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A BRILLIANT FRAUD
Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stanley-weiss/erdogan-turkey-egypt_b_961663.html
Sept 15 2011
Stanley Weiss.Founding Chairman, Business Executives for National
Security
It was the first time that cattle cars would be used in the 20th
century to carry people to concentration camps, a systematic
annihilation of a whole population so horrific that a new word had
to be invented to capture its brutality: genocide.
In the midst of World War I, over a million Christian Armenians
in Turkey were rounded up by the Ottoman Empire and slaughtered
in unspeakable ways. No less a mass murderer than Adolf Hitler,
in a speech to Nazi commanders before he invaded Poland, reportedly
defended his order to, "kill without pity or mercy all men, women,
and children of the Polish race" by asking, "Who, after all, speaks
today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
Ninety years later, the Armenian Genocide has been recognized by
21 nations, 43 American states and a United Nations Commission. But
Turkey still denies it ever happened. Under Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, not only is speaking of genocide in Turkey
a jailable offense -- but earlier this year, Erdogan announced that
Turkey was tearing down the Turkish-Armenian "Friendship Monument" that
stands on the border between the two countries, calling it "monstrous."
Yet, this is the same man who lectures Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel needs to apologize for the deaths of
nine Turkish activists last year on board a pro-Palestinian flotilla
that was attempting to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. This
is also the same leader who has promised to help pass a Palestinian
resolution at the U.N. next week welcoming the State of Palestine as
a member -- at the same time Ankara continues to deny basic rights to
20 million Turkish Kurds while illegally occupying northern Cyprus,
in defiance of the U.N.
This is far from just a gross expression of diplomatic hypocrisy or an
historical reversal of a Turkish-Israeli friendship that dates back
to 1949. At a time when much of the Muslim world is turning towards
democracy, one of America's oldest democratic allies in the region
is headed in the other direction.
Erdogan, who is Islamist to the core, once famously declared that
"the mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets
our bayonets, and the faithful our soldiers" -- seems to see himself
as the Islamic leader of a post-Arab-Spring Muslim world.
Since taking power in 2003, Erdogan's Islamist Justice and Development
Party (In Turkish: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partis, or AKP) has been less
interested in preserving Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's 90-year-old vision of
Turkey as a secular state and more committed, as Israeli journalist
Ron Ben-Yishai writes, to bringing about "a return to the Ottoman
Empire's glory days."
As prime minister, Erdogan has wielded Turkey's aspiring membership
in the European Union brilliantly as a tool to suppress secular
opposition, none more efficiently than with the military -- which has
been the constitutional guarantor of a secular Turkey for nine decades.
Using the EU's insistence that Turkey bring its military under greater
civilian control, Erdogan has castrated military leaders. In June,
with more than 40 generals in jail, Turkey's top military commanders
resigned simultaneously. The vacuum leaves Erdogan free to remodel
Turkey, as Caroline Glick of the Center for Security Policy puts it,
"into a hybrid of Putinist autocracy and Iranian theocracy."
Meanwhile, the judiciary -- the other guardian of secular power in
Turkey -- had its independence garroted last year with the passage of
new constitutional amendments that give the AKP control over judicial
appointments and power to "investigate" judges.
Burnishing his credentials as a brilliant fraud, Erdogan praised the
new constitution as a step towards EU membership -- while knowing
that the EU's "Christian Club," as he calls it, won't likely ever
grant Turkey full membership.
In Israel, Erdogan has the perfect foil; and in Netanyahu, the perfect
fool. Incensed by Israel's 2008 bombing of Gaza, Erdogan engaged in
a heated exchange with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the World
Economic Forum in Davos -- shouting "When it comes to killing, you
know well how to kill" -- before storming offstage.
He returned home to a hero's welcome and has made trouble for the West
ever since. Last year, when Turkey sided with Iran in a U.N. Security
Council vote on Tehran sanctions , Western scholars asked, "Who Lost
Turkey?" Yet, while Erdogan has sought to assert Turkish leadership
across the region, every initiative he's attempted -- from ending the
NATO mission against Libya, to imploring Syria to end its violent
crackdowns, to promoting reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah --
has met with failure.
With his threats against Syria being ignored by Damascus, Erdogan
was in need of a distraction to win back the street, which the U.N.
provided last month with the Palmer Report on the 2010 flotilla raid.
It found that Israel used excessive force and was morally responsible
for the deaths, but ruled that the Gaza blockade is lawful and
enforceable by Israel against humanitarian vessels in international
waters.
The rest was predictable: Erdogan seethed at the U.N.; kicked out
the Israeli Ambassador to Turkey; suspended all economic and military
agreements with Tel Aviv; and warned that Turkish warships would break
the Israeli blockade of Gaza. But his brilliant jujitsu continued:
while bashing the Palmer Report, he also enraged Iran by agreeing to
host a NATO anti-missile radar on Turkey's border.
So, what's next? This week, Erdogan becomes the first Turkish Prime
Minister to visit Cairo in 15 years. Turkey and Egypt -- which
together represent half of the population of the Middle East -- are
expected to sign an agreement leading to new political, economic, and
scientific ties. Can Egypt and Turkey work to turn the Arab Spring
into an Islamic Summer -- and will Erdogan lead it, in time for the
100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide? Only one thing is certain:
somewhere, Ataturk is turning over in his grave.
