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SPEAKING OF APOLOGIES ...
By Emanuele Ottolenghi
Ha'aretz, Israel
Oct 14 2011
Turkey practices state-sanctioned genocide denial and prosecutes
those who dare challenge it.
Buried somewhere in the middle of the "Report of the
Secretary-General's Panel of Inquiry on the 31 May 2010 Flotilla
Incident" (the Palmer Report ) is a small detail that is bound to
inconvenience Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his
desire to break Israel's Gaza blockade by deploying the Turkish Navy:
"the absence of significant port facilities in Gaza."
Mr. Erdogan has dismissed the legal substance of the Palmer Report as
null and void, and vowed to ecstatic crowds across North Africa that
Turkey will break the blockade, even at the cost of sending the Turkish
Navy to escort future flotillas. But, as the Palmer Report continues:
"The only vessels that can be handled in Gaza appear to be small
fishing vessels. This means that the prospect of delivering significant
supplies to Gaza by sea is very low. Indeed, such supplies were
not entering by sea prior to the blockade ... Smuggling weapons by
sea is one thing; delivering bulky food and other goods to supply
a population of approximately 1.5 million people is another. Such
facts militate against a finding that the naval blockade itself has
a significant humanitarian impact."
Given the dearth of facilities in Gaza, then, Mr. Erdogan may just
have a fishing expedition in mind - or a bootlegging job. But the
extravagantly expensive use of warships to catch a lobster does not
appear to concern him: "We don't care if it costs $15 million or
$150 million. We will not allow anyone to walk all over our honor,"
Erdogan recently told reporters.
In fact, Erdogan's foreign minister rebuffed American attempts
to mediate by saying that "no one should test our resolve on this
matter." Test or testosterone, it increasingly appears as if Mr.
Erdogan will be rattling his fishing rods and sharpening his fishing
hooks until the inevitable showdown. He recently told adoring fans
from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood that the flotilla incident in itself
was cause for war. The fact that Ankara has refrained from exacting
revenge is because of a desire to preserve "Turkey's grandeur." But
even grandeur apparently has limits - since, as Erdogan helpfully
noted, Israel is acting like a "spoiled child."
So here we are - the grandeur of Turkey, which its humble prime
minister blushingly extols to an adoring crowd of Islamist misogynists,
pitted against Israel's spoiled childishness.
And all it would take, apparently, for Israel to avoid all the
reckoning that a spoiled child sooner or later gets is to lift the
blockade, pay compensation to the families of victims of the Israeli
raid on the flotilla and issue an apology that Turkey could not reject
- which, judging from Ankara's conciliatory language, cannot amount
to much more than an act of surrender and submission. Considering
that Israel has already agreed to pay compensation, that the Palmer
Report only calls for Israel to express regrets (which it has already
done ), and that the blockade is both a legal and effective method
of limiting the flow of arms into Gaza (per the Palmer Report ) -
what's surrender and submission, between us?
Speaking of apologies, Turkey ranks 138 in the 2010 Reporters without
Borders Freedom index for press freedom. How about releasing those
61 journalists that are still rotting in Turkey's jails? How about
apologizing to them? Or maybe their jail terms are the price one pays
for Turkey's grandeur (or Erdogan's, at least ).
No matter - that's the least Turkey should apologize for.
Turkey continues to practice state-sanctioned genocide denial and
prosecutes those who dare challenge it. Isn't it time, 90-something
years after the Ottoman Empire eliminated as many as 1.5 million
Armenians, that Mr. Erdogan's "mildly Islamist" party, as The Economist
leniently defines it, acknowledges Turkey's dark past and apologizes
on behalf of its country's crimes?
Not to belabor the point, but the list of things Turkey should
apologize for is long. It continues to illegally occupy Northern
Cyprus, the territory of a European Union member, after having
conquered the land through an act of aggression that ended in
ethnic cleansing and illegal settlements. No apology there so far -
in fact, Turkey has just threatened to freeze ties with the EU if
Cyprus receives the Union's rotating presidency next year, as it is
supposed to. Meanwhile, Mr. Erdogan is directing his gunboat diplomacy
threats at Cyprus as well - as if occupation, ethnic cleansing and
the creation of a fictitiously independent republic in the northern
part of the island were not enough.
Turkey also denies basic group rights to millions of its Kurdish
citizens, discriminating against them because of their linguistic
and ethnic differences. It violates the sovereignty of its neighbors
by conducting ruthless cross-border raids with impunity. It has not
made a name for itself in the human rights department when it comes
to its fight against PKK terrorists.
Moral of the story: If you behave like a bull, you should not live
in a china shop. And if you live in a glass house, think twice before
you throw stones at your neighbors. Mr. Erdogan wants an apology? How
about starting with one?
Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense
of Democracies and the author of the newly published "The Pasdaran:
Inside Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards' Corps" (FDD Press ).
Buried somewhere in the middle of the "Report of the
Secretary-General's Panel of Inquiry on the 31 May 2010 Flotilla
Incident" (the Palmer Report ) is a small detail that is bound to
inconvenience Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his
desire to break Israel's Gaza blockade by deploying the Turkish Navy:
"the absence of significant port facilities in Gaza."
Mr. Erdogan has dismissed the legal substance of the Palmer Report as
null and void, and vowed to ecstatic crowds across North Africa that
Turkey will break the blockade, even at the cost of sending the Turkish
Navy to escort future flotillas. But, as the Palmer Report continues:
"The only vessels that can be handled in Gaza appear to be small
fishing vessels. This means that the prospect of delivering significant
supplies to Gaza by sea is very low. Indeed, such supplies were
not entering by sea prior to the blockade ... Smuggling weapons by
sea is one thing; delivering bulky food and other goods to supply
a population of approximately 1.5 million people is another. Such
facts militate against a finding that the naval blockade itself has
a significant humanitarian impact."
Given the dearth of facilities in Gaza, then, Mr. Erdogan may just
have a fishing expedition in mind - or a bootlegging job. But the
extravagantly expensive use of warships to catch a lobster does not
appear to concern him: "We don't care if it costs $15 million or
$150 million. We will not allow anyone to walk all over our honor,"
Erdogan recently told reporters.
In fact, Erdogan's foreign minister rebuffed American attempts
to mediate by saying that "no one should test our resolve on this
matter." Test or testosterone, it increasingly appears as if Mr.
Erdogan will be rattling his fishing rods and sharpening his fishing
hooks until the inevitable showdown. He recently told adoring fans
from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood that the flotilla incident in itself
was cause for war. The fact that Ankara has refrained from exacting
revenge is because of a desire to preserve "Turkey's grandeur." But
even grandeur apparently has limits - since, as Erdogan helpfully
noted, Israel is acting like a "spoiled child."
So here we are - the grandeur of Turkey, which its humble prime
minister blushingly extols to an adoring crowd of Islamist misogynists,
pitted against Israel's spoiled childishness.
And all it would take, apparently, for Israel to avoid all the
reckoning that a spoiled child sooner or later gets is to lift the
blockade, pay compensation to the families of victims of the Israeli
raid on the flotilla and issue an apology that Turkey could not reject
- which, judging from Ankara's conciliatory language, cannot amount
to much more than an act of surrender and submission. Considering
that Israel has already agreed to pay compensation, that the Palmer
Report only calls for Israel to express regrets (which it has already
done ), and that the blockade is both a legal and effective method
of limiting the flow of arms into Gaza (per the Palmer Report ) -
what's surrender and submission, between us?
Speaking of apologies, Turkey ranks 138 in the 2010 Reporters without
Borders Freedom index for press freedom. How about releasing those
61 journalists that are still rotting in Turkey's jails? How about
apologizing to them? Or maybe their jail terms are the price one pays
for Turkey's grandeur (or Erdogan's, at least ).
No matter - that's the least Turkey should apologize for.
Turkey continues to practice state-sanctioned genocide denial and
prosecutes those who dare challenge it. Isn't it time, 90-something
years after the Ottoman Empire eliminated as many as 1.5 million
Armenians, that Mr. Erdogan's "mildly Islamist" party, as The Economist
leniently defines it, acknowledges Turkey's dark past and apologizes
on behalf of its country's crimes?
Not to belabor the point, but the list of things Turkey should
apologize for is long. It continues to illegally occupy Northern
Cyprus, the territory of a European Union member, after having
conquered the land through an act of aggression that ended in
ethnic cleansing and illegal settlements. No apology there so far -
in fact, Turkey has just threatened to freeze ties with the EU if
Cyprus receives the Union's rotating presidency next year, as it is
supposed to. Meanwhile, Mr. Erdogan is directing his gunboat diplomacy
threats at Cyprus as well - as if occupation, ethnic cleansing and
the creation of a fictitiously independent republic in the northern
part of the island were not enough.
Turkey also denies basic group rights to millions of its Kurdish
citizens, discriminating against them because of their linguistic
and ethnic differences. It violates the sovereignty of its neighbors
by conducting ruthless cross-border raids with impunity. It has not
made a name for itself in the human rights department when it comes
to its fight against PKK terrorists.
Moral of the story: If you behave like a bull, you should not live
in a china shop. And if you live in a glass house, think twice before
you throw stones at your neighbors. Mr. Erdogan wants an apology? How
about starting with one?
Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense
of Democracies and the author of the newly published "The Pasdaran:
Inside Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards' Corps" (FDD Press ).
