to drop their cargoes of weapons containers off shore. Israeli warships and spy planes are tracking them.

    At a special conference Thursday, Feb. 5, prime minister Olmert, foreign minister Tzipi Livni and the defense minister agreed the Iranian arms ships must be prevented from unloading their cargoes, even at the cost of a marine clash with Iran. At stake is the entire international effort to stop the Palestinian Islamists rearming.

    The Cypriot authorities are unloading the Iranian arms ship of cargo that contravenes the UN Security Council sanctions resolution 1747 which bans Iranian arms exports. DEBKA file’s military sources disclosed it was carrying 10 containers of Iranian rockets and other weapons for rearming Hamas in the Gaza Strip in violation of Israel’s terms for accepting a Gaza ceasefire last month.


  • France’s white knight tarnished

    France’s white knight tarnished

    Lizzy Davies in Paris
    February 6, 2009

    ACCUSED of using his power to secure lucrative contracts with African dictators, France’s most popular politician and charismatic humanitarian activist has been forced to defend his reputation as a moral crusader.

    Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister, is portrayed as a money-loving hypocrite whose business dealings between 2002 and 2007, while out of ministerial office, tarnish his reputation for ethical practice.

    The thrust of the allegations made in a new book, The World According To K by the investigative journalist Pierre Pean, is that Mr Kouchner profited from an uncomfortable combination of public and private sector work, billing huge sums to the regimes of Gabon and Congo.

    Capitalising on his political clout as the government-appointed head of a public health body operating in Africa, Mr Kouchner also worked as a policy consultant for two French firms that charged €4.6 million for his reports into national health insurance schemes.

    Pean does not describe the activities as illegal but claims there was a clear conflict of interests. “[There is] a distortion between the general way in which he behaves and the image that the French people have of him,” he said. “That image is of a knight in shining armour fighting for morality …”

    Mr Kouchner, the founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres and a prized recruit of President Nicolas Sarkozy, has rejected the book as a “grotesque and sickening” attack motivated by jealousy from those who resent his success, and revenge from former Socialist allies who view him as a traitor.

    In the weekly Nouvel Observateur, he denied having had direct financial dealings with President Omar Bongo of Gabon or President Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo. Defending his right to work in the private sector, he insisted it stopped as soon as he took up his new job.

    Despite his characteristically vigorous denials, the allegations threaten his “whiter than white” reputation.

    Some opposition politicians urged him to set out his defence publicly. “It seems to me problematic that a minister has received money from African heads of state with debatable human rights records,” said a Socialist deputy, Arnaud Montebourg. Bernard-Henri Levy, the philosopher, criticised the “little men” who attacked Mr Kouchner.

    Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, February 6, 2009