Stanley A. Weiss is Founding Chairman of Business Executives for
National Security, a nonpartisan organization based in Washington. The
views expressed are his own.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stanley-weiss/erdogan-turkey-egypt_b_961663.html
Sept 15 2011
Stanley Weiss.Founding Chairman, Business Executives for National
Security
It was the first time that cattle cars would be used in the 20th
century to carry people to concentration camps, a systematic
annihilation of a whole population so horrific that a new word had
to be invented to capture its brutality: genocide.
In the midst of World War I, over a million Christian Armenians
in Turkey were rounded up by the Ottoman Empire and slaughtered
in unspeakable ways. No less a mass murderer than Adolf Hitler,
in a speech to Nazi commanders before he invaded Poland, reportedly
defended his order to, "kill without pity or mercy all men, women,
and children of the Polish race" by asking, "Who, after all, speaks
today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
Ninety years later, the Armenian Genocide has been recognized by
21 nations, 43 American states and a United Nations Commission. But
Turkey still denies it ever happened. Under Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, not only is speaking of genocide in Turkey
a jailable offense -- but earlier this year, Erdogan announced that
Turkey was tearing down the Turkish-Armenian "Friendship Monument" that
stands on the border between the two countries, calling it "monstrous."
Yet, this is the same man who lectures Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel needs to apologize for the deaths of
nine Turkish activists last year on board a pro-Palestinian flotilla
that was attempting to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. This
is also the same leader who has promised to help pass a Palestinian
resolution at the U.N. next week welcoming the State of Palestine as
a member -- at the same time Ankara continues to deny basic rights to
20 million Turkish Kurds while illegally occupying northern Cyprus,
in defiance of the U.N.
This is far from just a gross expression of diplomatic hypocrisy or an
historical reversal of a Turkish-Israeli friendship that dates back
to 1949. At a time when much of the Muslim world is turning towards
democracy, one of America's oldest democratic allies in the region
is headed in the other direction.
Erdogan, who is Islamist to the core, once famously declared that
"the mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets
our bayonets, and the faithful our soldiers" -- seems to see himself
as the Islamic leader of a post-Arab-Spring Muslim world.
Since taking power in 2003, Erdogan's Islamist Justice and Development
Party (In Turkish: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partis, or AKP) has been less
interested in preserving Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's 90-year-old vision of
Turkey as a secular state and more committed, as Israeli journalist
Ron Ben-Yishai writes, to bringing about "a return to the Ottoman
Empire's glory days."
As prime minister, Erdogan has wielded Turkey's aspiring membership
in the European Union brilliantly as a tool to suppress secular
opposition, none more efficiently than with the military -- which has
been the constitutional guarantor of a secular Turkey for nine decades.
Using the EU's insistence that Turkey bring its military under greater
civilian control, Erdogan has castrated military leaders. In June,
with more than 40 generals in jail, Turkey's top military commanders
resigned simultaneously. The vacuum leaves Erdogan free to remodel
Turkey, as Caroline Glick of the Center for Security Policy puts it,
"into a hybrid of Putinist autocracy and Iranian theocracy."
Meanwhile, the judiciary -- the other guardian of secular power in
Turkey -- had its independence garroted last year with the passage of
new constitutional amendments that give the AKP control over judicial
appointments and power to "investigate" judges.
Burnishing his credentials as a brilliant fraud, Erdogan praised the
new constitution as a step towards EU membership -- while knowing
that the EU's "Christian Club," as he calls it, won't likely ever
grant Turkey full membership.
In Israel, Erdogan has the perfect foil; and in Netanyahu, the perfect
fool. Incensed by Israel's 2008 bombing of Gaza, Erdogan engaged in
a heated exchange with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the World
Economic Forum in Davos -- shouting "When it comes to killing, you
know well how to kill" -- before storming offstage.
He returned home to a hero's welcome and has made trouble for the West
ever since. Last year, when Turkey sided with Iran in a U.N. Security
Council vote on Tehran sanctions , Western scholars asked, "Who Lost
Turkey?" Yet, while Erdogan has sought to assert Turkish leadership
across the region, every initiative he's attempted -- from ending the
NATO mission against Libya, to imploring Syria to end its violent
crackdowns, to promoting reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah --
has met with failure.
With his threats against Syria being ignored by Damascus, Erdogan
was in need of a distraction to win back the street, which the U.N.
provided last month with the Palmer Report on the 2010 flotilla raid.
It found that Israel used excessive force and was morally responsible
for the deaths, but ruled that the Gaza blockade is lawful and
enforceable by Israel against humanitarian vessels in international
waters.
The rest was predictable: Erdogan seethed at the U.N.; kicked out
the Israeli Ambassador to Turkey; suspended all economic and military
agreements with Tel Aviv; and warned that Turkish warships would break
the Israeli blockade of Gaza. But his brilliant jujitsu continued:
while bashing the Palmer Report, he also enraged Iran by agreeing to
host a NATO anti-missile radar on Turkey's border.
So, what's next? This week, Erdogan becomes the first Turkish Prime
Minister to visit Cairo in 15 years. Turkey and Egypt -- which
together represent half of the population of the Middle East -- are
expected to sign an agreement leading to new political, economic, and
scientific ties. Can Egypt and Turkey work to turn the Arab Spring
into an Islamic Summer -- and will Erdogan lead it, in time for the
100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide? Only one thing is certain:
somewhere, Ataturk is turning over in his grave.
Stanley A. Weiss is Founding Chairman of Business Executives for
National Security, a nonpartisan organization based in Washington. The
views expressed are his own.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress