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NORMALIZATION BETWEEN ANKARA AND JERUSALEM? GUESS AGAIN.
by Burak Bekdil
October 30, 2014 at 5:00 am
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4828/israel-turkey-normalization
Until Jerusalem is the capital of a Palestinian state and Israel is
pushed back to its pre-1967 borders, it will be "halal" for Erdogan
to blame Israel for global warming, the Ebola virus, starvation in
Africa and every other misfortune the world faces.
On the press freedoms index 2014 of Reporters without Borders,
Turkey ranks an embarrassing 154th, a score worse than Burundi,
Myanmar, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Libya, Uganda
and Kyrgyzstan, among others. Once again, Erdogan corrupted facts
and figures in order to bash Israel.
Holy struggle against Israel is a prerequisite for Erdogan's pro-Hamas
Islamism, and the cold war and Erdogan's explosive rhetoric around
it have yielded a treasure-trove of votes in a country that champions
anti-Semitism.
"The Jewish lobby has lost much of its mythical power. Our prime
minister's rhetoric and actions have largely caused this. The way he
[Erdogan] walked out of the Davos meeting [in 2009] has substantially
tarnished Israel's regional charisma. Despite all that, Israel has been
unable to harm Turkey." This quote was from former senior diplomat
and member of parliament Volkan Bozkir, of Turkey's ruling Justice
and Development Party [AKP], in an interview with the daily Hurriyet
on March 18, 2013. In Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's mini-cabinet
reshuffle last month, Bozkir became Turkey's European Union Minister
and chief negotiator with the club for Turkish membership.
Turkey's then Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan at
a 2009 a panel in Davos, Switzerland, tells Israel's then President
Shimon Peres, "when it comes to killing, you know well how to kill."
Since Turkey downgraded its diplomatic relations with Israel four
years ago, the Jewish state has tried, in vain, to normalize ties.
Efforts have included a 2013 move by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
to phone then Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan to
apologize for the Mavi Marmara incident of 2010. Since the Israeli
raid on the Turkish flotilla that aimed to break the "illegal siege"
of Gaza, Turkey has repeatedly said that normalization would never
come before: a) Israel apologized for Mavi Marmara, b) Israel
compensated for the families of the nine Turks killed aboard the
vessel, and c) Israel altogether removed the blockade on Gaza. News
of a potential breakthrough has never been absent on newspaper pages
in both countries.
Most recently, Verda Ozer, a columnist with Hurriyet, quoted a "top
official in Ankara" telling her: "We are ready for normalization with
Israel." She wrote in her column on Oct. 25:
My question was this: Is Turkey considering normalizing its relations
with Israel and Egypt, which are the only countries offering stability
in the region other than Iran? The official continued: "There is only
the compensation issue remaining. After this is solved, we could send
back our ambassador and relations would be normalized."
Is normalization possible? Theoretically, it is. In reality, it is
a near impossibility.
Since Netanyahu's apology, Turkey, both governmentally and publicly,
has reached peak after peak in exhibiting anti-Semitism unseen before.
A year-and-a-half after Netanyahu's initiative to apologize for the
Mavi Marmara, Erdogan ordered the Turkish Ambassador to Washington, DC,
Serdar Kilic, to write on his behalf to the American Jewish Congress
to express his willingness to return a 2004 "Profile of Courage Award"
the New York-based organization had awarded him.
Shortly before that, the organization had said that Erdogan had become
the world's "most virulent anti-Israeli leader" and demanded that
he return the award. During Operation Protective Edge in July 2014,
Erdogan commented that "Israel had surpassed Hitler in barbarism."
Erdogan (and Davutoglu, for that matter) has both pragmatic and
emotional reasons to challenge Israel publicly, and to maintain
Turkey's "cold war" with Israel. Emotional, because a holy struggle
against Israel is a prerequisite for his pro-Hamas Islamism. And
pragmatic, because the cold war and his explosive rhetoric around it
have yielded a treasure-trove of votes in a country that champions
anti-Semitism. The critical parliamentary elections scheduled for June
2015 will most likely be another setting for his new verbal assaults
on Israel.
In a speech last week, Erdogan defended Turkey's press freedom record
by claiming that 16 journalists were killed during Israel's military
offensive against Gaza, Operation Protective Edge, this summer.
"Unfortunately, some politicians in Turkey and some international
media outlets are harshly criticizing Turkey, saying there is no press
freedom in the country," he said. "But the 16 journalists who were
killed by Israel during the Gaza attacks have never been brought up."
That was Erdogan's account of press freedoms in Turkey and Israel. As
always, reality is different from fabrication.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists [CPJ], 16
journalists have been killed in Israel since 1992, but NOT during
Operation Protective Edge. And the CPJ's database puts the number of
journalists killed in Turkey since 1992 at 20!
On Freedom House's press freedoms index, Turkey belongs to the "not
free" group of countries, ranking 134th globally, and sharing the same
score as South Sudan, Libya, Ecuador and Armenia. Israel belongs to
the "free" group of countries, ranking 62nd and scoring better than EU
member states Italy (64), Hungary (71), Bulgaria (78) and Greece (92).
On the 2014 press freedoms index of the Reporters Without Borders,
Turkey ranks an embarrassing 154th, a score worse than Iraq,
Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Burundi, Jordan, Chad,
Libya, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Angola, Mali, South Sudan, Uganda and
Kyrgyzstan. On the same index, Israel ranks 96th.
Once again, Erdogan corrupted facts and figures in order to bash
Israel -- while his diplomats are speaking of "Turkey's readiness
to normalize its ties with Israel." In reality, with or without the
normalization of diplomatic relations between Ankara and Jerusalem,
the Turks have never hidden their broader goals in the Arab-Israeli
dispute: that Jerusalem should be the capital of a Palestinian state;
and that Israel should be pushed back to its pre-1967 borders. Until
then, it will be 'halal' [permitted in Islam] for Erdogan to blame
Israel for global warming, the Ebola virus, starvation in Africa and
every other misfortune the world faces.
Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hurriyet
Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
by Burak Bekdil
October 30, 2014 at 5:00 am
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4828/israel-turkey-normalization
Until Jerusalem is the capital of a Palestinian state and Israel is
pushed back to its pre-1967 borders, it will be "halal" for Erdogan
to blame Israel for global warming, the Ebola virus, starvation in
Africa and every other misfortune the world faces.
On the press freedoms index 2014 of Reporters without Borders,
Turkey ranks an embarrassing 154th, a score worse than Burundi,
Myanmar, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Libya, Uganda
and Kyrgyzstan, among others. Once again, Erdogan corrupted facts
and figures in order to bash Israel.
Holy struggle against Israel is a prerequisite for Erdogan's pro-Hamas
Islamism, and the cold war and Erdogan's explosive rhetoric around
it have yielded a treasure-trove of votes in a country that champions
anti-Semitism.
"The Jewish lobby has lost much of its mythical power. Our prime
minister's rhetoric and actions have largely caused this. The way he
[Erdogan] walked out of the Davos meeting [in 2009] has substantially
tarnished Israel's regional charisma. Despite all that, Israel has been
unable to harm Turkey." This quote was from former senior diplomat
and member of parliament Volkan Bozkir, of Turkey's ruling Justice
and Development Party [AKP], in an interview with the daily Hurriyet
on March 18, 2013. In Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's mini-cabinet
reshuffle last month, Bozkir became Turkey's European Union Minister
and chief negotiator with the club for Turkish membership.
Turkey's then Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan at
a 2009 a panel in Davos, Switzerland, tells Israel's then President
Shimon Peres, "when it comes to killing, you know well how to kill."
Since Turkey downgraded its diplomatic relations with Israel four
years ago, the Jewish state has tried, in vain, to normalize ties.
