AC writes:
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan walks off the stage
at the World Economic Forum after challenging Shimon Peres on the war
on Gaza (forward to about 1:01:00). Erdogan cites the Sixth
Commandment, Avi Shlaim of Oxford University, Israeli anti-Zionist Gilad Atzom who accuses Israel of barbarism (although, Atzom says:
"...I do not regard myself as an Israeli. I was born there but I haven't
lived or visited there for many years. Once I realized that I was
residing on stolen land as an oppressor I packed my saxes [he's a jazz
musician] and left. To a certain extent, I can be regarded as a 'proud
self hating Jew'.") and tells Peres that he remembers "the children who died on beaches."
Turkey, whose population is over 99% Muslim, recognized Israel's right to exist in 1949 and has maintained relations since, one of the very few Muslim countries to do so. We can see the state of those relations in the present.
For a world leader, pretty inflammatory.
Writes Muhammad Idrees Ahmad: "A star is born." Reports the Telegraph: Erdogan says he will never return to Davos...
Lots of dead Kurds in the past 20 years. Lots.
Right, so that cancels out the dead Palestinians. /snark
Good on Erdogan for coming to his senses. I hope he's starting a trend.
No, it just means that Erdogan is a grand-standing hypocrite.
Israel might want to lessen security cooperation with Turkey vis-a-vis Syria.
You haven't been keeping up, Euro. Opposition-supporting media in Turkey have noted that the diplomatic row over Gaza and spate of anti-Semitic incidents could drive the US Jewish community toward the Armenians’ side in the political battle in the US over congressional recognition of the Armenian genocide. ‘Erdogan’s remarks aid anti-Semiticism‘ Haviv Rettig Gur, JPost, Jan 29 2009
The moderator who cut Erdogan off after giving 25 minutes to Peres was none other than WaPo neolib David Ignatius.
Glad to see Erdogan standing up to the war criminal Peres, but as usual Palestinians are denied the opportunity to speak for themselves.
The moderator was american jew so he gave mr shemon 25 minuts while giving only 12 minuts to Turkish Prime Minister . you see how he was biased towards israel .
what Turkish Prime Minister di was rght He rejected to be humilated by fucking zionist.
Israel (and the worldwide compliant complicit Jewish community) has been doing Gaza to the Arabs for sixty years now. But there is a difference now: TV and internet cameras are revealing the truth, despite the best effort of Israel to censor and twist the news. And who you gonna believe, your eyes or what the jews tell you to believe? …
"That's not a dead child murdered by Jews, that's a victim of Hamas hiding among the people". [yeah, Hamas doesn't live among the people it came from, it's really a Martian anti-semitic army that can be surgically removed]
"That's not a family massacred on the beach by a Jewish Naval Vessel, that's a tragic targetting mistake". [yeah, and rolling ships at sea can pinpoint targets in crowded slums using WW1 gun technology]
"look at those Hamas cowards, hiding in tunnels while brave Jewish boys in heavy tanks and F16's try to keep 300 million Arabs from throwing us Jews into the sea" [uhhh, what?]
The world has seen with their own eyes, and thinks to itself… (what a sh-tty little country with a moustache)
Back in the day (when I was thrown off the NYTimes Middle East Forum) it was for saying things like: "I hope the Iranians develope their missile technology, because if they don't, the Jews of Israel will be killing their children with 50 caliber machine guns."
And David Ignatius has the chutzpah to ask Arabs "how to get back to the Peace Process"???
So you are advocating genocide? Or are you merely encouraging the Iranians to develop atomic weapons because, if not, Israel will invade?
Did you also forget the family murdered on the beach by Hamas mines?
There were no 'mines' – that was the initial Israeli claim regarding the family killed by their own wanton naval shelling of the beach. You need to keep files, or something, so that you can follow stories through.
Seems your days as a credible source ended years ago.
Bravo for him!
At last some of the pride and dignity of the ottoman and byzantine periods. They should not bend in front of such a small power like Israel. I don`t know about the bigger power behind jewish state:USA. It could be something of a political declaration in ordr to gain popularity at home
Eurosabra,
Perhaps you failed to notice that thousands of Kurdish demonstrators in Diyarbakir,Turkey protested Israel's slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. Perhaps you forgot that Israel sold out the Iraqi Kurds back in the 1970s to accommodate the Shah of Iran. And so long as Turkey suited Israel's agenda since then, Zionist Israel was as silent as the grave on Ankara's Kurdish policy. Erdogan has done more to improve the Kurdish situation in Turkey than any of his predecessors.
I remember how Kurdish Jews who emigrated from Iraq to Israel were treated, until the Zionists found a use for them in their zeal to break up "the sea of Arabs."
Having researched and written on Kurdish issues some thirty years now, I have concluded–sadly, since I am a Jew– that with Zionist Israel for a friend, the Kurds don't need enemies.
Is there a Kurdish state? If not, they don't exist.
PS: Thanks, Vera, for your honest information.
Or friends like the United States, which prompted the selling of the Kurds in the 70s, '91, and even today blocks an independent Kurdistan.
I expect some Turkish Kurds to oppose Israel. Kiss the hand of Ankara you dare not bite. Legalization of use of Kurdish, with Ocalan in jail, but military pressure on Iraqi Kurds. Erdogan has WON, there will be no Kurdistan, which is why he can show mercy–I mean "improve the Kurdish situation in Turkey"–for/to the losers.
I imagine Kurdistan will be established at the least as a permanent autonomous region in Iraq
There is so much more to the sordid story of Israel's Kurdish agenda. Note in today's Jerusalem Post that Israel has an acute water shortage. For years now Israel has been trying to come up with a deal with Turkey to import water–water from the Kurdish southeast of the country, much as Israel covets a deal with Iraqi Kurds for oil. Iraqi Kurdistan is strewn with Jews training Kurds, gathering intelligence on Iran and Syria, using PJAK–an arm of the PKK directed against Iran.
In his 1912 book, "The Caliph's Last Heritage," British official Sir Mark Sykes observed, "Kurds are the simplest and most gullable of mortals…" There is some truth in his observation. And yet, I can't help thinking that we are fast becoming their top competitor for the title.
Seems like a bit of racism from the British, the home of the "White Man's Burden".
I believe Kurdish society has been forthright in its hopes and desires.
Yay, Vera.