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WIKILEAKS: TURKEY PLANNED TO 'BURN BRIDGES' WITH ISRAEL EVEN BEFORE FLOTILLA
By Aaron Kalman
http://www.timesofisrael.com/wikileaks-turkey-wanted-to-burn-bridges-with-israel/#.T7rge5usuvI.email
February 29, 2012, 3:34 pm
Latest leaked Stratfor email has Erdogan telling Kissinger of ambition
to lead the Arab world
Palestinians hold pictures of Tayyip Erdogan in a Gaza protest (photo
credit: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90)Related TopicsWikileaksIsrael-Turkey
relationsGaza flotillaTurkey planned on downgrading relations with
Israel even before the May 2010 flotilla incident, documents published
Wednesday by WikiLeaks suggest.
A leaked email from George Friedman, the head of US-based global
security analysis company Stratfor, reveals that Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan told former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger
that at some point he would burn bridges with Israel in favor of a
closer relationship with the Islamic world.
According to the Turkish newspaper Sunday Zaman, Friedman also wrote
in the same email that Turkey does not get along with Israel and
the United States. An attack by Israel on Iran would provide a good
opportunity for Erdogan to finally cut Turkey's ties with Israel and
the US and to expand Turkey's power, he further wrote.
The flotilla to Gaza - in which nine Turkish citizens aboard a ship
heading to Gaza were killed after attacking the IDF commandos who
intercepted it - was not the cause of Turkey's new strategy but rather
the opportunity Erdogan had been waiting for, Army Radio said.
Also exposed in the latest email exchanges published by Wikileaks
were claims Israeli commandos had sabotaged and significantly damaged
Iranian nuclear facilities.
By Aaron Kalman
http://www.timesofisrael.com/wikileaks-turkey-wanted-to-burn-bridges-with-israel/#.T7rge5usuvI.email
February 29, 2012, 3:34 pm
Latest leaked Stratfor email has Erdogan telling Kissinger of ambition
to lead the Arab world
Palestinians hold pictures of Tayyip Erdogan in a Gaza protest (photo
credit: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90)Related TopicsWikileaksIsrael-Turkey
relationsGaza flotillaTurkey planned on downgrading relations with
Israel even before the May 2010 flotilla incident, documents published
Wednesday by WikiLeaks suggest.
A leaked email from George Friedman, the head of US-based global
security analysis company Stratfor, reveals that Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan told former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger
that at some point he would burn bridges with Israel in favor of a
closer relationship with the Islamic world.
According to the Turkish newspaper Sunday Zaman, Friedman also wrote
in the same email that Turkey does not get along with Israel and
the United States. An attack by Israel on Iran would provide a good
opportunity for Erdogan to finally cut Turkey's ties with Israel and
the US and to expand Turkey's power, he further wrote.
The flotilla to Gaza - in which nine Turkish citizens aboard a ship
heading to Gaza were killed after attacking the IDF commandos who
intercepted it - was not the cause of Turkey's new strategy but rather
the opportunity Erdogan had been waiting for, Army Radio said.
Also exposed in the latest email exchanges published by Wikileaks
were claims Israeli commandos had sabotaged and significantly damaged
Iranian nuclear facilities.