Turkish Forum

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  • Despite Israel’s apology, Turkey not normalizing ties

    Despite Israel’s apology, Turkey not normalizing ties

    Despite Israel’s apology, Turkey not normalizing ties

    NATO planned to invite foreign ministers from Mediterranean countries, including Israel and six Arab states, but Turkey nixes Israeli participation • Erdoğan: Turkey will not send an envoy to Tel Aviv before Israel lifts its naval blockade on the Gaza Strip.

    Eli Leon and Israel Hayom Staff

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    NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. | Photo credit: AP

    Despite the Israeli apology for the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, Turkey said it objects to meeting Israeli diplomats at the upcoming Mediterranean Dialogue group, in which Israel was supposed to have participated for the first time since 2008.

    In addition, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday that Turkey will not send an envoy to Israel as part of a recent move for normalization of ties before Israel lifts its naval blockade on the Gaza Strip.

    Erdoğan reiterated Turkey’s stance on the issue and said Israel should lift the blockade before full restoration of diplomatic ties, Turkish newspaper Sunday Zaman reported.

    According to the Turkish daily Hurriyet, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the 12th and current secretary-general of NATO, planned to invite the foreign ministers from Mediterranean countries, including from Israel and six Arab states, but Turkey has objected, arguing that “it wasn’t the right time” for such a meeting.

    “The general-secretary was planning to invite the foreign ministers of the Mediterranean Dialogue countries on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers meeting scheduled for April 23 but Turkey objected to the idea,” a Western diplomatic source told Hürriyet on the condition of anonymity.

    A Turkish official told Hurriyet that “at this stage, such a meeting would not be useful.”

    According to the newspaper, the official also said that Egypt and Tunisia, two members of the Mediterranean Dialogue, did not want to hold such meeting at this stage either.

    NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue was initiated in 1994 by the North Atlantic Council. It currently involves seven non-NATO countries in the Mediterranean region: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.

    According to Hurriyet, Turkey has been having a tough time normalizing relations with Israel since the relatives of slain Turkish activists still appear defiant about continuing their lawsuits against senior Israeli officials, with one even declaring that he would hand his compensation money from Israel to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The dropping of legal cases against Israeli officials was one of the core conditions that Israel demanded from Turkey as part of the apology deal.

    via Israel Hayom | Despite Israel’s apology, Turkey not normalizing ties.

  • Belgium asks Turkey to watch for Belgians crossing into Syria

    Belgium asks Turkey to watch for Belgians crossing into Syria

    “We are in close cooperation with Turkey on this issue and we have asked them for additional monitoring [of border crossings],” Joelle Milquet, Belgium’s deputy prime minister and interior minister, said during a radio interview on Saturday.

    Belgium has asked Turkey to help in its efforts to prevent Belgian nationals from illegally crossing into Syria to fight alongside opposition forces trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

    “We are in close cooperation with Turkey on this issue and we have asked them for additional monitoring [of border crossings],” Joelle Milquet, Belgium’s deputy prime minister and interior minister, said during a radio interview on Saturday. She said she was planning to travel to Turkey for further talks on the matter.

    Milquet’s remarks come amid growing media attention on Belgian youth secretly traveling to Syria to join anti-regime fighters there, upsetting their families in most cases. The Belgian government has taken some measures to prevent such travels, introducing restrictions on traveling to Turkey for teenagers younger than 16. Particularly those youth living in neighborhoods populated by Moroccan immigrants are reported to be under increased police scrutiny.

    Turkey has received hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have fled the civil war in their country and is a major supporter of the opposition forces trying to topple the Assad regime. Assad accuses Turkey of allowing foreign fighters and arms to cross into Syria, a charge Turkey denies.

    via Belgium asks Turkey to watch for Belgians crossing into Syria | Europe | World Bulletin.

  • Greek Attaché in Istanbul Wants Free Time

    Greek Attaché in Istanbul Wants Free Time

    The Greek Education and Culture Attaché in Istanbul, Stauros Gioltzoglou,  in a shot at Germans who want Greeks to work harder – although statistics show they work more than their German counterparts already – said there’s more to life than just work.

    “Are we here in this world just to work?” he asked and continued saying “We live for 60-70 years, at most 80 years, let’s say”, to complain about the lack of leisure time in today’s society. According to a press statement from the University, while criticizing Germans he said: “Germans say Greeks are lazy. They work 330 days and come to our country on vacation for 30 days. Will I work for bankers? Where else could I find a pleasure like drinking a coffee with a Turkish friend on the Bosphorus?”

