TURKEY’S DIPLOMATIC WAR ON ISRAEL
Investigative Project on Terrorism
September 28, 2011 Wednesday 6:35 PM EST
Turkey’s prime minister has called for United Nations sanctions on
Israel at the same time that Turkish prosecutors are threatening
to indict Israel’s prime minister and others in connection with the
2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla raid. Coupled with other aggressive moves,
including threats to break Israel’s Gaza blockade with military force,
Turkey is waging a diplomatic war on its former ally.
Leading the charge is Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, who has become one of Israel’s most outspoken critics on the
international stage. Erdogan has repeatedly attempted to humiliate and
isolate Israel internationally, while forging military and intelligence
ties with nations sponsoring terrorism against the Jewish state.
On Monday, Erdogan told Time Magazine that “Israel’s cruelty …
cannot be continued any longer,” before calling for U.N. sanctions.
Without an Israeli apology over the May 2010 flotilla raid, “the
relations between the two countries will never become normalized,”
he said.
Turkish prosecutors also compiled a list of 174 Israelis, topped by
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and
Israeli military officials for possible indictment over the flotilla
incident. Although the Turkish government claims that the list was
drawn up by the Turkish-based group IHH, which led the flotilla, the
Turkish newspaper Sabah claims that Turkey’s intelligence agencies
were involved. Another Turkish newspaper, Zaman, even claimed that
Turkish intelligence agents had operated inside of Israel to discover
the identities of those listed.
Israeli officials challenged the list’s validity, saying the names
“were rather recycled from previous lists that were published on
anti-Israeli websites following Operation Cast Lead” in reference
to the December 2008 incursion into Gaza to take out Hamas missile
capabilities. Military officials added the report is part of a
psychological warfare conducted by Turkey.
Erdogan’s most recent comments and the planned indictment follow a
month of Turkish diplomatic attacks on Israel.
On Monday, Erdogan also accused Israel of manipulating the Holocaust
to inspire international guilt, while carrying out attacks that killed
“hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians. “Israeli people are only
resorting back to the issue of genocide in history. And using that
genocide [the Holocaust] they are always acting as if they are the
victims all the time,” he said.
“So Germany has and is still paying its dues to Israel. But neither
Turkey nor the Muslims in the region have such a problem [of genocide];
they have never exerted such cruelty on Israel. But Israel is very
cruel in that regard. It shows no mercy,” he added.
Turkey is accused of waging genocide against Armenians starting in
1915, with 1.5 million people killed. Government officials refuse to
acknowledge this history and withdrew its ambassador to the United
States last year after a House committee passed a resolution calling
on the president to label the event a genocide.
Erdogan has also been called out for hypocrisy over the Palestinian
issue, when Turkey’s Kurdish community has endured years of repression.
Still, Erdogan pledged earlier this month that Turkish warships
would protect future vessels trying to break Israel’s blockade of the
Hamas-run Gaza Strip, a move sure to raise tensions between the two
nations. “The main mission of Turkish military ships is to protect
Turkish vessels. This is their duty. We will send humanitarian aid to
[Gaza], and this aid will not be subject to any attack like the one
on the Mavi Marmara. If they are attacked, the attackers will meet an
appropriate response,” Erdogan said in an interview with Al-Jazeera
television.
The interview followed the release of a United Nations report on the
2010 flotilla clash, which upholds Israel’s maritime blockade of the
Gaza Strip. Furious that Israel would not apologize for the death
of the nine Turks killed on the Mavi Marmara, Erdogan also expelled
Israeli diplomats and suspended military and defense ties with Israel.
Erdogan supports IHH, the Turkish group which deliberately orchestrated
the violent flotilla clash. IHH is under investigation for possible
designation as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department and
has ties to Hamas.
“While there may not be any evidence of a direct link here, there can
be no mistake that the Erdogan government is morally and politically
behind this group – the IHH,” columnist Semih Idiz wrote in Turkey’s
English daily Hurriyet after the flotilla clash.
A report published by the Meir Amit Intelligence Center in January
cited IHH statements that the flotilla received direct support from
Erdogan and several ministers. That included money, logistical support,
satellite communications, the use of harbors and political propaganda
support. IHH leader Bulent Yildirim maintains a relationship with
senior government leaders including Erdogan.
IHH “has helped Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Enhanced Coverage
LinkingRecep Tayyip Erdogan -Search using: Biographies Plus News News,
Most Recent 60 Days shore up support from conservative Muslims ahead
of critical elections next year and improve Turkey’s standing and
influence in the Arab world,” the New York Times reported in July,
2010.
Despite Erdogan’s emphasis on the flotilla clash, he was accusing
the Jewish state of murder years earlier. “You shall not kill,” he
said in Hebrew during Israel’s 2009 war to stop Hamas terrorists from
firing rockets into Israeli towns. Israel’s counterterrorism effort,
he said, was “defying the world and mocking the world,” before asking
how the Jewish state dared “to enter the doors of the UN.”
He stormed out of a Davos forum meeting in January 2009 after telling
Israel’s president, “When it comes to killing – you know killing
very well.”
Erdogan declared his support for Hamas during a May interview, saying
it was a sign of “disrespect” to Palestinians to call the group a
terrorist organization.
The struggle against Israel is one facet of the Muslim nation’s new
Islamist foreign policy under the leadership of Erdogan and his AKP
party. Turkey has distanced itself from membership in the European
Union, a former goal of the nation, in order to pursue better ties
with terror-supporting nations like Syria and Iran. Turkey’s efforts
with Syria backfired after a massive crackdown on pro-democracy
demonstrators, leading Erdogan to condemn Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad and predict his downfall.
Turkey’s relations with Iran have also been on display, with
Erdogan openly repeating his intelligence cooperation with Iran in
counterterrorism affairs. In a CNN interview, he brushed off Western
concerns over Iran’s nuclear weapons program, choosing to take Iran
at its word.
“And Iran says that its only purpose is to generate affordable
energy through nuclear power,” Erdogan said. “We don’t want to act on
presumptions. And no sanctions based on presumptions are acceptable
by Turkey.”
Such behavior and more indicates that “Turkey may be, along with Iran,
the most dangerous state of the region,” Middle East Forum president
Daniel Pipes wrote Tuesday. In addition to Turkey’s troubling foreign
policy, Pipes also notes its internal problems, including political
challenges posed by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP),
more aggressive terrorist attacks by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) and a possible economic collapse.
From: A. Papazian