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Tag: Recep Tayyip Erdogan

12th president of Turkey

Turkey’s Erdogan writes article on Somalia in US magazine

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan tells the ongoing tragedy in Somalia in an article he wrote for Foreign Policy, one of the leading magazines of the U.S.

“Somalia is suffering from the most severe drought and famine in the last 60 years, which has already resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people and endangers the lives of 750,000 more Somalis,” begins Erdogan in his article titled “Tears of Somalia”.

He continues on writing: “This crisis tests the notion of civilization and our modern values. It reveals, once again, that it is a basic human obligation to pursue international cooperation and solidarity to provide solace for those suffering from natural and man-made disasters.”

“It is not realistic to consider Somalia’s plight as caused solely by a severe natural disaster. We cannot ignore the fact that, in addition to the drought, the international community’s decision to leave Somalia to its own fate is also an underlying factor causing this drama.

Twenty years of political and social instability, lawlessness, and chaos have added enormously to the problems in Somalia. The horrifying truck bombing of the Transitional Federal Government’s ministerial complex on October 4 is just the latest evidence of this. The international community must not respond to this act of terrorism by retreating from Somalia, but by redoubling its efforts to bring aid to its people.”

“Nobody with common sense and conscience can remain indifferent to such a drama, wherever on earth it may be and whichever people have to bear it. Our urgent intervention as responsible members of the international community can contribute to the alleviation of the Somali people’s distress. However, the establishment of lasting peace and stability will only be possible through long-term, far-reaching, and coordinated efforts.”

“Turkey mobilized last month to help end this suffering. We consider this solidarity a humanitarian obligation toward the people of Somalia, with whom we have deep historical relations. Many of our institutions, NGOs, and people of all ages have made an extraordinary effort to alleviate the suffering of women and children in Somalia.

We are proud of the sensitivity and cooperation displayed by the Turkish people during the holy month of Ramadan. In the last month alone, approximately 280 million USD worth of donations for Somalia were collected in Turkey. The Turkish people’s generosity has served as an example to other donor countries as well as the international community, offering hope for the resolution of the crisis in Somalia.”

“The Turkish government has also moved decisively to help alleviate this humanitarian crisis. Turkey took the initiative to hold an emergency meeting of the executive committee of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the ministerial level on August 17. At this meeting, which was attended by the president of Somalia and high-level representatives from 40 member countries of the OIC, 350 million USD was committed to help relieve the famine in Somalia, and the participants agreed to increase this amount to half a billion dollars. The Turkish Red Crescent is also standing shoulder to shoulder with international aid organizations and is working to meet the needs of those in all the camps in the Mogadishu region.”

“Following the emergency meeting of the OIC executive committee, I — along with a number of Turkish ministers, some members of parliament, bureaucrats, business people, artists, and families — visited the country on August 19 to tell the people of Somalia that they are not alone. We visited the camps. We tried to give hope and encourage people who live in very different conditions from ours. We took note of the lack of such a high-level visit from outside of Africa to Somalia for the last 20 years, and informed the international community of this fact.”

“Turkey has decided to launch a major humanitarian effort to help restore normalcy to Mogadishu. To this end, we are preparing to provide assistance in the fields of health, education, and transportation. We will inaugurate a 400-bed hospital, provide garbage trucks for the streets of Mogadishu, build a waste-disposal facility to burn the accumulated garbage in the streets, pave the road between Mogadishu’s airport and the city center, renovate the parliament and other government buildings, dig water wells, and develop organized agricultural and livestock areas. Our embassy, which will be opened in Mogadishu shortly and headed by an ambassador who is experienced in the field of humanitarian aid and familiar to the region, will coordinate these activities.”

“By supporting the restoration of peace and stability efforts, we will work with the Transitional Federal Government and other institutions in Somalia in order to launch the development process of this shattered country. To this end, we expect all Somali authorities to demonstrate an extraordinary effort in unity, integrity, and harmony.”

“The success of aid operations is directly linked to the establishment of security. The withdrawal from Mogadishu of armed elements in the al-Shabab organization is clearly a positive development for security in the region. But this is not sufficient. Moving the Somali-related U.N. offices currently located in Nairobi to Mogadishu will be a positive step to support this process and one that should be taken without delay.”

