Turkish Forum

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  • Lawmakers Threaten Turkey with Reprisals Over Israel

    Lawmakers Threaten Turkey with Reprisals Over Israel

    Turkey is a member of NATO and a long-term ally of the United States.

    But you’d never know it to hear the contempt some members of Congress now have for Turkey after Israel intercepted a flotilla bound for Gaza and shot pro-Palestinian, Turkish activists on board.

    “As far as I am concerned, Turkey is responsible for the nine deaths on that flotilla. Not Israel,” said Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV). “I draw a line that they have just crossed.”

    “I think because Turkey is a NATO ally, it’s even more disgraceful,” said Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY).

    Then a threat, from the third-ranking Republican in the House, GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN).

    “There will be a cost if Turkey stays on its current heading,” Pence warned. “Turkey needs to count the cost.”

    “The cost” Pence speaks of is a resolution that’s offered almost annually in the House to recognize the Armenian genocide. The non-binding measure notes how the Ottoman Empire (which controlled much of what is now Turkey) massacred the Armenian population in 1915.

    Turkey has always opposed the bill. But Pence and others hinted they might consider changing their vote if the legislation surfaces again.

    But the reprisals just don’t stop at the House floor.

    Berkley noted that she has met with representatives of the Turkish government for years. But she is changing that stance after recent events. The Nevada Democrat says she got a call from a PR firm that’s working with Turkey after the flotilla incident.

    “Turkey is on a charm offensive this week,” Berkley said. “They will not be welcome in my office until I see a change in policy.”

    Some of the lawmakers fretted about what they viewed as a “turn” from Turkey away from Europe and to focus more on Iran and other nations.

    “This is a clear effort to distance Turkey from the west,” said Rep. Pete King (R-NY).

    Engel also expressed concern about recent political leanings in the Turkish government.

    “It has a strong Islamic bent,” said Engel.

    Berkley argued the European Union should stop courting Turkey as a potential member.

    “They don’t deserve the recognition and don’t deserve to be part of the EU,” she said.

    Reps. Ted Poe (R-TX) and Gary Peters (D-MI) have crafted a letter to President Obama urging him to “thwart international condemnation and focus the international community on the crimes of the Iran-backed Hamas leadership against Israel.”

    Nearly 130 House members from both sides of the aisle have signed the letter, including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH).

    “(Israel) fell into the trap that was set for it by Turkey,” Berkley said.

    Turkey has been a prominent ally of the U.S. for decades. It served as an eastern bulwark against Warsaw Pact nations and was home to Jupiter Missiles pointed at the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The U.S. used Incirlik Air Base to launch strikes against Iraq during the Gulf War. Turkey also played key roles in operations in Afghanistan after September 11th and during the war against Iraq in 2003.

  • Latest Neocon insanity: kick Turkey out of NATO

    Latest Neocon insanity: kick Turkey out of NATO

    Latest Neocon insanity: kick Turkey out of NATO – Harper

    harpIN RETALIATION FOR THE ISRAELI ATTACK ON THE GAZA AID FLOTILLA 

    The silly season just got positively bizarre.  In the aftermath of the Israeli armed assault on a Turkish-flagged aid ship, bound for the Gaza Strip, some of the more rabid American neocons have demanded, in no uncertain terms, that Turkey must be punished by being kicked out of NATO.  Yes, you heard me correctly.  Israel carried out an act of international piracy, and cold-blooded murder in international waters, and Turkey must be punished.  Has someone dumped a shot of LSD-25 into the water cooler at the American Enterprise Institute?

                It is pretty obvious that a talking points memo went out from the Israeli embassy or some other locale, because in a matter of days, many of the usual suspects—Daniel Pipes, Stephen Schwartz, Michael Rubin, and Victor Davis Hanson, not to mention the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA)—all came out with the identical, preposterous notion that Turkey is the perp and Israel the victim. 

                On June 8th JINSA issued Report #995*, claiming, “Turkish government support for the IHH ship in the Gaza flotilla is now well understood and the anti-Semitic ravings of both official Turks and the Turkish media have made Turkey’s intention to split from Israel clear… The Hamas-Turkey relationship has grown as the Turkey-Palestinian Authority relationship, the relationship supported by the United States and the EU, has declined.  Rapproachment with Russia, Syria and Iran, and the Iran-Brazil-Turkey enriched uranium deal are more of the same.”

