Turkey closes airspace to Israel, threatens to cut diplomatic ties over Gaza raid

FOX ^ | July 05, 2010

[nuconvert]

Turkey will sever diplomatic ties with Israel unless it apologizes over the commando raid on an aid convoy to Gaza in which nine Turks died, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted as saying Monday.

"Relations will be broken" unless Israel apologizes or accepts the conclusions of an international inquiry into the May 31 attack on the aid convoy bound for Gaza, he told Monday's edition of Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper.

Turkey has until now called for an international probe into the raid, but in a break with that position, Davutoglu did not reject the creation of Israel's own commission to investigate the raid.

"If this commission concludes that the raid was unjust and if they apologize, that will be sufficient," he said, although he insisted that Turkey wanted compensation from the Jewish state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any apology Friday, and a senior Israeli government official said Monday after Davutoglu's remarks that Israel would never say sorry for defending itself.

[oust the louse]

Good for Israel...if this were our moron in the White House we would have a fund for everyone in that raid of a couple million apiece and we would have bowed to every foreign country and apologized for whoever asked for an apology....

[tlb]

This might be precisely what it at face value seems to be. Another possibility though does occur to me.

This might be the Turks setting up for themselves an alibi for the benefit of the rest of the Arab world. If the Israelis indeed are expected to move a force through Turk airspace to third party airbases, such as Georgia and from there to strike Iran, the Turks would want to be able to claim they had tried to stop it. So the question is whether this is an actual embargo, or an embargo with a wink.

[Mere Survival]

Turkey will sever diplomatic ties with Israel unless it apologizes over the commando raid on an aid convoy to Gaza in which nine Turks died, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted as saying Monday.

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Could have been shortened to: “Turkey will sever diplomatic ties with Israel.”

World doesn’t have enough problems right now? Surely Turkey has been affected by the world economy. If they think a nice war will create jobs, my bet is Israels destructive ability is greater than Turkey’s productive ability. So maybe the Turkish politicians are just saber rattling to get their public behind them.

[Mere Survival]

Devious mind, hope you are right.

[G Larry]

Bibi should respond:

“Turkey owes Israel an apology for sponsoring this attempt to arm our enemies and undermine our sovereignty!”

[AndyJackson]

the Turks setting up for themselves an alibi for the benefit of the rest of the Arab world

I have no idea what is going on in this crazy world of ours anymore, and it is very sad to watch a good ally slip into the swamp of the middle east. But, one thing I do know, is that Turks are not Arabs, and do not have a lot of use for Arabs.

[grey_whiskers]

Hmmm, see also this story: Turkish Rally for Flotilla Raises Flag with Nazi Symbol"

Cheers!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Nor do Turks have any love for Persians.

[left that other site]

Bibi should respond:
“Turkey owes Israel an apology for sponsoring this attempt to arm our enemies and undermine our sovereignty!”

Beautifully worded! Thanks, Larry!

[HearMe]

Anyone who thinks this is some sort of subterfuge, you are sadly mistaken.

Turks may not like Arabs and Arabs may not like Persians and Arabs kill each other at the drop of a perceived slight, and they might all hate each other, but this is proof of a greater truth.

In the last four decades the Arabs have done the most masterful job of propaganda the World has ever seen. They have made the Arab/Islamic war against Israel, into the Israeli- Palestinian war, where it’s perceived as powerful Israel against the pitiful Palestinians.

Reality is that it is the entire billion in numbers and rich Islamic World against Israel. Where Islamics took power in Turkey, they have joined the fight.

All these people may hate each other, but they hate Jews/Israel more.

No Mr. Obama, this is not about Jews building some homes in Jerusalem. And except for disappointing from the Earth, no Israel concession will bring peace.

[HearMe]

disappointing= disappearing

[mike-zed]

Turkey’s brief experiment with a western secular democratic state is over. They are returning to the natural autocratic existence of the followers of the pedophile prophet.

[humantech]

Don’t fear for Israel.
God has a plan and every single thing happening right now in our lifetimes, in front of our eyes, has been foretold.
The whole world will be against Israel and will attack her.
This is truth.
God will deliver her to glorify himself and bring more people to salvation before the end.
Be of good cheer. This isn’t news. Its part of the true “ roadmap to peace in the middle east” that God laid out before the beginning of time.

[eleni121]

Where Islamics took power in Turkey, they have joined the fight

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It's not about when Turks have become “islamic” - Turks by definition and by their actions in the last 700 years are Islamics except for the very few who have converted to Christianity.

[JPG]

With all of the winking going on in the ME and the Arab world it’s almost off the Wink Per Minute (WPM) scale. Turkey will do anything to avoid Thanksgiving.

[SunkenCiv]

• (FM Avigdor)Lieberman off to Baltics -- While Defense Minister Ehud Barak held high level diplomatic talks in Washington two weeks ago, and Industry, Labor and Trade Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer was sent to meet Turkey's foreign minister last week, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman left on Sunday for a fiveday trip to Latvia, Finland and Lithuania. The trip came just two days after Lieberman met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for 90 minutes to resolve a mini-crisis that erupted when it was reported that Netanyahu bypassed Lieberman and the Foreign Ministry, and sent Ben-Eliezer to talk to Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Brussels to try and halt the deterioration in ties following the May 31 Gaza flotilla episode.

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• Muslims asked to vacation in Turkey after Israeli boycott -- Muslims are being encouraged to vacation in Turkey this summer to offset the estimated $ 400 million loss caused by Israelis boycotting the country as relations between the countries deteriorate.

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• Weather Clears for a US Strike on Iran -- War drums are beating in the Middle East. In a short time, the United States has increased the number of its carrier strike groups opposite Iran to three, and reports are raining down of a tightening ring of American and Israeli concentrations all around the Islamic Republic. On the diplomatic front, the Israelis are unusually concerned about their international image (for example, making concessions in Gaza) while their top officials -- including Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself -- are shuttling between Jerusalem and Washington. Everybody in the region is restless. Turkey is making spectacular diplomatic pirouettes. Egypt is quietly seething, and Saudi Arabia less quietly so. Jordan's king had ruefully predicted war if no peace was achieved by the summer [1], and summer has now come. Syria and Lebanon are positioning themselves to weather the coming storm [2]. Yemen is in disarray. Russia, China, India, and a host of other powers are vying to make the best of the fracas. The Iranian regime itself appears to be digging in for a fight.

[SunkenCiv]

Gosh, it’s almost as if Islamofascists supported the Axis powers in WWII, or as if Turkey was allied with the Central Powers in WWI...

[SunkenCiv]

Good point! Thanks tlb.

[thethirddegree]

Don’t fear for Israel. God has a plan and every single thing happening right now in our lifetimes, in front of our eyes, has been foretold. The whole world will be against Israel and will attack her. This is truth. God will deliver her to glorify himself and bring more people to salvation before the end. Be of good cheer. This isn’t news. Its part of the true “ roadmap to peace in the middle east” that God laid out before the beginning of time.

Yep. I can't wait to see God CRUSH all of Israel's enemies.