“Neighboring countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya bear a special responsibility regarding the restoration of peace and stability in Somalia. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the African Union will also share this responsibility, and Turkey supports them in their tasks. In line with the Djibouti peace process, Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government should intensify efforts at reconciliation by maintaining dialogue with all fighting groups and pledge prosperity, brotherhood, order, and prosperity in return for peace.”

“The military contribution provided by Uganda and Burundi within the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to prevent chaos and terror deserves appreciation. With this opportunity, I would like to issue a call to all neighboring countries, including Eritrea, to increase their existing efforts for the establishment of peace and security in Somalia and to enhance long-term regional stability.”

“In Turkish culture, it is believed that something good will come out of all bad experiences. In Somalia, too, this disaster can mark the beginning of a new process by focusing international humanitarian efforts and global attention on the plight of the region. However, this situation will only be sustainable if we continue to be sensitive to the needs of the Somali people.”

“The tears that are now running from Somalia’s golden sands into the Indian Ocean must stop. They should be replaced by hopeful voices of a country where people do not lose their lives because of starvation and where they express their eagerness to develop and restore peace and stability. Regardless of which culture we come from or where we live, I am confident that our common heritage as human beings will motivate us to ease the suffering of Somalia.”

AA

October 12, 2011
Turkey’s Erdogan Slams France Over Armenian Genocide Recognition

RFE/RL — Turkish Prime Recep Tayyip Erdogan angrily rejected on Tuesday French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s calls for Turkey to recognize the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. Erdogan accused Sarkozy of playing the anti-Turkish card to secure reelection and warned of serious damage to relations between France and Turkey.

Visiting Armenia late last week, Sarkozy repeatedly reaffirmed France’s official recognition of the genocide and urged Ankara to stop denying a premeditated government effort to wipe out Ottoman Turkey’s Armenian population.

“The genocide of Armenians is a historic reality that was recognized by France. Collective denial is even worse than individual denial,” he said after laying flowers at the genocide memorial in Yerevan.Sarkozy, who will be up for reelection next year, also implicitly threatened to enact, within a “very brief” period, a law that would make Armenian genocide denial a crime in France. Armenia -French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian lay flowers at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, 06Oct2011. “If Turkey revisited its history, looked it in the face, with its shadows and highlights, this recognition of the genocide would be sufficient,” he said. “But if Turkey will not do this, then without a doubt it would be necessary to go further.”

The Turkish government was quick to denounce those remarks and link them with the French presidential election. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sarkozy is thus seeking to gain votes from French citizens of Armenian descent.Erdogan condemned the French leader in even stronger terms as he addressed the Turkish parliament on Tuesday. “This is not political leadership. Politics, first of all, requires honesty,” the AFP news agency quoted him as saying

.“There are 600,000 Armenians in your country but also 500,000 Turks. You have relations with Turkey,” Erdogan continued, addressing Sarkozy. “Bearing the title of statesman requires thinking about next generations, not next elections,” he said.

The French parliament officially recognized the slaughter of some 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians as genocide with a special law adopted in 2001. Although the move strained ties between Paris and Ankara, Turkey, remains one of France’s major trading partners outside the European Union.Speaking at a news conference in Yerevan on Friday, Sarkozy also described as “unacceptable” Turkey’s refusal to unconditionally reopen its border with Armenia. He at the same time urged his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian to “continue the dialogue with Turkey.”

Sarkozy spoke just days before the second anniversary of the signing in Zurich of Turkish-Armenian agreements envisaging the normalization of bilateral ties. Erdogan’s government has made their ratification by Turkey’s parliament conditional on a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Yerevan has rejected this linkage and threatened to formally annul the accords.

Sarkisian hailed Sarkozy’s calls for genocide recognition in a weekend speech delivered in Echmiadzin, a historic town 25 kilometers south of Yerevan. Sarkisian said they disproved his critics’ claims his Western-backed policy of rapprochement with Turkey will complicate a broader international recognition of what many historians consider the first genocide of the 20th century.

Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. Original article:

via ArmeniaDiaspora.com – News from Armenia, Events in Armenia, Travel and Entertainment | Turkey’s Erdogan Slams France Over Armenian Genocide Recognition.

October 12, 2011
Improving U.S.-Turkish Economic Partnership

This year’s meeting of the EPC focused on exploring opportunities to promote innovation, increasing cooperation in specific sectors and enhancing business-to-business ties.

