IHH under fire from Turkish opposition
Turkey is seeing some pushing back against the overwhelmingly pro-Hamas, Syria and Iran line being taken by the Turkish government and by the IHH terror organization that was behind the flotilla of fools. "The [European Union] and the U.S. consider Hamas as a terrorist organization. We should be careful," Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People's Party, told Turkish NTV television Monday, referring to the support the IHH and Turkey's government have shown to Hamas. He also demanded the government release communications with Israel prior to the incident, suggesting it let the flotilla proceed despite knowing that violence was likely.Maybe some Turks have come to realize that a break with the West is not in their best interests? Maybe there are still enough secular Turks to prevent the country from going Islamist entirely? Maybe there's still hope that Erdogan and Gul will be turned out of office in those elections next year? Maybe the army will rise up and throw Erdogan out, or at least make sure that Erdogan doesn't pull off a coup himself and that the elections take place fairly and in a timely manner? And maybe that's why Hurriyet published those pictures?
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed Mr. Kilicdaroglu as an Israeli "advocate," in remarks to reporters over the weekend. The government denies it is shifting away from the West and says it sought to persuade the IHH against taking the convoy to Gaza, but was unable to stop an independent organization.
IHH leaders on Monday responded to a growing number of media reports finding that the Israeli commandos resorted to live fire only after three of their soldiers were captured and several were stabbed by activists armed with clubs and knives.
Two doctors aboard the Mavi Marmara said at the charity's Istanbul headquarters that activists were shot and killed before any soldiers were captured. Ercan Kayrak said the Israelis shot percussion grenades onto the ship while those on deck were in the midst of their morning prayers, followed quickly by shooting live ammunition.
"Our friends tried to hit the soldiers once they saw that their friends were shot," said Dr. Kayrak. An IHH executive on board said the Israeli soldiers fired live rounds as they rappelled down ropes from the helicopters. Israel has said its commandos initially used only paintball guns.
On Sunday, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had evidence that dozens of the activists on the Marmara "boarded separately in a different city, organized separately, equipped [themselves] separately and went on deck under different procedures. In effect, they underwent no checks. The clear intent of this hostile group was to initiate a violent clash with IDF soldiers." Mr. Netanyahu offered no evidence.
Asked about those claims at a joint news conference with Syria President Bashar al-Assad Monday, Mr. Erdogan said of Israel: "They lie like a lie-making machine, they always do it." He also described Hamas as "resistance fighters," and said Hamas, which rules Gaza, had agreed for Ankara to mediate in talks with its rival Fatah, which runs the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Mr. Assad was in Istanbul for a Eurasian summit that starts Tuesday. Iran President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Russia Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are also due to attend.
Hmmm.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:24 AM
6 Comments:
The Turks have to decide whether they want to be part of Europe or part of the Islamic World. Whether they can find their way back remains to be seen. But the Islamic path will only be a dead end for Turkey and lead the country to no good.
I think the turks have decided their path ın 2004. In this date negotiation process with the EU was started by the turkish government lead by Eecep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey acknowledges its intend to join EU nearly fifty years ago. Also other wings of the turkish political ground including main opposition and nationalist movement party denie to join EU. Retired top generals of the secular Turkish Army speak about EU's possible damages on Turkish interests.
So Tayyip Erdogan and Davudoglu explained their positions regarding eu oriented international relations various times before. They said "we want to be accepted by the european union."
Even if Turkey chooses to be on the right side of history, we have here the same cautionary note Iran gave us in 1979:
Any majority-Muslim country, be it the most moderate and secular now, can metastasize into a jihadist base at any given time. If only by demographic push alone. Demography, which the religious swell and the secular do not, is pushing even Europe toward an Islamic future. (On the other hand, in a "silver lining" note: It's making Israel more and more right-wing as we speak.)
Turkey's only hope to remain a secular and modern country is for their military to oust the current government, arrest them, and call for new elections, as well as a constitutional mandate that islamist parties may not hold elective office.
I put the probability of this happening at somewhere between 0 and 5%.
Turkey is lost. If you or your company have assets there, if you own property there ... divest it, sell it, get out of there. Its going down a very bad road, very quickly.
I feel bad for the Turks who are modern, civilized and friendly. They have a very bad nightmare descending upon them.
I think the actual position in turkey is exagareted by the other commontators. Turkish Military, especially nowadays, is against to the EU, USA and western allies. They created a different strategy for the nation's way. Because every one of the EU's member supports turkey's ruling party AKP. And military doesnt like that. Look at the EU's report, http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2009/conclusions_on_turkey_en.pdf
Finally I want to speak about the "demographic push". If that point of view is clearly based and true, we can say that there is always a possibility for the predominantly christian countries such as USA, France etc.
Meanwhile, on the 6th June, last sunday, the Iranians hung 26 protesters and NO ONE UTTERED A WORD!!!
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