Tag: Davutoglu

Davutoglu: Turkey will never cooperate with Israel against a Muslim country

Turkish FM denies involvement in strike on Syrian airbase attributed to Jerusalem, says Ankara’s ‘issues’ with Damascus are ‘based on principle’BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF November 2, 2013, 12:21

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (right) with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. (photo credit: AP Photo)NEWSROOM

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Turkey on Saturday denied reports of its involvement in an alleged Israeli air strike on a military base in Latakia, Syria on Wednesday, which allegedly targeted “missiles and related equipment” meant for Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

Turkish Foreign Minister Agmet Davutoglu said Saturday: “There is an attempt to give the impression that Turkey has coordinated with Israel. We have issues with Syria, an issue based on a principle. But let me say it clearly: The Turkish government has never cooperated with Israel against any Muslim country, and it never will.”

Davutoglu was speaking at a joint press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif Saturday in Istanbul.

The Turkish FM slammed the reports, describing them as “black propaganda.” “Those [reports] are attempts to cast a shadow on the Syrian people’s rightful struggle and Turkey’s attitude with principles. It is out of the question for us to participate in any common operation,” he was quoted by Turkish daily Hurriyet as saying.

On Thursday, a report by Lebanon’s MTV Thursday cited Turkey as being behind the Wednesday attack in Syria, but subsequent reports claimed Turkey merely supplied intelligence to Israel. The Lebanese report cited Israeli officials who allegedly claimed Turkish involvement came in response to the June 2012 interception of a Turkish jet, which Syrian forces shot down. The pilots were subsequently killed.

On Thursday, an Obama administration official told CNN it was Israeli warplanes that attacked the airbase in Latakia. An American security official told AP that the attack occurred in the Syrian port city of Latakia and that the target was Russian-made SA-125 missiles.

The Israeli government and military establishment have declined to comment, and on Friday it was reported that the government reacted with fury at the leak by the Americans.

On Thursday, one Israeli official told Reuters he thought Israel had carried out the strike, but wasn’t certain. Israel has repeatedly warned that any attempt to transfer to Hezbollah chemical or other game-changing weapons would constitute a “red line” and precipitate military action.

Earlier Thursday, on the heels of reports that the airbase had contained advanced, Russian-made, anti-aircraft missiles, al-Arabiya reported that Israel had attacked not one, but two targets in the civil war-torn country.

Al-Arabiya’s report said two targets had been hit in Syria on Wednesday night — not just the Latakia air defense base, but a target in Damascus as well. Both targets were said to have contained shipments of Russian SA-8 anti-aircraft missiles meant for Hezbollah, which were reportedly completely destroyed.

A map of the Latakia airbase posted online shows three batteries of the Russian-made surface-to-air anti-aircraft missile at the base, outside Snobar Jableh in the country’s coastal Latakia region.

Al-Arabiya quoted opposition forces as saying the base held S-125 missiles.

The S-125 is especially effective against maneuverable low- to medium-altitude targets, including aircraft. The Egyptians used such missiles with some success during the War of Attrition and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and batteries used by Iraq may have knocked down coalition aircraft in the First Gulf War.

The system has undergone improvements since then, but countermeasures have also progressed significantly.

A massive explosion was reported at the base late Wednesday night, with some reports that it was targeted by missiles fired from the sea. The Syrian news outlet Dam Press, considered loyal to the regime of Bashar Assad, reported that the site was damaged but that there had been no injuries.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Lebanese government news agency reported six Israeli aircraft flying through Lebanese airspace along the coast north of Beirut.

The coastal strip of Syria, encompassing the cities of Tartous, Latakia and Baniyas, is part of a predominantly Alawite portion of the country, which remains loyal to the Assad regime in its lengthy campaign against rebels.

Israel has been accused of striking Syrian sites in the past, including in January and May this year. Israel refused to confirm the reports that it targeted weapons transfers, possibly to Hezbollah, which has remained loyal to Assad during the country’s bloody civil war.

Syria is reportedly in the midst of upgrading its missile-defense system to the Russian-made S-300, a move Israel has lobbied against.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

via Davutoglu: Turkey will never cooperate with Israel against a Muslim country | The Times of Israel.

November 3, 2013
Turkish Parliament to Discuss “Sarin Came to Syria via Turkey” Claims

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Turkish newspaper Aydinlik Daily reported that Luftu Turkkan, a Member of the Parliament for Turkey’s MHP, has brought the claim that the Sarin that was used by foreign-backed terrorists in Syria to the agenda of Turkey’s Parliament.

Turkkan’s and the MHP’s initiative adds to the growing domestic and international pressure that is mounting against the AKP government of Turkey’s Prime Minister R. Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Davotoglu, for Turkey´s involvement in the unconventional and undeclared war against Syria, nsnbc reported.

The MHP and Turkkan claim, along with many others, that Turkey’s AKP government is giving militant groups connected to Al-Qaeda free reigns to operate in Turkey, writes Aydinlik Daily. Lüftü Türkkan has directed a number of questions to Foreign Minister Ahmed Davotoglu in parliament, stating among others:

“In the Tunisian press, it has been claimed that the materials used in the production of chemical weapons were taken by armed groups in Libya to Syria via Turkey; . … The claims include that the Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Sharia) organization has produced both mustard gas and sarin in Libya and brought it via Turkey to Syria.”

Aydinlik Daily reports that Türkkan then proceeded, asking a number of questions to Foreign Minister Ahmed Davotoglu, focusing among others on Turkey assisting the armed groups with transferring the chemicals to Syria via Turkey.

Türkkan asked Davotoglu whether the claims that the chemicals were transferred by armed groups from Libya via Turkey are true, and if they are true, Türkkan added, which justification is there for Turkey to provide such assistance to the armed groups. Türkkan continued, asking Davotoglu:

“Does Turkey have any kind of relationship with the organization named Ansar al-Sharia, and why was the sending of sarin and mustard gas by this organization first overlooked, and the permission only denied in September? . … While the question of who carried out the chemical weapons attack in Syria occupies world public opinion, is Turkey trying to mediate the procurement of chemical weapons to the Syrian opposition?”.

Several investigations have documented that Turkey, along with Jordan is a main hub for the delivery of both weapons and troops to the terrorist or mercenaries in Syria. Only recently, Turkey attracted additional international attention when the Tunisian government complained that young Tunisian girls who were kidnapped to be sent as sex slaves for the terrorists in Syria were being trafficked through Turkey.

The MHP and Türkkan’s questions to Foreign Minister Davotoglu come nine days after political analyst and nsnbc international editor, Christof Lehmann, who has been following the development of the situation in Syria closely since 2011, published an analysis that places the political and command responsibility for the chemical weapons attack in Eastern Ghouta, Damascus on 21 August, directly at the highest level of the White House, the Pentagon, the CIA and the Saudi Interior Ministry.

The discussion that was sponsored in Turkey’s parliament by MHP MP Türkkan could initiate a process that ultimately also places direct political and command responsibility for war crimes committed in Syria among top government and military officials in Turkey.

via Farsnews.

October 20, 2013
Global anti-terrorism fund grants would battle radicalization process

NEW YORK, Sept. 27 (UPI) — U.S. officials hope a $200 million fund will be effective in stemming extremism by eroding jihadists’ ideological and recruiting appeal in havens for terrorists.

The U.S. State Department said diplomats from the United States and Turkey Friday plan to announce a $200 million fund to help prevent the radicalization process used by terrorists, The New York Times reported.

The new Global Fund for Community Engagement and Resilience will, for the first time, combine financing from government and non-government entities to identify credible local organizations; develop, monitor and evaluate programs; and channel funds to local projects that target groups and individuals vulnerable to appeals from terrorist groups, officials said. The fund is expected to be operational by the middle of 2014.

The initiative is to be announced by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu during a meeting of foreign ministers of the Global Counterterrorism Forum in New York. The United States and Turkey lead the organization of 29 countries and the European Union that acts as a clearinghouse of ideas and actions for civilian counter-terrorism specialists.

“Countries that have a radicalization problem previously had to rely on ad hoc support from wealthier donor nations, many of which are not bureaucratically capable of sponsoring the small intervention programs necessary to disrupt the radicalization process,” William McCants, a former State Department counter-terrorism official now with the Brookings Institution, told the Times. “Now countries can turn to the global fund to sponsor programs that will pull young men and women back from the edge of terrorist violence.”

The United States is expected to contribute between $2 million and $3 million initially to the fund, which will be administered in Geneva, Switzerland. Besides Turkey, other likely donors include the European Union, Canada, Qatar, Denmark, Britain and private sources.

U.S. officials said the fund is expected to raise more than $200 million over a 10-year period.

Fund grants would provide vocational training to youths at risk of being recruited by terrorist organizations, U.S. officials said. Funds also would be channeled to new school curricula that teach tolerance and problem-solving, along with underwriting websites and social networks that would educate youth about the dangers of violent extremist ideologies.

Topics: John Kerry, Ahmet Davutoglu, Brookings Institution

via Global anti-terrorism fund grants would battle radicalization process – UPI.com.

September 28, 2013
Turkey Fears Russia Too Much to Intervene in Syria

Turkey Fears Russia Too Much to Intervene in Syria

Ankara won’t step into the conflict because it’s terrified Moscow will retaliate — again.

SONER CAGAPTAYMAY 6 2013, 10:16 AM ET

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu (R) reach out to shake hands following a joint news conference at Ciragan Palace in Istanbul on April 17, 2013. (Murad Sezer/Reuters)

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov visited Ankara on April 17th, but the event went almost unnoticed. Despite deep differences between Ankara and Moscow over Syria, Turkey has refrained from rebuking Moscow. That’s because Turkey fears no country more than it fears Russia.

Ankara has nearly a dozen neighbors if you include its maritime neighbors across the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Emboldened by its phenomenal economic growth in the past decade and rising political power, Turkey appears willing to square-off against any of them; Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has publicly chided the leaders of Syria, Iran, and Iraq. In fact, none of the country’s neighbors can feel safe from Ankara’s wrath — with the exception of Russia, that is.

“The Russians can make life miserable for us, they are good at this.”

The Turks suffer from a deep-rooted, historic reluctance to confront the Russians. The humming Turkish economy is woefully dependent on Russian energy exports: More than half of Turkey’s natural gas consumption comes from Russia. Consequently, Turkey is unlikely to confront Moscow even when Russia undermines Turkey’s interests, such as in Syria where Russia is supporting the Assad regime, even as Ankara tries to depose it.

Historically, the Turks have always feared the Russians. Between 1568, when the Ottomans and Russians first clashed, to the end of the Russian Empire in 1917, the Turks and Russians fought 17 wars. In each encounter, Russia was the instigator and the victor. In these defeats, the Ottomans lost vast, and often solidly Turkish and Muslim, territories spanning from the Crimea to Circassia to the Russians. The Russians killed many inhabitants of these Ottoman lands and expelled the rest to Turkey. So many Turks descend from refugees from Russia that the adage in Turkey is: “If you scratch a Turk, you find a Circassian persecuted by Russians underneath.”

Having suffered at the hands of the Russians for centuries, the Turks now have a deeply engrained fear of the Russians. This explains why Turkey dived for the safety of NATO and the United States when Stalin demanded territory from Turkey and a base on the Bosporus in 1945. Fear of the Russians made Turkey one of the most committed Cold-War allies to the United States.

Recently, Turkish-Russian ties have improved measurably. Russia is Turkey’s number-one trading partner, and nearly four million Russians vacation in Turkey annually. At the same time, Turkey’s construction, retail, and manufacturing businesses are thriving in Russia. Turkish Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, offers daily flights from Istanbul to eight Russian cities.

Still, none of this has erased the Turks’ subconscious Russophobia. In 2012, I asked a policymaker in Ankara whether Turkey would take unilateral military action to depose the Assad regime in Damascus. “Not against the wishes of Moscow” my interlocutor said. Adding: “The Russians can make life miserable for us, they are good at this.”

At least some of the Turkish fear of Russia appears grounded in reality. Turkey is dependent on Russia more than any other country for its energy needs. Despite being a large economy, Turkey has neither significant natural gas and oil deposits, nor nuclear power stations of its own. Ankara is therefore bound to Moscow, which has often used natural gas supplies as a means to punish countries, such as Ukraine, that cross its foreign policy goals.

There is also a security component: Russia helped set up the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group that led a terror campaign against Turkey for decades, causing over 30,000 casualties. The PKK emerged under Russian tutelage in Lebanon’s then-Syrian occupied Bekaa Valley during the 1980s, and it has enjoyed intermittent Russian support even after the collapse of Communism.

Turkey recently entered peace talks with the PKK, and many in the group are likely to heed the advice of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and lay down their weapons. Yet, a pervasive fear in Ankara is that some rogue elements and hardliners could emerge from the PKK, denouncing the talks and continuing to fight Turkey.

Meanwhile, Ankara has been confronting the Assad regime in Damascus since late 2011 by supporting the Syrian opposition. This had led to a spike in PKK attacks against Turkey, most coming from Iran, which apparently has allowed the PKK freedom of movement in its territory to punish Ankara for its stance against Assad.

The fear in Ankara is that Russia might just do the same if Turkey were to invade Syria, propping up rogue PKK elements inside that country to lead an insurgency against Turkish troops. Together with other concerns, such as the risk of the conflict in Syria spilling over into Turkey, the Turkish fear of Russia has led Ankara to avoid direct intervention in Syria.

Such fears have also led Turkey to pivot further toward the United States, once again seeking protection under the NATO umbrella against the looming Russian giant. Taking into consideration Turkey’s fear of Russia, any Turkish military action against the Assad regime will have to be predicated on full NATO support and involvement.