Efforts have included a 2013 move by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
to phone then Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan to
apologize for the Mavi Marmara incident of 2010. Since the Israeli
raid on the Turkish flotilla that aimed to break the "illegal siege"
of Gaza, Turkey has repeatedly said that normalization would never
come before: a) Israel apologized for Mavi Marmara, b) Israel
compensated for the families of the nine Turks killed aboard the
vessel, and c) Israel altogether removed the blockade on Gaza. News
of a potential breakthrough has never been absent on newspaper pages
in both countries.
Most recently, Verda Ozer, a columnist with Hurriyet, quoted a "top
official in Ankara" telling her: "We are ready for normalization with
Israel." She wrote in her column on Oct. 25:
My question was this: Is Turkey considering normalizing its relations
with Israel and Egypt, which are the only countries offering stability
in the region other than Iran? The official continued: "There is only
the compensation issue remaining. After this is solved, we could send
back our ambassador and relations would be normalized."
Is normalization possible? Theoretically, it is. In reality, it is
a near impossibility.
Since Netanyahu's apology, Turkey, both governmentally and publicly,
has reached peak after peak in exhibiting anti-Semitism unseen before.
A year-and-a-half after Netanyahu's initiative to apologize for the
Mavi Marmara, Erdogan ordered the Turkish Ambassador to Washington, DC,
Serdar Kilic, to write on his behalf to the American Jewish Congress
to express his willingness to return a 2004 "Profile of Courage Award"
the New York-based organization had awarded him.
Shortly before that, the organization had said that Erdogan had become
the world's "most virulent anti-Israeli leader" and demanded that
he return the award. During Operation Protective Edge in July 2014,
Erdogan commented that "Israel had surpassed Hitler in barbarism."
Erdogan (and Davutoglu, for that matter) has both pragmatic and
emotional reasons to challenge Israel publicly, and to maintain
Turkey's "cold war" with Israel. Emotional, because a holy struggle
against Israel is a prerequisite for his pro-Hamas Islamism. And
pragmatic, because the cold war and his explosive rhetoric around it
have yielded a treasure-trove of votes in a country that champions
anti-Semitism. The critical parliamentary elections scheduled for June
2015 will most likely be another setting for his new verbal assaults
on Israel.
In a speech last week, Erdogan defended Turkey's press freedom record
by claiming that 16 journalists were killed during Israel's military
offensive against Gaza, Operation Protective Edge, this summer.
"Unfortunately, some politicians in Turkey and some international
media outlets are harshly criticizing Turkey, saying there is no press
freedom in the country," he said. "But the 16 journalists who were
killed by Israel during the Gaza attacks have never been brought up."
That was Erdogan's account of press freedoms in Turkey and Israel. As
always, reality is different from fabrication.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists [CPJ], 16
journalists have been killed in Israel since 1992, but NOT during
Operation Protective Edge. And the CPJ's database puts the number of
journalists killed in Turkey since 1992 at 20!
On Freedom House's press freedoms index, Turkey belongs to the "not
free" group of countries, ranking 134th globally, and sharing the same
score as South Sudan, Libya, Ecuador and Armenia. Israel belongs to
the "free" group of countries, ranking 62nd and scoring better than EU
member states Italy (64), Hungary (71), Bulgaria (78) and Greece (92).
On the 2014 press freedoms index of the Reporters Without Borders,
Turkey ranks an embarrassing 154th, a score worse than Iraq,
Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Burundi, Jordan, Chad,
Libya, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Angola, Mali, South Sudan, Uganda and
Kyrgyzstan. On the same index, Israel ranks 96th.
Once again, Erdogan corrupted facts and figures in order to bash
Israel -- while his diplomats are speaking of "Turkey's readiness
to normalize its ties with Israel." In reality, with or without the
normalization of diplomatic relations between Ankara and Jerusalem,
the Turks have never hidden their broader goals in the Arab-Israeli
dispute: that Jerusalem should be the capital of a Palestinian state;
and that Israel should be pushed back to its pre-1967 borders. Until
then, it will be 'halal' [permitted in Islam] for Erdogan to blame
Israel for global warming, the Ebola virus, starvation in Africa and
every other misfortune the world faces.
Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hurriyet
Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.