Turkish Forum

Tag: Palestinians

  • Progress for Turkey, Israel and the U.S. – Room for Debate

    Progress for Turkey, Israel and the U.S. – Room for Debate

    Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish journalist for Al-Monitor and The Hurriyet Daily News, is the author of “Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty.”

    MARCH 27, 2013

    It is unclear whether President Obama’s recent visit to Israel helped build the much-hoped peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Yet, in a quite unexpected move, it certainly helped build peace between Israel and Turkey.

    The two countries were not at war, of course. But the longtime relationship between Turkey and Israel had fallen to one of its lowest points, after the Gaza flotilla affair of May 2010, in which nine Turks, one of them an American-Turkish citizen, were killed by Israeli commandos. Turkey had immediately asked three things from Israel: apology, compensation and the easing of the blockade on Gaza. By February 2011, Israel had made clear it would not comply, and Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador to Ankara, reducing the diplomatic relations between two countries.

    Obama was wise enough to capture this moment to reconcile his two key allies in the Middle East.

    Since then, political commentators had been divided on the future of Turkish-Israeli relations. Some, especially those who are on the Israeli right, argued that the “New Turkey” of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his “Islamist” cadre had proven fanatically anti-Israel, and therefore no reconciliation would ever take place unless a new government came to power in Turkey. Others, including me, noted that while the Erdogan government is strongly pro-Palestinian, it is also pragmatic and is not categorically anti-Israel. We also pointed out that Turkey had lowered relations with Israel back in 1982, to protest the annexation of East Jerusalem, but then restored full relations in 1991, in the light of the Madrid peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

    The odds for an apology seemed even more distant after Erdogan’s recent condemnation of “Zionism,” which created yet another tension between Ankara and Jerusalem. But soon, Erdogan made clear that his government “recognized Israel’s existence within 1967 borders based on a two-state solution.” This probably gave Obama the grounds for persuading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to offer an “apology to the Turkish nation,” in a phone call to Erdogan.

    Here in Turkey, the apology has been widely welcome, and is interpreted by the media as a diplomatic victory for the Turkish government. It is also noted that two countries now share common concerns about the bloody civil war in Syria and even the Iranian influence in the region. Obama was wise enough to capture this moment to reconcile his two key allies in the Middle East. Netanyahu and Erdogan were pragmatic enough to agree and move on.

    via Progress for Turkey, Israel and the U.S. – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com.

  • Origins of Israel Palestinian Conflict – YouTube

    Origins of Israel Palestinian Conflict – YouTube

    The Israeli Arab conflict is the result of interactions of superpowers in the early 20th century. British and French strategic interests in the Middle East were related to the Mediterranean trading route, which went from the Suez channel to Indian markets. But the presence of the Ottoman navy based in the Levant was a direct threat to British interests. So the British and the French decided to divide the Middle East into smaller entities and countries to make it impossible for the Ottoman Empire to control them all. A century later, the legacy of European colonization of the Arab world is reflected by its many ongoing conflicts.

    via Origins of Israel Palestinian Conflict – YouTube.

  • Israel and Turkey: How a Close Relationship Disintegrated

    Israel and Turkey: How a Close Relationship Disintegrated

    Israel and Turkey: How a Close Relationship Disintegrated

    Posted by Karl Vick Monday, September 12, 2011 at 1:08 pm

    37 Comments • Related Topics: arab uprisings, Egypt, israel, Palestinian, Turkey

    Pro-Islamic Turks stage a protest to show their solidarity with Palestinians and to protest against Israel on the "Jerusalem Day" outside the Israeli embassy residence in Ankara on August 26, 2011. (Photo: Adem Altan / AFP / Getty Images)
    Pro-Islamic Turks stage a protest to show their solidarity with Palestinians and to protest against Israel on the "Jerusalem Day" outside the Israeli embassy residence in Ankara on August 26, 2011. (Photo: Adem Altan / AFP / Getty Images)

    Many are the challenges facing Israel on the cusp of a new season.

    The Palestinians’ approach to the United Nations for statehood looms. The bid, set for Sept. 21, bears down on Jerusalem with the certainty of an autumn chill.

    The weekend desecration of the Israeli embassy by a Cairean mob was one of those shocks that is not quite a surprise, given the longstanding antipathy of the Egyptian public toward the Jewish State. More telling was the response of the Egypt’s military rulers, who according to Israeli officials went missing during the hours that mobs laid siege as Israeli guards awaited rescue from Egyptian commandos who didn’t show up til 4 a.m. How fraught are relations between Egypt and Israel? On Sunday, an Israeli army vehicle patrolling near the site of the Aug. 18 terror attack near the resort city of Eilat took fire from the Egyptian side of the border. The Israelis did not return fire. Who knew who was shooting at them?

    And yet, the trash talk with Turkey qualifies in many ways as the great crisis of the moment. It’s not just that Turkey’s Prime Minister was threatening to send warships to confront the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, calling the 2010 deaths of eight Turks at the hands of Israeli commandos “a casus belli,” or act of war. Nor is it reports that, in response, Israel’s reliably bellicose Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, mulled aloud about reaching out to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK — regarded by the U.S. as a terrorist organization — just to mess with the Turks.

    It’s that, not five years ago, these two countries were not merely allies, but strategic allies, the kind a nation forms a foreign policy around.

    “Israel-Turkey relations were great up to three or four years ago,” recalls Dan Haloutz, a former chief of staff for the Israel Defense Forces. “When I was a commander, I used to fly to Turkey on every military training we had with the Turkish air force, and we had a lot — a lot.”

    The ties were snug, and at least appeared essential. Israel hasn’t a lot of air space, and so was grateful for access to the wide open skies over Anatolia for fighter pilots to log flight hours. In return Turkey bought Israeli tanks, and still relies heavily on Israel’s remote controlled drones to track and attack the very PKK rebels the foreign minister reportedly was looking to cultivate. Away from government, commerce runs at least $3 billion a year between the countries.

    And though 99 percent of Turks are Muslims, Jews have been long welcome in Istanbul, not least since the Spanish Inquisition, when the Ottoman sultan gave refuge to those offered the choice of conversion to Christianity, death or expulsion. Some still speak Ladino, or “Jewish Spanish.” Even after 9/11 Israelis felt safe enough in Turkey to flock to its Mediterranean discount resorts; the departures board at Ben Gurion Airport on a summer day lists charter flight after charter flight to Antalya.

    That abruptly changed on Memorial Day, 2010, when Israel’s version of the SEALs boarded the Mavi Marmara. The converted ferry was en route to supply the besieged residents of Gaza, an act that ostensibly violated Israeli sovereignty. These were the people about whom Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had angrily lectured Israel’s head of state at Davos a year earlier, in the wake of the three-week Israeli military incursion that left 1,400 Palestinians dead.

    After the flotilla fiasco, charters to Turkey were cancelled overnight, and Israel began steering its tourists toward Greece. But things really did appear to be on the mend this summer. In June, Turkey joined Greece in preventing the makings of a new flotilla from leaving their ports to challenge the Gaza blockade anew. Behind the scenes, Israel dispatched diplomats to hammer out language that would salve the wounds to Turkey’s quite extraordinary national pride and finally put the 2010 deaths behind both countries, who said they wanted to be friends again. “Turkey welcomes you,” said the resort ads that began appearing in Israel. In smaller print: “As always.”

    The negotiations, however, ended not in language acceptable to both sides but in the release of a United Nations report on the flotilla that found fault with both sides but simply outraged Turkey. Israel’s ambassador to Ankara was formally expelled to Jerusalem. He was joined the following week by Israel’s ambassador to Egypt, who merely fled. And on Monday, Erdogan arrived with great fanfare in Cairo.

    The days are growing shorter.

    via Israel and Turkey: How a Close Relationship Disintegrated – Global Spin – TIME.com.

  • Palestinian leader Abbas visits Turkey

    Palestinian leader Abbas visits Turkey

    ANKARA, Turkey — President Abdullah Gul met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Monday (December 6th) to discuss the Middle East, peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians and relations between Turkey and the Palestinian territories. Gul said after the meeting that in order for peace to prevail in the Middle East, the Palestinian territories must become an independent country. Abbas heads to Greece on Tuesday.

    In other news, a Danish court ruled on Monday that the bank accounts of the Kurdish TV station Roj TV — frozen in August over accusations that the channel was a mouthpiece for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) — should be released. The appeals court upheld a ruling from October, which said all ten bank accounts containing around 43,900 euros should be unfrozen. According to the judge, freezing the accounts violated European laws protecting freedom of expression. (AFP, Hurriyet, CNN Turk – 06/12/10)

    via Palestinian leader Abbas visits Turkey (SETimes.com).

  • Turkey first major nation to embrace one-state? « Antony Loewenstein

    Turkey first major nation to embrace one-state? « Antony Loewenstein

    The Israeli press is reporting the following and if true a very reasonable call from Ankara to not tolerate Zionist racism against Palestinians. After all, one-state is almost inevitable in the Middle East. One day:

    Israel will not be able to remain over time an independent country, and a bi-national state will be established on all of the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River in which Jews and Palestinians will live,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in a number of meetings that he held with journalists and academics, including a number of Israeli academics.  Davutoglu’s vision, which he revisited a number of times, is for Turkey to become a dominant force in the Middle East and further, that it will be the protector state of the above-cited bi-national state within a number of years.

    via Turkey first major nation to embrace one-state? « Antony Loewenstein.

  • Veteran White House Correspondent Helen Thomas Retires After Anti-Jewish Remarks

    Veteran White House Correspondent Helen Thomas Retires After Anti-Jewish Remarks

    WASHINGTON – Longtime Washington journalist Helen Thomas abruptly retired Monday as a columnist for Hearst News Service following remarks she made about Israel that were denounced by the White House and her press corps colleagues.

    The 89-year-old Thomas, dean of the White House press corps, has long been a fixture in Washington and has been lauded as a pioneering journalist who has covered presidents since 1960.

    Known for her confrontational questioning, Thomas apologized for comments that were captured on video and have spread widely on the Internet. On the May 27 video, Thomas says Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine,” suggesting they go to Germany, Poland or the U.S.

    Hearst announced her retirement, effective immediately, shortly after White House press secretary Robert Gibbs called her remarks “offensive and reprehensible.”

    The White House Correspondents Association also issued a rare statement, calling her comments “indefensible.”

    “Many in our profession who have known Helen for years were saddened by the comments, which were especially unfortunate in light of her role as a trail blazer on the White House beat,” said the statement, signed by journalists who are officers of the association.

    Thomas had been scheduled to speak at the June 14 graduation of Walt Whitman High School in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Md., but Principal Alan Goodwin wrote in a Sunday e-mail to students and parents that she was being replaced.

    “Graduation celebrations are not the venue for divisiveness,” Goodwin wrote.

    Thomas wrote on her website that “I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians.”

    She added: “They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”

    The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham H. Foxman, said Sunday that Thomas’ apology didn’t go far enough.

    “Her suggestion that Israelis should go back to Poland and Germany is bigoted and shows a profound ignorance of history,” Foxman said in a statement. “We believe Thomas needs to make a more forceful and sincere apology for the pain her remarks have caused.”

    Thomas began her long career with the wire service United Press International in 1943, and started covering the White House in 1960, according to a biography posted on her website. She became a columnist for Hearst in 2000.

    http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/helen-thomas-retires-jews/2010/06/07/id/361258, 07 Jun 2010