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS President Barack Obama, right, shakes hands during a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (file)

During a 2009 meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish President Abdullah Gul, the two leaders agreed to establish the U.S.-Turkey Framework for Strategic Economic and Commercial Cooperation, or FSECC dialogue, in order to strengthen the existing economic partnership between the two countries.

In early October 2011, representatives of both governments met in Ankara for the seventh meeting of the Turkey and United States Economic Partnership Commission, a key component of economic relations between the two countries, as outlined by the FSECC.

This year’s meeting of the EPC focused on exploring opportunities to promote innovation, increasing cooperation in specific sectors and enhancing business-to-business ties. They discussed ways to promote entrepreneurship and encourage bilateral agricultural trade as well as the importance of protecting intellectual property rights.

They reiterated the importance of cooperating in the energy sector, including promoting efficiency and renewable energy, and discussing the possibilities of commercial nuclear power. They agreed to promote economic development in third countries, particularly those in North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and along the Silk Road.

They also discussed progress on establishing Istanbul as an international financial center, which is a top priority of the Turkish government. Some Turkish private financial institutions have already relocated their headquarters to Istanbul.

Turkey is a nation of 78.7 million people, and its population is young, promising rapid growth and an expanding market for U.S. goods. The U.S. also offers an enormous market for Turkish goods and opportunity for the many enterprising Turkish businessmen and women.

Because Turkey straddles Europe and Asia, with flourishing economic ties to its neighbors, it is a valuable partner for exploring new business opportunities in the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa. Together, the United Sates and Turkey can make a significant contribution to rejuvenating the economies of developing and transitional economies, such as those in North Africa, through commercial collaboration.

The United States recognizes the importance of strengthening the economic ties between the two long-time allies to match the strength of their political and military ties. As President Obama said in his 2009 speech to the Turkish Parliament, “Turkey is a critical ally. Turkey is an important part of Europe. And Turkey and the United States must stand together – and work together – to overcome the challenges of our time.”

via Improving U.S.-Turkish Economic Partnership | Middle East | Editorial.

October 10, 2011
Erdogan plays Palestinian saviour, but what about the Kurds?

Turkey’s prime minister is championing Abbas’s UN appeal – yet still has to resolve the Kurdish issue back home

Simon Tisdall · 21/09/2011 · guardian.co.uk

A Kurdish demonstration in Istanbul this month, calling for the release of the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. Photograph: Tolga Bozoglu/EPA

Turkey’s noisy championing of Palestinian rights, a source of growing friction with the US and Israel, jars uncomfortably with Ankara’s treatment of its own disadvantaged and stateless minority – the Kurds. Bomb attacks this week in Ankara, blamed on Kurdish PKK militants, highlight the deteriorating internal security situation and stoke fears that Turkey’s troubles could spill over into Syria and Iraq, further aggravating Arab spring instability.

Apparently oblivious to possible double standards, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, has been in voluble form of late. His tour last week of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia played upon a common theme – Turkey’s support for the justified aspirations of oppressed peoples everywhere. Erdogan’s long-running feud with Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians reached new heights when he warned the Turkish navy might escort future relief flotillas to Gaza.

Alarmed at the implications for US interests, Barack Obama took time at the UN in New York on Tuesday to talk Erdogan down, stressing their shared interest in peaceful, negotiated outcomes in Palestine, Syria and elsewhere. Turkey is a leading backer of President Mahmoud Abbas’s bid for UN recognition of Palestinian statehood. Obama, flanked by Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu, desperately hopes to shove this uncomfortable issue back in the freezer.

The US also wants to head off renewed ground incursions targeting PKK bases in Iraq, as threatened last week by a senior Turkish minister, given obvious security concerns surrounding the US troop withdrawal. Rising tensions over disputed gas fields off Cyprus are adding to Washington’s worries at a time when, to put it mildly, the Greek government and its Greek Cypriot allies are not in the best shape.

Unfortunately for the majority of Turkey’s Kurds who want a peaceful settlement, one consequence of resulting American appeasement of Ankara is likely to be ever closer US co-operation with Turkey’s escalating military operations against the PKK. Like the EU, the US lists the PKK as a terrorist organisation, a categorisation passionately disputed by the main Kurdish national party, the BDP, which describes it as a “resistance” group. Washington already provides military satellite intelligence to Ankara. Now there is renewed talk of a Turkish base for US Predator drones, which the Turks want to target the PKK inside Iraq.