                The JINSA screed ends with a threat and a demand:  “Turkey, as a member of NATO, is privy to intelligence information having to do with terrorism and with Iran.  If Turkey finds its best friends to be Iran, Hamas, Syria and Brazil (look for Venezuela in the future) the security of that information (and Western technology in weapons in Turkey’s arsenal) is suspect.  The United States should seriously consider suspending military cooperation with Turkey as a prelude to removing it from the organization.” 

                JINSA, of course, includes such neocon icons as John Bolton, Dr. Stephen D. Bryen, Michael Ledeen, Joshua Muravchik, Richard Perle, Stephen Solarz, Kenneth Timmerman and R. James Woolsey.

                The same day that JINSA issued their pronouncement, Daniel Pipes delivered his rant, proclaiming that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a more dangerous radical Islamist than Osama bin-Laden.   “If once only a small band of analysts recognized Erdogan’s Islamist outlook, this fact has now become obvious for the whole world to see.  Erdogan has gratuitously discarded his carefully crafted image of a pro-Western `Muslim democrat,’ making it far easier to treat him as the Tehran-Damascus ally that he is.”

                And what might be Pipes’ remedy?  “Turkey has returned to the center of the Middle East and the umma.  But it no longer deserves full NATO membership, and its opposition parties deserve support.” 

                Victor Davis Hanson took an extra few days to come out both barrels blazing against Turkey’s NATO membership.  He penned a June 10th National Review Online assault, “The New Wannabe Ottomans,” blaming Turkey for allowing the flotilla of aid ships, bound for Gaza, to leave from a Turkish port, thus forcing Israel to attack.  But the diatribe was nothing new.  He observed:  “Lately, Turkey has reached out to Iran and Syria.  Both habitually sponsor Mideast terrorist groups and have aided anti-American insurgents in Iraq.  Turkey and Brazil recently offered to monitor Iran’s nuclear program, sidestepping American and European efforts to step up sanctions to stop Teheran’s plans for a bomb.  Erdogan’s anti-Israel attacks often match those of his newfound friends, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah’s Hasan Nasrallah…  What is behind Turkey’s metamorphosis from a staunch U.S. ally, NATO member, and quasi-European state into a sponsor of Hamas, ally of theocratic Iran, and fellow traveler with terrorist-sponsoring Syria?” 

                Hanson’s answer:  “Turkey senses a growing distance between Tel Aviv and Washington, and thus an opportunity to step into the gulf to unite Muslims against Israel and win influence in the Arab world.”

                And guess what Hanson poses as the solution:  “Turkey’s new ambitions and ethnic and religious chauvinism are antithetical to its NATO membership.  The U.S. should not be treaty-bound to defend a de facto ally of Iran or Syria, which are both eager to obtain nuclear weapons… In response, the U.S. should make contingency plans to relocate from its huge Air Force base at Incirlik… If Erdogan is intent on a suicidal reinvention of Turkey into a pale imitation of Ottoman hegemony, we can at least take steps to ensure that it will be his mess—and none of our own.”

                If I didn’t know something about the neoconservatives, and their worship of the late Leo Strauss, I would be a bit more stunned by the sheer chutzpah of their deceptions and sophistic defenses of Israel’s baffling and indefensible actions.  But I am not shocked, having lived through the neocon’s golden age during Bush and Cheney.  We are still paying the price for their “Clean Break” with reality.  Let us just hope that between Bob Gates, Jim Jones, and Hillary Clinton, they have enough of a sense of humor, and enough of an appreciation of the Israeli disinformation machinery, that they won’t be lured into buying these tall tales and doing something foolish.

    https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2010/06/latest-neocon-insanity-kick-turkey-out-of-nato-harper.html

    * It Is About the United States
    • JINSA Reports

    JINSA Report #: 

    995

    June 8, 2010

    Turkey and Honduras, in different ways, highlight the lack of effective leadership the United States currently is able to exercise in the world.

    Turkey: Turkish government support for the IHH ship in the Gaza flotilla is now well understood and the anti-Semitic ravings of both official Turks and the Turkish media have made Turkey’s intention to split from Israel clear.

