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The New York Times
September 10, 2011 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
Threat by Turkish Premier Raises Tensions With Israel
By ETHAN BRONNER; Steven Erlanger contributed reporting from Paris,
and J. David Goodman from New York.
JERUSALEM -- Israel was wrestling on Friday with growing tensions with
Turkey after the Turkish prime minister threatened to use his navy to
accompany aid flotillas to Gaza and to challenge Israel's plans for
gas exploration and export in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told Al Jazeera, the
pan-Arab network, that he would use his warships to prevent Israeli
commandos from again boarding a Gaza-bound ship as they did last year,
killing nine passengers, and from letting Israel exploit natural gas
resources at sea.
A United Nations report issued a week ago criticized the commandos'
actions but said Israel's blockade was legal, which was not what
Turkey had hoped to hear. It demanded an apology from Israel -- which
refused, as it has from the earliest days of the flotilla raid, when
it expressed regrets -- and then took steps to express its
displeasure, including expelling the Israeli ambassador and cutting
military ties.
Dan Meridor, Israel's intelligence minister, responded on Friday to
Mr. Erdogan's recent threats, saying they were ''grave and serious.''
He told Army Radio, however, that he did not want to get into verbal
saber rattling.
In Washington, the State Department urged leaders of both countries to
avoid a war of words. ''We would like to see both sides cool it and
get back to a place where they can have a productive relationship,''
the spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, told reporters. Activists with the
Free Gaza Movement, who have organized a series of flotillas to
challenge Israel's blockade of the Palestinian coastal strip, said
they had no announcement about any efforts to come but that the most
recent, which was stopped by Greece and Cyprus in June, would not be
the last.
But Israeli diplomats and experts here and abroad said that while they
were not overly concerned about a flotilla to Gaza materializing soon,
the naval threat regarding the gas fields could prove more dangerous.
''Israel and Cyprus reached agreement dividing the water between the
two of them for gas drilling,'' Alon Liel, a former ambassador to
Turkey said. ''Turkey said the division was illegal. Israel is also
clashing with Lebanon on demarcation and drilling rights. Turkey will
also support Lebanon and things could escalate.''
Mr. Liel said that Israel hoped to export its gas via Cyprus in a few
years, and that would require the digging of a large port there --
something that he imagined that Turkey would try to prevent. That
could mean possible clashes between Israel and Turkey like those
Turkey has had with Greece over drilling and demarcation.
Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has ordered studies on
how to defend Israelis from being prosecuted by the Turks over the
flotilla attack last year -- including urging Israelis associated with
the military to avoid flying there -- and get back at Turkey for its
growing anti-Israel stand. Officials who spoke of the studies said
they were still in the realm of brainstorming and were far from being
accepted as policy. They included getting closer to Armenia, Turkey's
historic rival, and the minority Kurds in eastern Turkey, who along
with Kurds in neighboring countries hope for an independent state.
Some analysts said Turkey's rejection of the United Nations report
showed hypocrisy. Before the commission issued its account, Turkey's
foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, asserted on Turkish television that
the report would ''reaffirm the supremacy of international law.''
After it was issued, Turkish officials declared the report null and
void.
Mr. Erdogan's comments come before a planned trip to Egypt and a
meeting with President Obama the week after. Henri Barkey, a professor
of international relations at Lehigh University, said Mr. Erdogan was
trying to force the United States into the uncomfortable position of
choosing between its ally Israel and Turkey, a NATO-member nation.
Turkey announced last week that it would host a NATO missile defense
shield to protect against a potential strike from Iran. If tensions
between Israel and Turkey increase, that could put NATO in a delicate
spot.
''This is very high-stakes poker,'' Professor Barkey said. ''It's
very, very dangerous.''
Sinan Ulgen, director of EDAM, a center for economics and foreign
policy studies in Istanbul, said he, too, was worried. ''The latest
threat is not only diplomatically difficult, but may even require
direct U.S. involvement if Israel and Turkey come to face each other
in the Eastern Mediterranean,'' he said. ''And the only one capable of
coming between them is the United States, and the U.S. Sixth Fleet.''