Erdogan has made important efforts to resolve the Kurdish issue, notably via the so-called “democratic opening” that included talks with the jailed PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan. For their part, the PKK and Kurdish political parties have renounced their former separatist agenda. But gains have been limited, hardliners on both sides have obstructed the process, and Erdogan’s attention has shifted to the wider stage of Arab emancipation and the “re-Ottomanisation”, as some call it, of the Middle East. For him, it seems, the role of grand regional rainmaker is more alluring than that of down-home, hard-slog peacemaker.

The Kurdish parties are still trying to get his attention. The BDP’s woefully under-reported congress in Ankara earlier this month produced an eight-point protocol or “road map” for what it called a democratic resolution; and it proposed resumed talks as a matter of urgency. “All identities, cultures, languages and religions must be protected by the constitution. As a basic principle there must be a constitutional nationality that is not founded on ethnicity,” it said.

“The right to speak in the mother tongue – including in public – must be universally protected by the constitution. Education in the mother tongue language must be recognised as a fundamental right … There must be a transition to a decentralised administration. With regards to autonomy, local, provincial and regional councils must have more powers,” a BDP summary of the protocol said.

This is hardly an earth-shaking or revolutionary agenda. It is a far cry from the forfeited dream of an independent state spanning south-east Turkey, north-western Iran and parts of Syria and Iraq. And as the International Crisis Group notes in a report published this week, the acceptance of universal rights should not be regarded as a concession by the Turkish government.

The ICG report argues persuasively that the basis for a negotiated, peaceful settlement remains in place despite an upsurge in violence since June’s elections that has claimed more than 100 lives. “The PKK must immediately end its new wave of terrorist and insurgent attacks, and the Turkish authorities must control the escalation with the aim to halt all violence. A hot war and militaristic tactics did not solve the Kurdish problem in the 1990s and will not now,” the ICG says.

It continues: “The Turkish Kurd nationalist movement must firmly commit to a legal, non-violent struggle within Turkey, and its elected representatives must take up their seats in parliament, the only place to shape the country-wide reforms that can give Turkish Kurds long-denied universal rights. The Turkish authorities must implement radical judicial, social and political measures that persuade all Turkish Kurds they are fully respected citizens.”

Surely this is not so hard to do? It’s time Erdogan stopped playing Palestinian saviour and put Turkey’s problems first.

October 7, 2011
Erdogan of Turkey’s Blood Libel Against the Jewish State

The Jewish debt to the Turks goes back centuries when the Ottomans took in thousands of Jewish refugees after the Spanish and Portuguese expulsions of 1492 and 1497. Moreover, when Israel was shunned for decades by nearly every Muslim country, it was Turkey that was Israel’s military ally, friend, and commercial trading partner. And even in the midst of growing Turkish hostility, it behooves the Jewish state not to forget this debt of gratitude.

I have personally visited Istanbul as a Yarmulke-wearing, tzitzis-flying, Jewish Rabbi, and was warmly welcomed by Muslims everywhere. On her way back from Israel last year, my wife went through Istanbul with five of our children, including our baby, and was amazed at how many Muslim merchants gave the baby presents. My family came away smitten with Turkey.

But my call for Jewish memory and gratitude is becoming increasingly strained by the mouth of Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has made himself into a living fountain spewing anti-Israel invective. His latest attack on the Jewish state on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria beggared belief. Israel, he said, “shows no mercy” and is “cruel” in its treatment of Palestinians. Not content to feed the worst anti-Semitic Shakespearean stereotypes of Jews being vindictive and heartless, he trivialized Jewish suffering at the hands of thousands of rockets fired from Gaza by Hamas before offering an unbelievable blood libel claiming “hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were killed” as a result of military action by Israel. Earlier he had accused Israel of acting like “a spoiled boy” and described the flotilla raid as “savagery.”