    But it is a mistake to think this is only about Israel. Support for the flotilla was only the latest in a series of Turkish decisions designed to distance itself from the United States and move toward closer political relations with countries adversarial to us. Immediately after the bloody 2007 Hamas coup against Fatah in Gaza, the United States and the European Union reiterated that Hamas was a terrorist organization to be shunned. Instead, Turkey’s prime minister invited Hamas leadership to Ankara. The Hamas-Turkey relationship has grown as the Turkey-Palestinian Authority relationship, the relationship supported by the United States and the EU, has declined. Rapprochement with Russia, Syria and Iran, and the Iran-Brazil-Turkey enriched uranium deal are more of the same.

    After his meeting with Secretary of State Clinton, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters, “Citizens of member states were attacked by a country that is not a member of NATO. I think you can make some conclusions out of this statement.” The implication was that Turkey would ask NATO for some satisfaction-or some slap at Israel.

    Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Minister.

    Turkey, as a member of NATO, is privy to intelligence information having to do with terrorism and with Iran. If Turkey finds its best friends to be Iran, Hamas, Syria and Brazil (look for Venezuela in the future) the security of that information (and Western technology in weapons in Turkey’s arsenal) is suspect. The United States should seriously consider suspending military cooperation with Turkey as a prelude to removing it from the organization.

    Honduras: The United States tried to have it both ways. The Obama Administration quickly jumped in with Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba and Nicaragua to denounce what it called a “coup” in Honduras. The United States voted with its new best friends to oust Honduras from the Organization of American States (OAS), and cut off various forms of diplomatic and economic aid to the small Central American country. After the Congressional Research Service (CRS) concluded that the Honduran Congress, Supreme Court and military had acted in accordance with the Honduran Constitution, the Obama Administration brokered a deal that permitted the previously scheduled election with previously nominated candidates to go forward. When the new president was sworn in, the United States recognized the new government and withdrew its sanctions.

    All’s well that ends well, right? Not exactly.

    At the OAS meeting in Peru this week, the United States tried to have Honduras reinstated. Guess who said no; Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil and Nicaragua refused to even to put the issue on the table. Hugo, Lula, Fidel and Danny were perfectly happy to let the Obama Administration join them in ganging up on a (former) American ally. But they still think they’re leading.

    Maybe they are.
  • Israeli Commandos Execute American Citizen

    Israeli Commandos Execute American Citizen

    Israeli Commandos Execute American Citizen

    Video

    Israeli soldiers allegedly killing Furkan Dogan 19 years

    See also: American, 19, Among Gaza Flotilla Dead: Furkan Dogan Was Shot Five Times, Including Four Times in Head

    EXCLUSIVE: New Video Smuggled Out from Mavi Marmara of Israel’s Deadly Assault on Gaza Aid Flotilla
    By Democracy Now!

    In a Democracy Now! exclusive, we bring you a sneak preview of previously unseen raw footage from the Mavi Marmara that will be formally released at a press conference at the United Nations later in the day. The footage shows the mood and the activities onboard the Mavi Marmara in the time leading up to the attack, and the immediate reaction of the passengers during the attack. We are joined by filmmaker and activist Iara Lee, one of the few Americans on the Mavi Marmara ship. Her equipment was confiscated, but she managed to smuggle out an hour’s worth of footage.

    Video:

    Information Clearing House

    furkanmavimarmara

  • Jewish Professors call on Israel to recognize the Armenian Genocide

    Jewish Professors call on Israel to recognize the Armenian Genocide

    Following the Mediterranean Sea incident, as Israeli commandos intercepted Turkish Mavi Marmara aid ship, towing for Gaza, new crisis wave emerged in Israeli-Turkish relations. The sides addressed tough condemnations against each other on state and public level. Anti-Israeli moods intensified in Turkey.

    According to Firat news agency, 4 professors from the US Georgetown and Israeli Bar-Ilan Universities addressed a letter to the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and called on Tel Aviv to recognize the Armenian Genocide and make a due decision officially. The professors also urged Ankara to at least grant status of autonomy to the millions of Kurds living in Turkey.

  • “Greater Middle East” gradually becoming a reality

    “Greater Middle East” gradually becoming a reality

    No matter how strongly the Government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan may support the current administration of Ayatollah Khamenei, Tehran simply does not believe it and would not admit even the thought of Turkey being representative of the Muslim world.

