Turkey's naval forces would escort Turkish humanitarian aid ships bound for the Gaza Strip, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister has said, following Israel's refusal to apologise for its deadly raid on an aid flotilla heading to the besieged Palestinian territory in May 2010.
"We have humanitarian aid to be sent there. And our humanitarian aid will not be attacked anymore, as happened to the Mavi Marmara," he told the Al Jazeera on Thursday.
"Turkish warships will be tasked with protecting the Turkish boats bringing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip."
...
Too many people with fingers-on-triggers in too small a space under high stress. In that tense environment, the margin for error is very small. I hope level heads will be in command on both sides and it goes off without incident.
4 comments:
Ouch. Note that Turkey's PM is from an Islamist party so thus must make these sort of noises for domestic political purposes, but when the domestic runs into the hard wall of bullets, that's pushing a bridge too far.
One question is whether Turkey's military would follow an order that basically would put them into direct conflict with Israel. Barry might have feared a coup, but coups actually do happen in Turkey. Ataturk set up the military as the final line of defense of Turkish democracy, and given the danger to Turkish democracy if the Islamists push Turkey into a shooting war with Israel, they might decide that enough is enough.
- Badtux the Wincing Penguin
-there's a bit of that about:
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/gilad-atzmon-egyptians-stormed-israeli-embassy-other-nations.html#entry12797588
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/shahram-vahdany-king-of-the-jews.html
more:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/09/09/obama-clinton-intervene-to-protect-israeli-diplomatic-interests-during-egyptian-riots/
wow!
http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/09/israeli-band-a-hit-in-turkey-now-heads-for-egypt-with-video.html
Israeli band, a hit in Turkey, now heads for Egypt
September 12, 2011 By Norman Lebrecht
Forget the politics, the music plays on.
A ‘Jewish-Moslem metal band’ from Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv has built a huge fan base for its gigs in Turkey.
Next stop Egypt, they tell Reuters.
The band is called Orphaned Land. Here’s how they look -
http://orphaned-land.com/images/media/OrphanedLand_2010_3_thumb.jpg
- and here’s how they sound:
http://www.youtube.com/user/OrphanedLandTV#p/a/u/1/JlZlkq37S8c
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