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/speaking-of-apologies-1.389845
From: Baghdasarian
By Emanuele Ottolenghi
Ha'aretz, Israel
Oct 14 2011
Turkey practices state-sanctioned genocide denial and prosecutes
those who dare challenge it.
Buried somewhere in the middle of the "Report of the
Secretary-General's Panel of Inquiry on the 31 May 2010 Flotilla
Incident" (the Palmer Report ) is a small detail that is bound to
inconvenience Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his
desire to break Israel's Gaza blockade by deploying the Turkish Navy:
"the absence of significant port facilities in Gaza."
Mr. Erdogan has dismissed the legal substance of the Palmer Report as
null and void, and vowed to ecstatic crowds across North Africa that
Turkey will break the blockade, even at the cost of sending the Turkish
Navy to escort future flotillas. But, as the Palmer Report continues:
"The only vessels that can be handled in Gaza appear to be small
fishing vessels. This means that the prospect of delivering significant
supplies to Gaza by sea is very low. Indeed, such supplies were
not entering by sea prior to the blockade ... Smuggling weapons by
sea is one thing; delivering bulky food and other goods to supply
a population of approximately 1.5 million people is another. Such
facts militate against a finding that the naval blockade itself has
a significant humanitarian impact."
Given the dearth of facilities in Gaza, then, Mr. Erdogan may just
have a fishing expedition in mind - or a bootlegging job. But the
extravagantly expensive use of warships to catch a lobster does not
appear to concern him: "We don't care if it costs $15 million or
$150 million. We will not allow anyone to walk all over our honor,"
Erdogan recently told reporters.
In fact, Erdogan's foreign minister rebuffed American attempts
to mediate by saying that "no one should test our resolve on this
matter." Test or testosterone, it increasingly appears as if Mr.
Erdogan will be rattling his fishing rods and sharpening his fishing
hooks until the inevitable showdown. He recently told adoring fans
from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood that the flotilla incident in itself
was cause for war. The fact that Ankara has refrained from exacting
revenge is because of a desire to preserve "Turkey's grandeur." But
even grandeur apparently has limits - since, as Erdogan helpfully
noted, Israel is acting like a "spoiled child."
So here we are - the grandeur of Turkey, which its humble prime
minister blushingly extols to an adoring crowd of Islamist misogynists,
pitted against Israel's spoiled childishness.
And all it would take, apparently, for Israel to avoid all the
reckoning that a spoiled child sooner or later gets is to lift the
blockade, pay compensation to the families of victims of the Israeli
raid on the flotilla and issue an apology that Turkey could not reject
- which, judging from Ankara's conciliatory language, cannot amount
to much more than an act of surrender and submission. Considering
that Israel has already agreed to pay compensation, that the Palmer
Report only calls for Israel to express regrets (which it has already
done ), and that the blockade is both a legal and effective method
of limiting the flow of arms into Gaza (per the Palmer Report ) -
what's surrender and submission, between us?
Speaking of apologies, Turkey ranks 138 in the 2010 Reporters without
Borders Freedom index for press freedom. How about releasing those
61 journalists that are still rotting in Turkey's jails? How about
apologizing to them? Or maybe their jail terms are the price one pays
for Turkey's grandeur (or Erdogan's, at least ).
No matter - that's the least Turkey should apologize for.
Turkey continues to practice state-sanctioned genocide denial and
prosecutes those who dare challenge it. Isn't it time, 90-something
years after the Ottoman Empire eliminated as many as 1.5 million
Armenians, that Mr. Erdogan's "mildly Islamist" party, as The Economist
leniently defines it, acknowledges Turkey's dark past and apologizes
on behalf of its country's crimes?
Not to belabor the point, but the list of things Turkey should
apologize for is long. It continues to illegally occupy Northern
Cyprus, the territory of a European Union member, after having
conquered the land through an act of aggression that ended in
ethnic cleansing and illegal settlements. No apology there so far -
in fact, Turkey has just threatened to freeze ties with the EU if
Cyprus receives the Union's rotating presidency next year, as it is
supposed to. Meanwhile, Mr. Erdogan is directing his gunboat diplomacy
threats at Cyprus as well - as if occupation, ethnic cleansing and
the creation of a fictitiously independent republic in the northern
part of the island were not enough.
Turkey also denies basic group rights to millions of its Kurdish
citizens, discriminating against them because of their linguistic
and ethnic differences. It violates the sovereignty of its neighbors
by conducting ruthless cross-border raids with impunity. It has not
made a name for itself in the human rights department when it comes
to its fight against PKK terrorists.
Moral of the story: If you behave like a bull, you should not live
in a china shop. And if you live in a glass house, think twice before
you throw stones at your neighbors. Mr. Erdogan wants an apology? How
about starting with one?
Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense
of Democracies and the author of the newly published "The Pasdaran:
Inside Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards' Corps" (FDD Press ).
Buried somewhere in the middle of the "Report of the
Secretary-General's Panel of Inquiry on the 31 May 2010 Flotilla
Incident" (the Palmer Report ) is a small detail that is bound to
inconvenience Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his
desire to break Israel's Gaza blockade by deploying the Turkish Navy:
"the absence of significant port facilities in Gaza."
Mr. Erdogan has dismissed the legal substance of the Palmer Report as
null and void, and vowed to ecstatic crowds across North Africa that
Turkey will break the blockade, even at the cost of sending the Turkish
Navy to escort future flotillas. But, as the Palmer Report continues:
"The only vessels that can be handled in Gaza appear to be small
fishing vessels. This means that the prospect of delivering significant
supplies to Gaza by sea is very low. Indeed, such supplies were
not entering by sea prior to the blockade ... Smuggling weapons by
sea is one thing; delivering bulky food and other goods to supply
a population of approximately 1.5 million people is another. Such
facts militate against a finding that the naval blockade itself has
a significant humanitarian impact."
Given the dearth of facilities in Gaza, then, Mr. Erdogan may just
have a fishing expedition in mind - or a bootlegging job. But the
extravagantly expensive use of warships to catch a lobster does not
appear to concern him: "We don't care if it costs $15 million or
$150 million. We will not allow anyone to walk all over our honor,"
Erdogan recently told reporters.
In fact, Erdogan's foreign minister rebuffed American attempts
to mediate by saying that "no one should test our resolve on this
matter." Test or testosterone, it increasingly appears as if Mr.
Erdogan will be rattling his fishing rods and sharpening his fishing
hooks until the inevitable showdown. He recently told adoring fans
from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood that the flotilla incident in itself
was cause for war. The fact that Ankara has refrained from exacting
revenge is because of a desire to preserve "Turkey's grandeur." But
even grandeur apparently has limits - since, as Erdogan helpfully
noted, Israel is acting like a "spoiled child."
So here we are - the grandeur of Turkey, which its humble prime
minister blushingly extols to an adoring crowd of Islamist misogynists,
pitted against Israel's spoiled childishness.
And all it would take, apparently, for Israel to avoid all the
reckoning that a spoiled child sooner or later gets is to lift the
blockade, pay compensation to the families of victims of the Israeli
raid on the flotilla and issue an apology that Turkey could not reject
- which, judging from Ankara's conciliatory language, cannot amount
to much more than an act of surrender and submission. Considering
that Israel has already agreed to pay compensation, that the Palmer
Report only calls for Israel to express regrets (which it has already
done ), and that the blockade is both a legal and effective method
of limiting the flow of arms into Gaza (per the Palmer Report ) -
what's surrender and submission, between us?
Speaking of apologies, Turkey ranks 138 in the 2010 Reporters without
Borders Freedom index for press freedom. How about releasing those
61 journalists that are still rotting in Turkey's jails? How about
apologizing to them? Or maybe their jail terms are the price one pays
for Turkey's grandeur (or Erdogan's, at least ).
No matter - that's the least Turkey should apologize for.
Turkey continues to practice state-sanctioned genocide denial and
prosecutes those who dare challenge it. Isn't it time, 90-something
years after the Ottoman Empire eliminated as many as 1.5 million
Armenians, that Mr. Erdogan's "mildly Islamist" party, as The Economist
leniently defines it, acknowledges Turkey's dark past and apologizes
on behalf of its country's crimes?
Not to belabor the point, but the list of things Turkey should
apologize for is long. It continues to illegally occupy Northern
Cyprus, the territory of a European Union member, after having
conquered the land through an act of aggression that ended in
ethnic cleansing and illegal settlements. No apology there so far -
in fact, Turkey has just threatened to freeze ties with the EU if
Cyprus receives the Union's rotating presidency next year, as it is
supposed to. Meanwhile, Mr. Erdogan is directing his gunboat diplomacy
threats at Cyprus as well - as if occupation, ethnic cleansing and
the creation of a fictitiously independent republic in the northern
part of the island were not enough.
Turkey also denies basic group rights to millions of its Kurdish
citizens, discriminating against them because of their linguistic
and ethnic differences. It violates the sovereignty of its neighbors
by conducting ruthless cross-border raids with impunity. It has not
made a name for itself in the human rights department when it comes
to its fight against PKK terrorists.
Moral of the story: If you behave like a bull, you should not live
in a china shop. And if you live in a glass house, think twice before
you throw stones at your neighbors. Mr. Erdogan wants an apology? How
about starting with one?
Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense
of Democracies and the author of the newly published "The Pasdaran:
Inside Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards' Corps" (FDD Press ).
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/speaking-of-apologies-1.389845
From: Baghdasarian