Erdogan: Turkish warships will escort aid vessels to Gaza

Middle East • September 2011 • Views: 980

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.

(The rest of the article goes on in that slanted vein.)

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10 comments

Flavia Sep 8, 2011 2:31:12pm

What exactly is he set to gain for deliberately provoking a war?

Bob Levin Sep 8, 2011 2:32:01pm

re: #1 Flavia

Did you feel it, the ESP?

Velvet Elvis Sep 8, 2011 2:43:14pm

So, do we want Turkey in NATO or not?

Bob Levin Sep 8, 2011 2:46:30pm

re: #3 Conservative Moonbat

At the moment, we want them controlled, and not by Israel.

Mad Prophet Ludwig Sep 8, 2011 2:51:35pm

This has the capacity to blow up in a dozen bad directions

Obama will pull a “we’re neutral.”

Bob Levin Sep 8, 2011 3:19:02pm

re: #5 LudwigVanQuixote

This has the capacity to blow up in a dozen bad directions.

You have that right. I don’t think there’s any doubt that the public statements will be along the neutrality lines, by any means possible—such as the famous ploy of making a statement supporting Israel while arresting someone for spying for Israel.

Behind the scenes, the State Department has its own problems, which is the inability to look at the facts and come up with a new interpretation. So, despite all of the recent upheaval in the Middle East, they most likely still have the same views of the situation that they had in the 1980s. And this means that there is a good chance that they will do too little too late.

The other reason for their inactivity, if this comes to pass, is that it’s not clear what to do. Even before all of this tension regarding Israel boils over, Turkey is moving swiftly into the nations that have just experienced political turmoil. In a blink Turkey could have Libya, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia as allies, with Jordan and the Saudis feeling great pressure to join with them. Oddly, Iran might be on the outside looking in.

So, in State Department Think, if Iran is definitely our enemy, and Turkey is at odds with Iran…you get group-brainfreeze. On the other hand, someone has to develop that natural gas.

It just gets worse the more you think about it.

Flavia Sep 8, 2011 4:35:36pm

re: #2 Bob Levin

Did you feel it, the ESP?

I figure we were separated at birth or something :-) (Except that your summary of the situation far outpaces mine).

Bob Levin Sep 8, 2011 5:02:30pm

re: #7 Flavia

You’ve always been nicer than me, Sis. ;-)

funky chicken Sep 8, 2011 5:02:48pm

re: #3 Conservative Moonbat

So, do we want Turkey in NATO or not?

NO—they aren’t reliable allies, especially with Erdogan in charge.

BishopX Sep 9, 2011 2:21:14pm

re: #9 funky chicken

However, we really, really want to base our new anti-missile systems in Turkey. No matter how bad Turkey is, we need them to contain Iran, which is considerably worse.

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