[Alter Kaker]

And, AK, in an earlier post you called Turkey a pluralistic society....99.8% muslim and laws against even giving away bibles is pluralistic?

99.8% Muslim...fine what's the percentage of Christians in Italy? You can be nominally Muslim or nominally Catholic or nominally Jewish, but most Turks are essentially non-religious. Turkey's closest regional ally (aside from Azerbaijan, which is little more than a client state) is Israel, something you'd hardly expect from a bunch of drooling Islamist fanatics.

[wtc911]

what's the percentage of Christians in Italy?

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Utterly irrelevant to your calling turkey a pluralistic european nation. turkey is 99.8% muslim and it is against the law for more than four Christians to gather outside one of the very few government recognized churches.

And, Christianity is not at war with the world, islam is, in at least 22 countries.

And, Italy's mortality rate is 15% higher than its birth rate. The only growth it is seeing is in muslim immigration. turkey will not allow non-muslims to move there.

You should be honest. Your only reason for carrying turkey's water here is because of their current attitude toward your country.

[Major_Risktaker]

Good for Austria.

Turkey's closest regional ally (aside from Azerbaijan, which is little more than a client state) is Israel, something you'd hardly expect from a bunch of drooling Islamist fanatics.

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I say Islamic Turkey is not to be trusted. Turkey can show some good faith by returning St. Sophia to it's original builders but that will never happen.

Turkey as an ally to Israel will be over soon because of Islamic influence in a new Democratic Turkey.

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Turkey Club
Issue date 10.11.04

~Snip~

With all-out war raging in Turkey's Kurdish areas, Turkey needed high-tech weaponry, especially after many European nations halted arms sales to Ankara because of human rights abuses.

Indeed, Turkey purchased some $3 billion in military equipment from Israel during the '90s, and Israeli defense companies grew so entrenched in the Turkish procurement system that contracts were often awarded to them without competitive tenders.

~Snip~

For Israel, the consequences may be more severe. Besides losing one of the largest markets for its arms--and its best intelligence source in the Middle East--it faces deeper regional isolation, Israeli analysts say. Syria may be strengthened by its ties to Turkey and less willing to consider dealing with the Jewish state.

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What can I say but WHY? Profits....

Strange Bedfellows: China and Israel
By Eric S. Margolis 16 April 2000

Cohen demanded Israel cancel the US $1-2 billion sale of 3-5 AWACS airborne radar aircraft to China. Israel refused, though it may only sell China one of the Russian aircraft equipped with an Israeli `Phalcon' advanced radar/electronic warfare system, developed from the US `Hawkeye' AWACS system, at least until the heat subsides

Former CIA Director James Woolsey testified Israel has covertly sold `several billions' of dollars worth of top-secret US technology to China since 1983. The Inspector General of the US State Department found, in a 1992 report, a `systematic and growing pattern' of Israel selling American military technology in direct violation of US law. That report concluded Israel was supplying arms based on restricted American technology to China, Chile, Ethiopia, and South Africa, all of whom then under US arms embargo.