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Former Lebanese Minister Condemns Turkish Prime Minister's Exploitat

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  • Former Lebanese Minister Condemns Turkish Prime Minister's Exploitat

    FORMER LEBANESE MINISTER CONDEMNS TURKISH PRIME MINISTER'S EXPLOITATION OF THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE
    By Appo Jabarian

    Executive Publisher/Managing Editor
    USA Armenian Life Magazine
    June 28, 2012

    Sensing eventual political abandonment by Israel, Turkey haphazardly
    carried out a 'pro-Palestinian' 'humanitarian' outreach to Palestinians
    in Gaza staging a controversial and failed sea-lift through a civilian
    vessel - 'Mavi Marmara' in 2010.

    For a short time, before taking missteps in Egypt and elsewhere,
    Erdogan became the hero of the Arab street.

    Despite his humanitarian heroics, several Arab nations remember
    vividly Turkey's decades-long military and economic alliance with
    their archenemy Israel.

    As for Syria, Damascus has been at odds with Ankara, especially for
    the continued Turkish occupation of Syrian Arab lands of Alexandretta -
    now called 'Hatay' by Turkey.

    For a few years in late 2000 Syria considered the Alexandretta issue
    as a frozen conflict with Turkey falling to Turkish false promises
    of a new 'friendship' and began warming to Ankara. But that was when
    the Arab Spring had not been exported to Syria via Turkey.

    To their credit, at a time when the Syrian leaders were in honeymoon
    with Turkey, several Arab political observers and analysts were
    lucidly unmasking Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
    conniving politics to manipulate his way to pan-Arab leadership by
    exploiting the Palestinian issue.

    Apprehensive about Turkey's political ambitions in the Middle East;
    and mindful about Turkey's long history of nation-to-nation bullying,
    objective observers raised many 'red flags.' They were wary about
    Ankara's hidden desire to create a new Turkish-Ottoman empire
    encompassing all of the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.

    One such politically savvy Arab thinker and foremost political leader
    has been former Lebanese Minister Wiam Wahhab.

    In Sept. 2011, almost a year before a Turkish fighter jet belonging to
    Turkey's Air Force violated Syria's airspace in June 2012, Mr. Wahhab
    lambasted Turkey and its Prime Minister Erdogan for the latter's
    boastful public declarations designed to force Syrian Pres. Bashar
    Assad out of power. Mr. Wahhab especially ridiculed Turkey's age-old
    bullying tactics.

    During the 2011 interview broadcast live on Lebanese TV and later
    disseminated via numerous YouTube channels worldwide, Mr. Wahhab
    prophesized the June 2012 Syrian downing of a Turkish fighter jet
    that had 'inadvertently' violated Syria's airspace over the latter's
    territorial waters near Syrian coastal city of Latakia.

    Directly referring to the Turkish PM, Mr. Wahhab said: "Let's
    begin with Erdogan, the watermelon seller. There's nothing wrong
    with being a watermelon seller. " (Click here or use this link -
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhEtxzU8Mio - to see the interview in
    Arabic with English subtitles.)

    In response to the TV host's rebuttal, "You're calling him a watermelon
    seller? A year ago you considered him a pan-Arab hero!"

    Mr. Wahhab countered: "I never called him a hero. The Syrians are
    the ones who got him wrong. I never got it wrong; not even once. The
    Syrians did! I knew what he was doing, and I said it more than once.

    His only goal is to snatch the Palestinian flag away from the
    Iranians. That was his only goal. Erdogan thinks that a watermelon
    seller who shouts louder sells more. If that's what he thinks, I'd
    like to tell him that if he goes even one meter into Syrian land,
    100,000 missiles will fall on him - from Syria and elsewhere. If he
    goes even one meter into Syria..."

    The following is the remainder of the televised conversation between
    the TV host and Mr. Wahhab:

    TV Host: "What, are you trying to incite war between Syria and Turkey?"

    Mr. Wahhab: "If he goes even one meter into Syrian land ... It won't
    be me firing missiles. I don't have any. I am telling you what will
    happen. This is a Syrian decision. It is the Syrian decision of Bashar
    Al-Assad and of the Syrian army. If he enters even a single meter and
    occupies Syrian land ... I will be one of the people who will go and
    fight, and I call upon all Lebanese who believe in this nation to go
    and fight if Turkey enters Syrian land. But Erdogan wouldn't dare to
    do so. He's too much of a coward. If he sets foot on a single meter,
    100,000 missiles will fall on Turkish cities."

    TV Host: "And that is a Syrian decision?"

    Mr. Wahhab: "Yes, it's a decision of Syria and of the entire axis of
    resistance. If Syrian land is occupied ... First of all, Turkey is
    an occupier, just like Israel. Let's be clear about this. Israel took
    Palestine and Turkey took Alexandretta (Syria). That's my opinion. I
    believe in the (Arab) nation. I have never had a good word to say
    about Turkey. Never! If NATO sends a plane, the first missile it fires
    (at Syria) will mean that 100,000 missiles will fall on Palestine.

    That decision has been made. I am speaking on behalf of Syria, Iran,
    the resistance, and everybody. That is a done deal."

    TV Host: "Missiles will be fired from Syria and from Lebanon too? By
    Hezbollah...?"

    Mr. Wahhab: "From everywhere. The entire region will go up in flames.

    If the (Lebanese) government says that it wants to disarm Hezbollah
    by force, in accordance with an American and Israeli decision, of
    course we will resort to weapons. The (Lebanese) government will
    become the enemy."

    A few years ago at a time when Turkey was actively lobbying to send its
    'peacekeeping' forces to south Lebanon many independent Arab leaders
    worked to block the Turkish forces entry into south Lebanon near the
    border with Israel, foretelling the troubles to be caused by Turkish
    hegemony in Middle East.

    Will more and more Arabs detect Turkish political opportunism before
    it's too late?

    Will they become increasingly aware of the anti-Arab Turkish policy of
    'divide and conquer' that pits Sunni Arabs against Shia Arabs?

    For a starter, Arab may well count their blessings in political
    thinkers and activists like Mr. Wahhab.

    As Turkey's true designs for the Arab countries increasingly become
    clear, many more Christian and Muslim Arabs may openly join Lebanese
    former Minister Wahhab in condemning Turkey's exploitation of the
    Palestinian Cause; and insatiable appetite for new imperial rule
    reminiscent of Turkish Ottoman era oppression.

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