    “Greater Middle East” is gradually becoming a reality. The struggle for the place of a regional power between Turkey and Iran, both bordering with Armenia, has slipped “under the carpet”, and let no one be caught at the support that Erdogan gives to the nuclear program of Iran. Armenia, in this case, must build relations with its neighbors, based on the belief “my enemy’s enemy is my friend”. And though this system sometimes fails, it works in general, and it will work in case of Armenia, especially since the relations were unruffled, and became even better after certain incidents. Similarly, the Israeli-Turkish relations may smoothly grow into Armenian-Israeli. But in the latter case there is still a long way to go.

    PanARMENIAN.Net – Relations with Iran are good in general and have a tendency to expand, particularly in the energy sector. Iran has already built two small hydropower plants on the Araks River; the Iran-Armenia pipeline, built within the program of diversification of energy supplies to Armenia, is successfully completed. Construction of a petroleum refinery in Southern Armenia (Meghri) is in the design phase. Feasibility study was carried out by Russian and Armenian specialists. The two countries have had no hard or bloody past, and the Armenian community in Iran, amounting to about 200,000 people, enjoys the locals’ respect. In the Karabakh issue Iran is neutral, but she is always ready to offer her services as a mediator. However, Iran cannot become an OSCE Minsk Group member, and, consequently, she cannot be an intermediary. Yet, it must be admitted that with Iran’s support there would have been registered some progress in this issue. Let us not forget that Iran is in rather difficult relations with neighboring Azerbaijan, which lays claims to the province of Southern Azerbaijan, and believes that it is her territory. Despite the positive statements by Azerbaijani officials about the “excellent relations with the friendly Islamic country”, everything is not actually so rosy. Azerbaijan’s territorial claims, coupled with the controversial status of the Caspian Sea could seriously damage relations between these two countries. In addition, Azerbaijan with extreme nervousness responds to the Armenian-Iranian relations, considering them as treacherous on the part of the Islamic country.

    As for Armenia, she needs normal relations with Iran, as the latter is one of the two land routes linking the country with the outer world. The Iranian route is longer but safer than the Georgian one. On the other hand, friendship with Iran is now a bit problematic because of the nuclear program. However, according to U.S. diplomats in Yerevan, the United States realizes the importance of Iran for Armenia (in blockade) and therefore regards the Armenian-Iranian relations with favour.

    There is another equally important aspect in Iran’s ambition to become a regional power: Islamism. The Islamic Republic believes that she should be the advocate of Islam in the region, and no one can replace her in this issue. Supported by Saudi Arabia, Turkey also seeks dominance in the region and gradually parts with secularism, thus rivaling Tehran. However, Iran simply will not allow such a turn of events. No matter how strongly the Government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan may support the current administration of Ayatollah Khamenei and how hard it may try to persuade Tehran that it respects Islamic values, Tehran simply does not believe it and would not admit even the thought of Turkey being representative of the Muslim world. The recent story of Free Gaza, which, at large, was meant to win the affection of the Arab world and show it that Islam for Ankara is more important than a close relationship with Israel, highlighted a number of problems that Turkey has with the Arab world, despite the fact that Erdogan solemnly declared: “The Turk cannot live without the Arab”. Nevertheless, however sad it might be for Ankara, Hamas has already refused her services, stressing that it prefers to deal only with Egypt.

    At first sight, Turkey is in normal relations with all the neighbors – from “brotherly” to “neutral”. But the Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance believes that Armenia, in particular, must leave the security zone around the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and give up the process of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The reality is that it is still too early to speak of normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations, and there are several reasons for it. There are serious internal political processes going in Turkey. The state of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has deteriorated after the scandalous resignation of major opposition member Deniz Baykal, as new leader of the Republican People’s Party Kemal Kilicdaroglu is determined, if not to win the elections next year, at least to reduce the number of deputies from the AKP. Premier Erdogan is obviously losing popularity, and in this respect improved relations with Armenia would be fatal for him. Turkish opposition, which is already unhappy with the foreign and domestic policy of Turkey, could easily dethrone the unwanted premier. However, hardly will the army intervene this time, since the Prime Minister has taken care to gain the ear of most of the military. But Turkey is a country quite unpredictable in some issues, and what will happen after the referendum on September 12 is difficult to predict.