Erdogan is claiming that Israeli actions border on genocide and that Israel indiscriminately kills Palestinians when the truth is that the Israeli military is, given the level of threat it faces, one of the most humane and restrained in the world. Even if it were true that Israel has killed anything near that number it would still have to be seen in the context of the Palestinian people declaring a non-stop war of annihilation against the Jewish state and Israel being forced to defend itself. Hamas’s 1988 charter, which calls for the complete obliteration and dissolution of Israel, captures the level of hatred the Palestinians have harbored against Israel. Some choice nuggets include:

“The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him… The Nazism of the Jews does not skip women and children, it scares everyone… Jews control the world media (and use their) wealth to stir revolutions … There was no war that broke out anywhere without their (Jews’) fingerprints on it.” Hamas Imam Sheik Yunus-al-Astal talked about a verse from Koran suggesting “suffering by fire is the Jews’ destiny in this world and the next.” And, “Therefore we are sure that the Holocaust is still to come upon the Jews.” (NYTimes.com, April 1, 2008)

That Erdogan would speak as if Israel callously attacks a group which has for years launched rocket attacks against Israeli hospitals, kindergartens, and family homes is an indication of a deep-seated hostility to the Jewish state which he spares no opportunity in maligning.

But Erdogan’s numbers are grotesque exaggerations designed to portray Israel as a genocidal power.

The exact number of Palestinians killed in the last two Intifadas, beginning in 1987, is difficult to glean, but the most accurate numbers as assembled in Wikipedia from the United Nations, the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and assorted Human Rights groups put Palestinian casualties from the beginning of the First Intifada in 1987 until 1993 at 1,376 by Israeli security forces and 1,000 murdered by the Palestinians themselves..

The Second Intifada, from 2000 till the present, is said to have seen the death of 4,850 Palestinians who were killed by Israeli security forces and 594 Palestinians killed by Palestinians. It bears mentioning that during the Second Intifada 1,062 Israelis died at Palestinian terrorist hands.

It goes without saying that this is a far cry from Erdogan’s libel of hundreds of thousands of deaths and the attempt to de-contextualize the deaths of even these thousands.

Starting in the 1960’s, the PLO made a global name for itself through international terror. In 1969 alone, the PLO hijacked 82 planes. In the 1972 Olympics it murdered 11 Israeli athletes in Munich. Since the Oslo Accords were signed, Palestinians have killed 53 Americans and Injured 83 Americans. (Jewish Virtual Library)

But if Erdogan is truly concerned about Palestinian life, as indeed he and all of us ought to be, he would condemn the unbelievable Arab-on-Arab violence that has left far greater numbers dead. In the first Intifada, more than 1000 Palestinians were killed by the PLO for supposedly “informing” for Israel. (Christian Science Monitor, May 22, 2002)

As early as the 1930s revolts in Palestine, Arabs fought each other. During the Lebanese Civil War, two Palestinian movements battled one another, leaving thousands of Palestinians dead. (Federal Research Division, Middle East Contemporary Survey, Volume 11, Google Books)

According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, in Gaza, Hamas has killed and tortured thousands of other Palestinians who oppose their rule. By 2007, More than 600 Palestinians died during the Struggle between Hamas and Fatah. (Ynetnews.com, June 6, 2007)

Between 1986 and 1989, the Al-Anfal Genocidal campaign in Iraq against the Kurdish People and others have Saddam Hussein’s army killing 200,000 of his own civilians in that period. (The Middle East: A History, 2004) And The NY Times has reported that Saddam Hussein has “murdered as many as a million of his people.” (Oct. 7, 2007) The vast majority of these people were, of course, Arabs.

I am religious Jews who believes that Arabs are my brothers and are, of course, equal children of G-d in every way. The death of even a single Palestinian is a tragedy. But what choice does Israel have when the Palestinians launch wave after wave of horrific terror against innocent Israeli men, women and children. Will Erdogan next condemn the United States for the thousands of Taliban fighters it has killed in Afghanistan? Will he deplore American Predator strikes against Al Qaida in Pakistan? Since when is there a moral equivalence between the taking of a life in self defence and the taking of a life in an act of cold-blooded murder?

Just as it is proper for Jews to try and overlook Turkey’s current leader and remember the age-old friendship between the two people’s, it behooves the Turks themselves to rein in their Prime Minister from his character assassination of the Jewish state.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, founder of the Global Institute for Values Education, has just published “Ten Conversations You Need to Have with Yourself (Wiley) and in December will publish “Kosher Jesus.” Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.

October 4, 2011
Turkey under civilian rule

COMMENT: Dynamic leadership: Turkey under civilian rule —Syed Kamran Hashmi

Under Erdogan’s leadership, the political government of Turkey has taken unprecedented action against the powerful Turkish army. It arrested many generals, admirals and other high-ranking army officers in 2010

“The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers” were his words while addressing a public rally before he was arrested and sentenced to prison for 10 months.

