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Turkey: Wrong Partner to Fight Terror
Gatestone Institute ^ | 11/28/15 | Burak Bekdil

Posted on 11/28/2015 2:42:33 AM PST by markomalley

Racism is bad, no doubt. But it cannot be the reason why jihadists kill "infidels," including fellow Muslims in Muslim lands. Sadly, the free world feels compelled to partner with the wrong country in its fight against Islamic terror.

The host of this year's G-20 summit, which came right after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, was Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In his usual Sunni supremacist language, he accused the victims of jihad rather than the jihadists. "New tragedies will be inevitable," he said, "if the rising racism in Europe and other countries is not stopped. Racism, coupled with enmity against Islam, is the greatest disaster, the greatest threat."

Yet Erdogan willingly ignores the rising racism, xenophobia, and anti-western, jihadist sentiments that increasingly command the hearts and minds of his fellow Turks. A quick look at a few sports games and fan behavior in recent weeks would reveal much about the Turkish mind and heart.

On October 13, three days after a twin suicide bomb attack in Turkey's capital, Ankara, killed more than 100 Kurds and pro-Kurdish, leftist and secular Turks, the central Anatolian province of Konya, a hotbed of political Islam in Turkey, hosted a Euro 2016 football qualifier between Turkey and Iceland. Before the kick-off, both teams stood for a moment of silence to protest the bomb attack -- a typical gesture to respect the victims. Sadly, the moment of silence was marred by whistles and jeers: apparently the football fans of Konya were protesting the victims, not their jihadist killers.

Anyone under the impression that the whole world stands in solidarity with Paris should think again. Hundreds of Turkish fans booed and chanted "Allahu Akbar" ("Allah is greater" in Arabic) during a moment of silence for the Paris attack victims before a Turkey-Greece soccer friendly. Once again, the Turks were exhibiting solidarity with the terrorists, not their "infidel" victims.

More recently, on Nov. 21, Turkish police had to deploy 1,500 policemen so that Turkish fans could not harm the visiting Israeli women's national basketball team. One thousand five hundred police officers at a women's basketball game! Despite that, Turkish fans threw objects at Israeli players as they were singing Israel's national anthem. Fans also booed the Israeli players while others applauded the fans who threw the objects.

Unsurprisingly, Turkish fans waved Palestinian flags. Israeli women basketball players were barred from leaving their hotel other than for training and the game.

None of that is surprising although, at least in theory, Turkey is a candidate state for membership in the European Union. A new study by Pew Research Center revealed that 8% of Turks have a favorable opinion of the Islamic State (IS), higher than in the Palestinian territories, where support for IS stands at 6%, and only one point lower than in Pakistan. Nineteen percent of Turks "do not know" if they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of IS -- which means 27% of Turks do not have an unfavorable opinion of the jihadist killing machine. That makes more than 21 million people! Of the countries polled, Lebanon boasted a 100% unfavourable opinion of IS and Jordan, 94%. In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, 4% reported a favourable opinion of IS, half of Turkey's.

This is Erdogan's "neo-Ottoman" and increasingly Islamist Turkey. After the Paris attacks, this author saw tweets that called the victims "animal carcass;" that said "now the infidels will lose their sleep out of fear;" and others that congratulated the terrorists "who shouted Allah-u aqbar."

Meanwhile, and so funny, the free world cannot see that its ally to fight the jihadists is another jihadist. How should Erdogan fight Islamic terror – something he does not believe exists? One of Erdogan's famous remarks is, "there is no Islamic terror." But he thinks that "just like fascism," Zionism is a crime against humanity.

There is a Turkish saying that could perhaps describe the free world's alliance with Erdogan's Turkey against jihadist terror: "Kuzuyu kurda emanet etmek" ("to trust the wolf with the sheep").



TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: erdogan; kurdistan; receptayyiperdogan; turkey

1 posted on 11/28/2015 2:42:33 AM PST by markomalley
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To: markomalley

Obama don’t believe islamic terror exist either, while supporting jihadist


2 posted on 11/28/2015 3:17:40 AM PST by 4rcane
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To: 4rcane

The fight is not against “terror.” It is against Islam, or it would be if we were acting rationally. Because our CinC is a Sunni Moslem “our” fight is against Jews and Shias and Christians. Yes, Shiites. Hussein is pushing Iran to get nuclear weapons in the expectation that Iran will then launch against Israel thus destroying both. Russia is complicating things.


3 posted on 11/28/2015 3:51:44 AM PST by arthurus (Het is waar. Tutti i liberali sono feccia.)
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To: arthurus

Russian trust with Iran is the same as US trust in Turkey and Saudi Arabai. Foolish


4 posted on 11/28/2015 4:23:23 AM PST by 4rcane
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To: markomalley

“A short-term border violation can never be a pretext for an attack” - Turkey’s Erdogan in 2012

http://sputniknews.com/military/20151125/1030698044/erdogan-airspace-violation-contradiction.html#ixzz3sXKS3OZN


5 posted on 11/28/2015 4:43:11 AM PST by McGruff (Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it)
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6 posted on 11/28/2015 4:44:09 AM PST by McGruff (Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it)
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To: markomalley

ISIS is Turkey


7 posted on 11/28/2015 5:46:07 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (islam is a totalitarian death cult founded by a child rapist.)
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To: 4rcane

Islam is not a race. See tagline.


8 posted on 11/28/2015 5:46:59 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (islam is a totalitarian death cult founded by a child rapist.)
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To: 4rcane

It’s errorism to call jihad terriotism.


9 posted on 11/28/2015 5:58:05 AM PST by Paladin2 (my non-desktop devices are no longer allowed to try to fix speling and punctuation, nor my gran-mah.)
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To: 4rcane

It’s errorism to call jihad terrorism.


10 posted on 11/28/2015 5:59:54 AM PST by Paladin2 (my non-desktop devices are no longer allowed to try to fix speling and punctuation, nor my gran-mah.)
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To: markomalley
Interesting headlines today:

Prominent lawyer shot dead in Turkey

Russian MP and her husband killed in car explosion

Russian MP Vladimir Zhirinovsky Suggests Destroying Istanbul With A Nuclear Strike

11 posted on 11/28/2015 6:04:25 AM PST by arthurus (Het is waar. Tutti i liberali sono feccia.)
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To: markomalley

If all of you infidels would just submit, convert or die there wouldn’t be any need for the jihad..../s

Islam has been at war with everyone else since 622 A.D.

It must remain so until there is only Islam.
It’s in their book.
Mad Mo made it so.


12 posted on 11/28/2015 7:45:31 AM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: markomalley
Turkey: Wrong Partner to Fight Terror

Of COURSE!!!

This whole nation just attacked turkeys two days ago!

13 posted on 11/28/2015 8:47:25 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

But should we attack the Turkeys who live in Turkey?


14 posted on 11/29/2015 5:54:27 AM PST by RipSawyer (Racism is racism, regardless of the race of the racist.)
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To: RipSawyer

No.


15 posted on 11/29/2015 2:47:57 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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