    , 11 June 2010

  • The New Wannabe Ottomans

    The New Wannabe Ottomans

    victor davis hanson
    Victor Davis Hanson

    A Turkish Islamic group — the “Humanitarian Relief Foundation,” often associated by Western intelligence agencies with terrorist sponsorship — orchestrated the recent Gaza flotilla. It was hoping for the sort of violent, well-publicized confrontation with the Israeli navy that later followed.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, immediately issued veiled threats to Israel. He then badgered the United States, Turkey’s NATO patron ally, to condemn the Israeli interdiction.

    While the world piled on in its criticism of Israel, there was also a sort of stunned silence over the actions of Turkey, without whose help the blockade-running flotilla would never have left a Turkish port.

    Erdogan’s hysterics emphasized the Islamic transformation of a once secular Turkey that has been going on for well over a decade. In 2003, Turkey forbade passage to U.S. troops in their efforts to remove Saddam Hussein from Iraq. State-run Turkish television instead aired virulent anti-American dramas, like “Valley of the Wolves,” in which our soldiers appear as little more than blood-crazed killers who dismember poor Iraqi civilians.

    Lately, Turkey has reached out to Iran and Syria. Both habitually sponsor Mideast terrorist groups and have aided anti-American insurgents in Iraq. Turkey and Brazil recently offered to monitor Iran’s nuclear program, sidestepping American and European efforts to step up sanctions to stop Teheran’s plans for a bomb.

    Erdogan’s anti-Israel attacks often match those of his newfound friends, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah’s Hasan Nasrallah. Former Turkish Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, remember, once blamed the Jews for starting the Crusades, and for instigating World War I to create Israel. He also described them as a “disease” that needed to be eradicated.

    What is behind the Turkish metamorphosis from a staunch U.S. ally, NATO member and quasi-European state into a sponsor of Hamas, ally of theocratic Iran and fellow traveler with terrorist-sponsoring Syria?

    The Cold War is over. Turkey no longer guards the southeastern flank of Europe from the advance of Soviet communism, lessening its importance within NATO. Its Anatolian Muslim population grows, while more secular European and Aegean Turks have lost influence. Turkey senses a growing distance between Tel Aviv and Washington, and thus an opportunity to step into the gulf to unite Muslims against Israel and win influence in the Arab world.

    Erdogan clearly identifies more with the old transnational Ottoman sultanate than with Kemal Ataturk’s modern, secular and Western nation-state. Indeed, he has bragged that he is a grandson of the Ottomans and announced that Turkey’s new goal was to restore the might of the Ottoman Empire.

    And so, like the theocratic Ottomans of old, Erdogan’s Islamic Turkey fancies itself a window on the West, absorbing technology and expertise from Europe and the United States in order to empower and unite the more spiritually pure Muslims across national boundaries.

    Of course, Turkey tolerates no criticism about its own violations of human rights in suppressing its Kurdish population. It lectures Israel about occupied land but is silent about its sponsorship of the Turkish absorption of much of Greek Cyprus. It laments a divided Jerusalem but says nothing about the segregation of Nicosia.

    Erdogan often accuses Israel of human rights violations, but to this day no Turkish government has ever acknowledged culpability for the genocide of the Armenians. Far from it: Not long ago, Erdogan threatened to deport Armenians from Turkish soil.

    Where and how does all this end?

    Turkey’s new ambitions and ethnic and religious chauvinism are antithetical to its NATO membership. The United States should not be treaty-bound to defend a de facto ally of Iran or Syria, which are both eager to obtain nuclear weapons. European countries foresaw the problem when they denied Turkey membership in the now fragile European Union, fearful that Anatolian Islamists would have unfettered transit across European borders.

    In response, the United States should make contingency plans to relocate from its huge Air Force base at Incirlik — a facility that Turkey has in the past threatened to close. We should brace for new troubles in the Aegean region and Cyprus, as a bankrupt and often anti-American Greece is now alienated from both the United States and northern Europe — and yet increasingly vulnerable to a return of Ottoman regional ambitions.

    Just as the Shah of Iran’s pro-Western, secular transformation failed and led to the Ayatollah Khomeini’s anti-Western Islamic revolution, we are seeing something similar in Erdogan’s efforts to turn Ataturk’s Turkey back into the theocratic sultanate that ran the Eastern Mediterranean for more than three centuries.

    If Erdogan is intent on a suicidal reinvention of Turkey into a pale imitation of Ottoman hegemony, we can at least take steps to ensure that it will be his mess — and none of our own.

    Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author, most recently, of “A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War.” You can reach him by e-mailing [email protected].

    , 10 june 2010