For the Turks, history repeats itself every day when it comes to Moscow: don’t stand in Russia’s way lest it torment you, again.

via Turkey Fears Russia Too Much to Intervene in Syria – Soner Cagaptay – The Atlantic.

May 7, 2013
Davutoglu: Turkey will not discuss future of Syria with Israel

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said Turkey categorically denies discussing the future of Syria with Israel, dismissing suggestions that the recent Israeli apology was linked to developments in war-torn Syria Today`s Zaman reported.

“This will be Turkey’s stance both today and tomorrow. Turkey will never discuss Syria’s future with Israel,” said Davutoglu during a televised interview on Thursday, adding that this was the case for all of Turkey’s neighbors.

Noting that Turkey refuses to be part of regional policies determined by Israel, such as the ones in 1990s, Davutoglu said that the days when Turkey was not included in regional peace processes were now over.

The Turkish foreign minister said Turkey was now the main actor in the Middle East putting forward regional solutions and policies. “From today onwards, Turkey will not bother about losing this country or that country,” he said while noting, in an apparent message to the Israel administration, that if there are countries who believe it advantageous to repair relations with Turkey due to the Syrian crisis, it was their concern.

In late March, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered an apology to Turkey for a 2010 raid on the Mavi Marmara aid flotilla that resulted in the deaths of eight Turks and a Turkish American. Shortly after the apology, Netanyahu made it clear that a failed Syrian state with chemical weapons at large was the main motive behind the apology.

Davutoglu stated that the Israeli apology was the product of three-year discussions between Israeli officials who chose to offer an apology when they understood that it was not in their best interests to continue the rift.

Rift between families of Mavi Marmara victims and government untrue

Touching on the Mavi Marmara attack, Davutoglu said the passengers of the flotilla only aimed to take humanitarian aid to Gaza and were not perusing any personal interest, but did it for the honor of humanity. The Turkish foreign minister also said that, except for some groups, many people across the world regarded the Mavi Marmara volunteers as people who risked their lives for the honor of humanity.

Following the Israeli apology, the families of the nine victims have insisted that the blockade on the Gaza Strip be lifted, underlining that without the ending of the blockade and embargo, Israel’s apology and compensation for the victim’s families and those injured would have no meaning. The families also said that they have no intention of retracting their lawsuits.

In relation to suggestions that the government tried to prevent families from obtaining compensation, Davutoglu said those claims were not true. He added that they will continue to talk to families about the process and fight for their rights.

No need for a mediator in talks with Iraqi government

Davutoglu also said that Turkey did not need a mediator to have talks with the Iraqi government, apparently referring to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent visits to Iraq and Turkey. Relations with Iraq have been strained as the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has criticized Turkey for interfering in Iraqi affairs. Maliki is particularly concerned over Turkey developing ties with the Iraqi Kurds in the north of the country. During his visit to Baghdad on March 24, Kerry also spoke to Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani on the phone, telling him to abandon unilateral actions that do not receive the blessing of Baghdad, particularly with regard to an oil pipeline deal with Turkey.

Days later, Maliki softened his rhetoric, saying that he would welcome rapprochement with Turkey.

Davutoglu said Turkey never cut off its ties with Iraq but warned that the Iraqi premier should be careful about his comments regarding Turkey.

Touching on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s scheduled visit to Palestine in late May, the Turkish foreign minister said this date was chosen with the hope that the rival political groups of Palestine, Hamas and Fatah, may have reached a reconciliation by then.

Davutoglu added that the important thing in the Palestine-Israel conflict is to solve the problem, not the issue of who is going to mediate between the groups.

April 26, 2013
Turkey Threatens To Go Its Way If EU Accession Further Delayed

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says that his country’s membership in the European Union is a strategic goal but Turkey could abandon this goal if the 27-nation bloc refuses “to unblock its path for entry.”

“If the EU clears our way [for membership], we would welcome it, as the EU [membership] is our strategic goal. But if it does not, they will go their own way and we will go ours,” Turkish media quoted him as telling a meeting of the local branch of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the western province of Manisa on Sunday.

Davutoglu’s remarks follow a January statement of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he had told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Turkey could drop its EU membership goal and join the Russian-Chinese-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) instead if Ankara was invited to do so.

Erdogan made the statement because of frustration with the stalemate in the EU accession bid. Turkey opened accession negotiations with the EU in 2005 but the progress had been very slow since then due to opposition in some EU countries to Turkish accession and the Cyprus issue.

by RTT Staff Writer

via Turkey Threatens To Go Its Way If EU Accession Further Delayed.

April 2, 2013