    As hurriyetdailynews reports, Mr. Gioltzoglou wasn’t ready to comment regarding that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel has become a “hate figure” in Greece because of the tough austerity measures imposed on Greece in return for promised loans and debt relief.

    “Some 120,000 people demonstrated in Greece when Gen. Kenan Evren staged a coup in 1980. Democracy in the grass roots of Greece”, the Greek Attaché said regarding the strikes and the demonstrations organized by the Greek people.

    Stauros Gioltzoglou referred to his surname origins, saying that it comes from his grandfather in the northern city of Samsun, who had migrated during a population exchange.

  • Many Turkish companies have decided to invest in FYR Macedonia

    Many Turkish companies have decided to invest in FYR Macedonia

    Many Turkish companies have decided to invest in FYR Macedonia

    Many Turkish companies have decided to invest in FYR Macedonia, Minister for Foreign Investment in FYR Macedonia Bill Pavleski said during the Economy Forum within the scope of the 16th Eurasia Economy Summit in Istanbul on April 10.
    The foreign investments in the country have increased significantly, said the minister, adding that his country overcame the global economic crisis thanks to its sound banking system.
    “Our financial indicators managed to remain balanced during the global economic crisis,” he said. “Our inflation rate has been under 3 percent for the past seven years.”
    Speaking at the same event, Montenegro’s Deputy Prime Minister Vujica Lazovic said that his country was an EU candidate, and prioritized the integration process.
    “There are important opportunities for investors in Montenegro, said Lazovic, adding that although his country was a young one, it had gained a significant economic experience in recent years. “We grew 2.5 percent during the 2009 economic crisis, and 3.2 percent in 2011,” he said.
    Jordan’s Senate President Taher Masri, for his part, said that the country was watching the Turkish economy with pride. “There are winners and losers in economic aspects, and Turkey is among the winners,” said Masri. Source; Hurriyet

  • Turkey opts out of NATO talks with Israel

    Turkey opts out of NATO talks with Israel

    By TOVAH LAZAROFF

    Tunisia, Egypt also reportedly dismissed potential meeting; group intended to discuss security in region has not met since 2008.

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    Erdogan visits Egypt Photo: AMR ABDALAH DALSH / REUTERS

    Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt rejected plans to hold a meeting of NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue group, Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News reported on Saturday. Israel is one of the Dialogue group’s seven member-nations.

    The Mediterranean Dialogue group for Foreign Ministers – which also includes Algeria, Jordan, Mauritania and Morocco – has not met since 2008, according to Hurriyet.

    A Turkish official told Hurriyet that the meetings had not been held because of political problems between Israel and Arab member-nations.

    Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office had no comment.

    News that Turkey was among the countries that nixed the meeting comes as Jerusalem and Ankara struggle to reestablish diplomatic relations.

    Ties between Israel and Turkey were severed in 2010 after the IDF raided the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara and killed nine Turkish activists.

    Last month, at the end of US President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkey for the deaths.

    Turkey, in turn, agreed to reestablish diplomatic ties.

    However, it then asked Israel to delay sending a delegation to Turkey to discuss issues relating to the restoring of diplomatic relations.

    The delegation, which had been scheduled to leave for Ankara at the start of the month, is now scheduled to depart on April 22.

    via Turkey opts out of NATO talks with Israel | JPost | Israel News.

  • Turkish Police Foil Al-Qaeda US Embassy Plot

    Turkish Police Foil Al-Qaeda US Embassy Plot

    Turkish police have uncovered and foiled an alleged plot by Al-Qaeda to bomb the United States embassy in Ankara, as well as a synagogue and other targets in Istanbul, Turkish media reported on Friday.

    img415813As a result of a February raid in Istanbul and the northeastern city of Corlu, police had arrested 12 people, including eight Turks, two Azeris and two Chechens, and seized 22 kilograms of explosives, CNNTurk reported.

    Police also found documents that allegedly revealed plans by the group, which they described as a Turkish cell of Al-Qaeda, to attack a synagogue and a museum in Istanbul.

    The embassy in Ankara was the target of a suicide bombing on February 1, which killed a Turkish security guard. That attack was claimed by a radical Marxist and anti-US armed group, The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front (DHKP-C), blacklisted by the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organization.

    via Turkish Police Foil Al-Qaeda US Embassy Plot – Middle East – News – Israel National News.