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Turkish warships raise stakes in Israel row

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  • #1

    Turkish warships raise stakes in Israel row

    Turkey said today it would escort aid ships to Gaza and would not allow a repetition of last year's Israeli raid that killed nine Turks, setting the stage for a potential naval confrontation with its former ally.

    Raising the stakes in Turkey's row with Israel over its refusal to apologise for the killings, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Al Jazeera television that Turkey had taken steps to stop Israel from unilaterally exploiting natural resources in the Mediterranean.

    "Turkish warships, in the first place, are authorised to protect our ships that carry humanitarian aid to Gaza," Erdogan said in the interview, broadcast by Al Jazeera with an Arabic translation.

    "From now on, we will not let these ships to be attacked by Israel, as what happened with the Freedom Flotilla," Erdogan said.

    Referring to Erdogan's comments, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said: "This is a statement well-worth not commenting on."
    Relations between Turkey and Israel, two close US allies in the region, have soured since Israeli forces boarded the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara aid ship in May 2010.

    Ankara downgraded ties and vowed to boost naval patrols in the eastern Mediterranean in the escalating row. Israel says it acted legally against ships that tried to breach its blockade on the Palestinian enclave which is ruled by the Islamist Hamas group. Israel has said it will enforce the blockade, which it says is needed to prevent arms smuggling to Hamas.

    Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said earlier today that Israel and Turkey will eventually mend fences rather than become foes, describing their unprecedented dispute over Gaza as "spilled milk". Noting that an inquiry commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had vindicated the blockade, Barak predicted that wider Middle East upheaval would help bring Israel back together with its Muslim ex-ally.
    "Ultimately this wave will pass. We recognise reality. They recognise reality," Barak told Israel Radio.

    "We are the two countries that are most important to the West in the region ... I am certain that we can overcome these (disagreements)."
    But Erdogan appeared to raise the heat, saying NATO member Turkey has taken steps to patrol the Mediterranean, and vowed to stop the Jewish state from exploiting natural resources in the area.

    "You know that Israel has begun to declare that it has the right to act in exclusive economic areas in the Mediterranean," Erdogan said, apparently in reference to Israeli plans to exploit offshore gas reserves found in areas that are also claimed by Lebanon.

    "You will see that it will not be the owner of this right, because Turkey, as a guarantor of the Turkish republic of north Cyprus, has taken steps in the area, and it will be decisive and holding fast to the right to monitor international waters in the east Mediterranean," he said.

    Turkey says oil deals granted by the Greek Cypriot government, which represents the island in the European Union, are illegal as the borders of Cyprus remain undetermined while Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots pursue reunification talks.

    Turkey's plan to flex its naval muscles may fuel Western unease about Turkey's reliability as a NATO partner and its penchant for actions designed to court popularity in the Muslim world.

    Asked whether Israel might yet say sorry for the seizure of the Turkish vessel, Barak said: "Look, it's spilled milk. It's not important right now."
    In addition to an apology, NATO-member Turkey has demanded that Israel end the Gaza blockade. Israel says the closure is needed to keep arms from reaching Palestinian guerrillas by sea.

    "A normalisation or improvement in Turkey-Israel relationships shouldn't be expected unless they apologise, pay a compensation and lift an embargo on Gaza," Erdogan said.

    Turkish warships raise stakes in Israel row | WORLD News
    Last edited by retro; 09-09-2011, 02:09 AM.
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    Tags: israel, raise, row, stakes, turkish, warships
  • #2
    the beef with israel is fine and good but i want to see islamic social change in turkey. the laws are still secular and anti islamic.
    There are people today who think that admitting God’s absolute greatness decreases the value and importance of humans in the creation, as if God and mankind are rivals competing in greatness and power. Meanwhile I feel that whenever our perception of God’s greatness increases, with it we become greater, because we are the creation of a great God.

    Sayyid Qutb

    Comment

    • #3
      ^
      at your service

      Comment

      • #4
        u are? then get me a cold diet pepsi u lil ******* u
        There are people today who think that admitting God’s absolute greatness decreases the value and importance of humans in the creation, as if God and mankind are rivals competing in greatness and power. Meanwhile I feel that whenever our perception of God’s greatness increases, with it we become greater, because we are the creation of a great God.

        Sayyid Qutb

        Comment

        • #5
          'spilled milk', the ****hole calls it. it was piracy and murder in international waters, from what i read.

