Turkey's prime minister determined to have a war with Israel.

[fauzman]

MrBubbles said:

fauzman said:

MrBubbles said:

CAIRO (Reuters) - Turkey said on Thursday it would escort aid ships to Gaza and would not allow a repetition of last year's Israeli raid that killed nine Turks, setting the stage for a potential naval confrontation with its former ally.

Raising the stakes in Turkey's row with Israel over its refusal to apologize for the killings, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Al Jazeera television that Turkey had taken steps to stop Israel from unilaterally exploiting natural resources in the Mediterranean.

"Turkish warships, in the first place, are authorized to protect our ships that carry humanitarian aid to Gaza," Erdogan said in the interview, broadcast by Al Jazeera with an Arabic translation.

"From now on, we will not let these ships to be attacked by Israel, as what happened with the Freedom Flotilla," Erdogan said.

Referring to Erdogan's comments, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said: "This is a statement well-worth not commenting on."

Relations between Turkey and Israel, two close U.S. allies in the region, have soured since Israeli forces boarded the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara aid ship in May 2010.

Ankara downgraded ties and vowed to boost naval patrols in the eastern Mediterranean in the escalating row. Israel says it acted legally against ships that tried to breach its blockade on the Palestinian enclave which is ruled by the Islamist Hamas group.

Israel has said it will enforce the blockade, which it says is needed to prevent arms smuggling to Hamas.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said earlier on Thursday that Israel and Turkey will eventually mend fences rather than become foes, describing their unprecedented dispute over Gaza as "spilled milk."

Noting that an inquiry commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had vindicated the blockade, Barak predicted that wider Middle East upheaval would help bring Israel back together with its Muslim ex-ally.

"Ultimately this wave will pass. We recognize reality. They recognize reality," Barak told Israel Radio. "We are the two countries that are most important to the West in the region ... I am certain that we can overcome these (disagreements)."

But Erdogan appeared to raise the heat, saying NATO member Turkey has taken steps to patrol the Mediterranean, and vowed to stop the Jewish state from exploiting natural resources in the area.

"You know that Israel has begun to declare that it has the right to act in exclusive economic areas in the Mediterranean," Erdogan said, apparently in reference to Israeli plans to exploit offshore gas reserves found in areas that are also claimed by Lebanon.

"You will see that it will not be the owner of this right, because Turkey, as a guarantor of the Turkish republic of north Cyprus, has taken steps in the area, and it will be decisive and holding fast to the right to monitor international waters in the east Mediterranean," he said.

Turkey says oil deals granted by the Greek Cypriot government, which represents the island in the European Union, are illegal as the borders of Cyprus remain undetermined while Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots pursue reunification talks.

Turkey's plan to flex its naval muscles may fuel Western unease about Turkey's reliability as a NATO partner and its penchant for actions designed to court popularity in the Muslim world.

Asked whether Israel might yet say sorry for the seizure of the Turkish vessel, Barak said: "Look, it's spilled milk. It's not important right now."

In addition to an apology, NATO-member Turkey has demanded that Israel end the Gaza blockade. Israel says the closure is needed to keep arms from reaching Palestinian guerrillas by sea.

source

1. I dont see why anyone is objecting to this - Erdogan states that the warships are there to protect humanitarian aid ships not ships carrying weapons so if they want to protect it I say go ahead. From what i understand the gaza blockade is so unreasonable that they dont even allow cement in for reconstruction purposes which is insane.

2. Considering what happened on the Mavi Mamara, i think the Turks have a right to demand an apology. Remember the Israelis invaded the boat, and in international waters. Yes they were beaten upon by the activists on board but we dont know what really happened. The people on the boat claim that prior to the commandos boarding, they fired shots from the helicopters, and that the people that were killed were shot in cold blood not self defense. We dont know what happened but its very convenient that the only footage released by the Israelis shows only the attack on the commandos as they landed on the boats, NOT what happened prior to the boarding, OR what happened after the activists' attack.

3. Those who say Turkey wants a war with Israel are idiots. There is a huge difference with removing support and stopping ties with a country, to going to war with that country. Any war with Israel would cost lives not to mention taking attention away from the kurds. political instability would increase (and possibility of a coup) as opposition would claim its a move to a more islamic stance, wars are expensive and fighting such a major war would affect Turkey's economy which is currently one of the healthiest in Europe.

I support the move (and the Palestinian cause). I dont see how Israel can object to humanitarian aid UNLESS they are collectively punishing the gazans for Hamas. Its not had any effect except bad publicity for israel and suffering for the palestinians and now with the egypt crossing open, its no longer going to be effective.  

as with all humanitarian aid working with a blockade, they must submit to identification and inspections as well as to move if they are told to move.  and if they are directed to dock in haifa to have their "aid" (cement is restricted but permitted btw) checked over and sent over land then that is what they are required to do.  any vessel refusing to do so can be legally captured.  if the vessel cannot be captured or diverted the ship itself can be attacked. 

the mavi marmara was not an aid vessel, it was a passenger vessel carrying hundreds of people.  it had no humanitarian purpose, its purpose was solely to breach of the blockade as the organizers stated(there was NO aid on the ship!).   it was the only vessel where they were any problems.   why in the world would the israels peacefully land and take control of the other vessels but start shooting down into this one and then land with paintball guns as their main weapon?  if there was shooting at the boat, why would so many be gathered at the landing area ready to assault the troops?  why are all the injured and dead shot with the handguns?  use some common fucking sense bud. 

 

israel has no problem with aid and plenty of aid is shipped daily across the border.  there is no reason for these boats to attempt to breach the blockade.

I would agree that the activists on board the Mavi were trying to confront the blockage but only an idiot would think they were bringing anything that could be used as weapons. The authorities at the port they left stated that the boats had been checked and there was only aid equipment on the ships (which Israel knew). Likewise the activists themselves, even those on Mavi, were not carrying weapons since they used railing pipes or kitchen knives or things-at-hand to attack. Israel knew there were no threatening items being carried on the ships so the only reason they attacked was to prevent them from reaching gaza, NOT to check the aid they were carrying?

There is no doubt that some of the activists wanted to fight and that they did attack and injure some of the commando but to assume that the commandos were blameless is wrong - according to the UNHRC report five had gunshot wounds to the head and at least four were shot from both back and front. Also, six were the victims of "summary executions", including two shot after they were severely injured. In fact the american national was shot FIVE times. Add to this  the fact that the Mavi boat had around 250 bullet holes in it after the raid and it raises the question what the commandos were doing shooting so much. I have read reports by activists and journalists on board and they mention that some of the people that got injured/died did so because of live fire before the boarding took place. As the israeli footage doesnt cover what happened prior to the actual boarding we dont know the exact details.

Finally, cement was only allowed into gaza AFTER the flotilla raid and the pressure and criticism that came on Israel.

You are clearly not going to be convinced by me and vice versa so i will simply say that the move by Turkey is a good one and hopefully see that there are no more deaths from the flotilla movements.