Turkey Tells Israel to End Gaza ‘Humanitarian Tragedy’
16/10/2009 Turkey urged Israel Friday to end the "humanitarian tragedy" in Gaza, saying ties between the two allies cannot recover if Palestinian suffering continues and “peace talks” remain dead in the Middle East. "Ending the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza, reviving peace efforts -- both on the Palestinian and Syrian track, and most importantly -- reinstating a prevailing spirit of peace in the region... this is what we want," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters.
"When there is a return to the track of peace, these relations of trust (with Israel) will be re-established on the same level as before," he said. The Zionist entity's ties with its chief regional ally took a sharp downturn last week when Ankara excluded the entity from annual joint military exercises, prompting a rebuke from the United States. The row flared Thursday as Israel summoned the Turkish envoy to protest a Turkish state television series which it condemned as "inciting hatred against Israel" and "not worthy of being broadcast even in an enemy state."
Davutoglu said that Israel's war on Gaza at the turn of the year "killed the peace perspective" in the Middle East. He made it clear Ankara was still bitter that the war also disrupted indirect talks between Israel and Syria that Turkey had mediated "with so much effort." "As long as the human tragedy in Gaza continues, no one should expect us to be part of a military picture" with Israel, he said, referring to the scrapped military drills.
"Although no single rocket has been fired on Israel from Gaza over the past eight months, children in Gaza have no schools to go to, people have no homes to take shelter in," he said. Davutoglu rejected suggestions that his government was becoming anti-Israeli. "The humanitarian situation (in Gaza) should be improved in the shortest possible time. How can wanting this amount to being anti-Israeli? This is a humanitarian attitude," he said.
16/10/2009 Turkey urged Israel Friday to end the "humanitarian tragedy" in Gaza, saying ties between the two allies cannot recover if Palestinian suffering continues and “peace talks” remain dead in the Middle East. "Ending the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza, reviving peace efforts -- both on the Palestinian and Syrian track, and most importantly -- reinstating a prevailing spirit of peace in the region... this is what we want," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters.
"When there is a return to the track of peace, these relations of trust (with Israel) will be re-established on the same level as before," he said. The Zionist entity's ties with its chief regional ally took a sharp downturn last week when Ankara excluded the entity from annual joint military exercises, prompting a rebuke from the United States. The row flared Thursday as Israel summoned the Turkish envoy to protest a Turkish state television series which it condemned as "inciting hatred against Israel" and "not worthy of being broadcast even in an enemy state."
Davutoglu said that Israel's war on Gaza at the turn of the year "killed the peace perspective" in the Middle East. He made it clear Ankara was still bitter that the war also disrupted indirect talks between Israel and Syria that Turkey had mediated "with so much effort." "As long as the human tragedy in Gaza continues, no one should expect us to be part of a military picture" with Israel, he said, referring to the scrapped military drills.
"Although no single rocket has been fired on Israel from Gaza over the past eight months, children in Gaza have no schools to go to, people have no homes to take shelter in," he said. Davutoglu rejected suggestions that his government was becoming anti-Israeli. "The humanitarian situation (in Gaza) should be improved in the shortest possible time. How can wanting this amount to being anti-Israeli? This is a humanitarian attitude," he said.
Turkish TV Drama Adds to Turkish-Israeli Tension
16/10/2009 Israel’s relations with Turkey plunged to a new low Thursday after Turkish state television aired a fictional series showing Israeli occupation troops murdering Palestinian children during last winter’s Gaza war.
Ties between the two strategic regional allies had already taken a serious blow this week when Turkey demanded that Israel be excluded from military exercises that it was staging with US and NATO allies. The US was forced to cancel the war games.
Turkey, a country with a strong secular tradition, has for more than a decade been Israel’s key ally in the Muslim world. Officials and analysts see the latest disputes as part of a worrying historical shift that could lead to the decline of their military partnership.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, admitted Thursday that the move to exclude Israel from Operation Anatolian Eagle was motivated by the Zionist entity’s offensive against Gaza ten months ago, in which more than 1,400 Palestinians died, including 420 children and over 5300 others injured.
He said that Turkish public opinion had turned so much against Israel that he was unable to ignore it. “Anyone who exercises political power has to take account of public opinion . . . I can’t just put the calls from the public to one side, it’s a question of sincerity,” he said.
Turkish television has now started broadcasting a vehemently anti-Israeli series entitled Farewell, which depicts actors dressed as Israeli troops shooting Palestinian children dead at point blank range, killing a newborn baby after its mother goes into labor at a checkpoint and lining up captured men in front of a firing squad.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman summoned the acting Turkish Ambassador to protest. “A series like this, which has not the slightest connection with reality, which presents Israeli soldiers as the murderers of innocent children, would not be appropriate for broadcast even in an enemy country and certainly not in a state which maintains diplomatic relations with Israel,” Lieberman said.
Meanwhile, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Friday that Turkey is not "based on censorship" and that the state has no right to comment on the quality or opinions expressed in broadcasts. The series is appearing on Turkey's state-owned TRT television, which is allowed some autonomy under the law.
There were also reports that Turkey planned to impose a stiff fine on Israel for the delay in delivery of unmanned drones, and has threatened to take the case to an international tribunal.
Anat Lapidot Firilla, an expert on Israeli-Turkish relations at the Hebrew University in occupied Jerusalem, said that the row went far beyond disputes over the Gaza war or a television show, and reflected Turkey’s “neo-Ottoman” desire to become a regional superpower in competition, rather co-operation, with Israel.
Ankara was looking to build closer strategic ties with other Muslim states in the area and in oil-rich Central Asia at the expense of ties with Israel, she said.
Israel had a similar diplomatic spat with Sweden this summer after a Swedish newspaper accused Israeli occupation soldiers of murdering Palestinians and selling their organs. Israel denounced the article as anti-Semitic and demanded that the Swedish Government did the same. Carl Bildt, the Swedish Foreign Minister, declined, saying that media reports were not a matter for government intervention.
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