          Comment

          • #6
            turkey seems to be doing things backwards. adopting a muslim friendly foreign policy while still living under an anti islam domestic policy. lets put the turkish house in nice islamic order first. most of the turks are secularized at this point and will see the governments actions as too "pro islam" and will unfortunately vote out this gov't. i say make turkey islamic first before going balls out on foreign affairs.
            There are people today who think that admitting God’s absolute greatness decreases the value and importance of humans in the creation, as if God and mankind are rivals competing in greatness and power. Meanwhile I feel that whenever our perception of God’s greatness increases, with it we become greater, because we are the creation of a great God.

            Sayyid Qutb

            Comment

            • #7
              50% of Turks voted this AKP government in despite things which secular Kemalists would regard as scandalous. One month after re-election Erdogan did something historic and showed the Turkish army who had been top dogs for seven decades, that he was the boss.

              The Turkish army leadership resigned en masse.

              Kemalism is on its way out. Turkey is becoming more religious on the ground level and it will continue.
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              • #8
                the turkish vote for the akp gov't is not merely based on their public islamic rhetoric(despite even that being tame), in large part it had to do initially with the struggling turkish economy. in the the last elections their stock went up because their economy was doing great.

                i want to see action on the part of their government. when the hijab is still banned on government and educational grounds, i won't cheer for erdogan.
                There are people today who think that admitting God’s absolute greatness decreases the value and importance of humans in the creation, as if God and mankind are rivals competing in greatness and power. Meanwhile I feel that whenever our perception of God’s greatness increases, with it we become greater, because we are the creation of a great God.

                Sayyid Qutb

                Comment

                • #9
                  Originally posted by randolph85 View Post
                  the turkish vote for the akp gov't is not merely based on their public islamic rhetoric(despite even that being tame), in large part it had to do initially with the struggling turkish economy. in the the last elections their stock went up because their economy was doing great.

                  i want to see action on the part of their government. when the hijab is still banned on government and educational grounds, i won't cheer for erdogan.
                  Yes, you're right.

                  Th secularists are a minority, but traditionally the ruling minority. The traditionally secular judiciary almost closed the AKP down for trying to unban Hijab in universities.

                  It is now actually worn in universities after the intervention of YOK (the body which runs Turkish education, traditionally run by Kemalist fanatics but now by an Erdogan appointee).

                  As for other things, they will happen with time as the power and influence of the Kemalists decrease, which it does day by day.
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                  • #10
                    its not so much the kemalists i am worried about, because they are an institution which can be downgraded and eventually eliminated. its the social day to day life of turkey i am worried about. far too many turks have been secularized and while the kemalists are losing power, i dont see the secular structure of the society changing. now i know this takes a long time. it took kemals ideology just a couple of decades to transform turkish society into a secular one. but when something like prostitution is still legal in turkey, i am not quick to jump on the erdogan bandwagon until he makes some major changes.
                    There are people today who think that admitting God’s absolute greatness decreases the value and importance of humans in the creation, as if God and mankind are rivals competing in greatness and power. Meanwhile I feel that whenever our perception of God’s greatness increases, with it we become greater, because we are the creation of a great God.

                    Sayyid Qutb

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Turks are very divided. The west, Aegean is fiercely secular and Kemalist. Anatolia is very conservative and devout. Anatolians are the vast majority of Turks. Kemalists in the Aegean know they are a minority which is why some of them even mention independence from the rest of Turkey.


                      In the US, (where I think you live?) most of the Turks (as well as other Muslims e.g. Arabs/Bengalis etc) are from middle-class professional families so these guys are very secular.

                      You will still need another decade at least to see the sort of change in Turkey that you wish, in my opinion.
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                      • #12
                        transforming a muslim society into a secular one seems to be easier than the other way around, with some exceptions.

                        and yes, i find that people in the US with muslim backgrounds tend to be very non religious but will at most say they are "culturally muslim"
                        There are people today who think that admitting God’s absolute greatness decreases the value and importance of humans in the creation, as if God and mankind are rivals competing in greatness and power. Meanwhile I feel that whenever our perception of God’s greatness increases, with it we become greater, because we are the creation of a great God.

                        Sayyid Qutb

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          US Turks are the most secular Turks outside their country. Australian and European Turks are far more religious and pro-Islamic and mainly from Anatolia.

                          UK Turks are generally secular, insular (do not mix with other Muslims) and basically just lost....apparently many of their girls just grow up marrying non-Muslims.

                          People's return to Islam is often facilitated by some major calamity which afflicts them e.g. Bosnia.
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