He was a young politician who had served his people remarkably well as the mayor of the country’s largest city. In just four years, he had built more than 50 bridges to tackle the traffic problem, established modern recycling plants to effectively handle the city’s garbage, paid off the two billion dollar loan of the city and invested another four billion in multiple municipal projects. His supporters adored him and even his critics admired him for his exceptional performance as the mayor of Istanbul. With approval from both sides — rivals and supporters — he emerged as the national leader of Turkey in 1998.

But there was a problem: he was an Islamist and was in direct conflict with the secular military elite of Turkey. That is why he was imprisoned in 1998 after his pro-Islamic speech and was barred from participating in the general elections. But his determination to bring reforms to Turkey did not dwindle and he founded a new political party in 2001. After just one year under his charismatic leadership, the newly founded Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi or AK Party) won a two-thirds majority in the general elections of Turkey.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan was sworn in as the prime minister of the Republic of Turkey in 2003 only after the ban was removed on his participation. Since then, the Justice and Development Party has won the three consecutive general elections including the last one in 2011.Although it has lost some national assembly seats in the last nine years, its popularity has continued to rise in every successive election.

In 2002, at the beginning of his first tenure, Turkey had been in deep economic crisis for the last two decades with raging hyperinflation of up to 37 percent and a staggering International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan of almost $ 25 billion. In a short period of time, Erdogan was miraculously able to put the genie of inflation back inside the bottle and contained it at six percent. There was a substantial drop of the IMF loan to six billion dollars as well in a few years along with the record high foreign exchange reserves of $ 90 billion.

The initial fears about him regarding the implementation of strict shariah laws by the international community were also eased by the democratic reforms taken by the AK Party that included empowering the European Court of Human Rights and reduction of the penalties for the members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) — a nationalist organisation fighting for the formation of an independent or autonomous Kurdistan. In addition, the freedom of both the press and speech were ensured and encouraged by the civilian administration.

Under Erdogan’s leadership, the political government of Turkey has taken unprecedented action against the powerful Turkish army. It arrested many generals, admirals and other high-ranking army officers in 2010 for their alleged involvement in the Sledgehammer case — a coup plan to seize power in 2003. The trial of the army officers has brought political stability to the country and further legitimacy to civilian rule. The favourable rating of the Turkish army, therefore, has dropped from a soaring 90 percent in 2003 to 60 percent or in 2010.

On the international front, Turkey normalised its relationship with its old rival Greece; it also ended the competition for local dominance with Russia and significantly improved relations with Saudi Arabia. At the same time, for many years, it continued to maintain its close strategic military relationship and cordial economic ties with Israel.

After Turkey has put its own house in order on the economic, political and diplomatic fronts, only then has it embarked on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Accordingly, Erdogan publicly disapproved of the role of Israel in 2009 and criticised the Jewish state for killing people at the World Economic Forum and left the conference in protest when he was interrupted in the middle of his speech.

In May 2010, the relationship between the two countries deteriorated significantly when Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Flotilla conflict killed nine Turkish activists. Since then, Turkey has repeatedly demanded an apology from Israel and compensation for the families of the victims from its authorities but the Israeli administration has stubbornly refused to apologise on any forum.

The relationship between the two neighbouring countries has been further aggravated by the latest UN report that claimed that the Israeli Gaza blockade of the Mediterranean Sea was legitimate — an assertion opposed by The Turkish government. It also stated that the Israeli forces used excessive force on the Turkish ship while it was still in international waters and was far from the blockade zone.

Just a few days ago, in September 2011, the Israeli ambassador was expelled from Turkey and the government suspended all military ties with Israel in order to continue its protest on the issue of the massacre of Turkish citizens on the flotilla. Erdogan has also indicated his intentions to pursue this incident in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and has shown no signs of diplomatic regression from his original claim.

In these thorny circumstances, he also has initiated his visit to the Arab Spring nations including Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. He has kept the rhetoric against the atrocities of Israel very strong and it is anticipated that he will attract broad public support and be greeted in these countries as a champion for the rights of the Palestinians. This may pave the way for Turkey to play a pivotal role in regional stability and the resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict in the future, if he is able to attract strong international public support in these fragile nations.

The writer is a freelance columnist residing in the US. He can be reached at skhashmi@yahoo.com

October 1, 2011