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
September 10, 2011 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
Threat by Turkish Premier Raises Tensions With Israel
By ETHAN BRONNER; Steven Erlanger contributed reporting from Paris,
and J. David Goodman from New York.
JERUSALEM -- Israel was wrestling on Friday with growing tensions with
Turkey after the Turkish prime minister threatened to use his navy to
accompany aid flotillas to Gaza and to challenge Israel's plans for
gas exploration and export in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told Al Jazeera, the
pan-Arab network, that he would use his warships to prevent Israeli
commandos from again boarding a Gaza-bound ship as they did last year,
killing nine passengers, and from letting Israel exploit natural gas
resources at sea.
A United Nations report issued a week ago criticized the commandos'
actions but said Israel's blockade was legal, which was not what
Turkey had hoped to hear. It demanded an apology from Israel -- which
refused, as it has from the earliest days of the flotilla raid, when
it expressed regrets -- and then took steps to express its
displeasure, including expelling the Israeli ambassador and cutting
military ties.
Dan Meridor, Israel's intelligence minister, responded on Friday to
Mr. Erdogan's recent threats, saying they were ''grave and serious.''
He told Army Radio, however, that he did not want to get into verbal
saber rattling.
In Washington, the State Department urged leaders of both countries to
avoid a war of words. ''We would like to see both sides cool it and
get back to a place where they can have a productive relationship,''
the spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, told reporters. Activists with the
Free Gaza Movement, who have organized a series of flotillas to
challenge Israel's blockade of the Palestinian coastal strip, said
they had no announcement about any efforts to come but that the most
recent, which was stopped by Greece and Cyprus in June, would not be
the last.
But Israeli diplomats and experts here and abroad said that while they
were not overly concerned about a flotilla to Gaza materializing soon,
the naval threat regarding the gas fields could prove more dangerous.
''Israel and Cyprus reached agreement dividing the water between the
two of them for gas drilling,'' Alon Liel, a former ambassador to
Turkey said. ''Turkey said the division was illegal. Israel is also
clashing with Lebanon on demarcation and drilling rights. Turkey will
also support Lebanon and things could escalate.''
Mr. Liel said that Israel hoped to export its gas via Cyprus in a few
years, and that would require the digging of a large port there --
something that he imagined that Turkey would try to prevent. That
could mean possible clashes between Israel and Turkey like those
Turkey has had with Greece over drilling and demarcation.
Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has ordered studies on
how to defend Israelis from being prosecuted by the Turks over the
flotilla attack last year -- including urging Israelis associated with
the military to avoid flying there -- and get back at Turkey for its
growing anti-Israel stand. Officials who spoke of the studies said
they were still in the realm of brainstorming and were far from being
accepted as policy. They included getting closer to Armenia, Turkey's
historic rival, and the minority Kurds in eastern Turkey, who along
with Kurds in neighboring countries hope for an independent state.
Some analysts said Turkey's rejection of the United Nations report
showed hypocrisy. Before the commission issued its account, Turkey's
foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, asserted on Turkish television that
the report would ''reaffirm the supremacy of international law.''
After it was issued, Turkish officials declared the report null and
void.
Mr. Erdogan's comments come before a planned trip to Egypt and a
meeting with President Obama the week after. Henri Barkey, a professor
of international relations at Lehigh University, said Mr. Erdogan was
trying to force the United States into the uncomfortable position of
choosing between its ally Israel and Turkey, a NATO-member nation.
Turkey announced last week that it would host a NATO missile defense
shield to protect against a potential strike from Iran. If tensions
between Israel and Turkey increase, that could put NATO in a delicate
spot.
''This is very high-stakes poker,'' Professor Barkey said. ''It's
very, very dangerous.''
Sinan Ulgen, director of EDAM, a center for economics and foreign
policy studies in Istanbul, said he, too, was worried. ''The latest
threat is not only diplomatically difficult, but may even require
direct U.S. involvement if Israel and Turkey come to face each other
in the Eastern Mediterranean,'' he said. ''And the only one capable of
coming between them is the United States, and the U.S. Sixth Fleet.''
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress