Turkey  (Page 1)

More tick tock in Syria

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Posted by    Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 5:09pm

Like I said Friday, the fuse has been lit.  I think it’s too late for Assad to put it out without a major blow up.

Now the Arab League, in an unprecedented move, has imposed economic sanctions on Syria, including travel bans on senior officials and other measures which will make it...

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More Turkish threats

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Posted by    Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 9:24am

It’s all about the natural gas and Erdogan’s ego:

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan described offshore gas drilling by estranged ally Israel and Cyprus as “madness” on Wednesday, raising the stakes in a confrontation over potentially huge deposits in the eastern Mediterranean….

“The Greek Cypriot administration and Israel are engaging in oil  exploration...

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Dangerous Turkey

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Posted by    Friday, September 16, 2011 at 10:45am

Turkish Prime Minsister Erdogan’s agitation show no signs of letting up.

He’s back to threats of military confrontation with Israel:

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday Israel could not do whatever it wanted in...

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Turkish cyberwar on Israel

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Posted by    Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 3:34pm

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having threated to have warships escort ships seeking to break the Gaza blockade, has walked back those comments, claiming he was taken out...

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The Arab Spring bubble has burst “unexpectedly”

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Posted by    Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 11:34am

What is going on in Egypt was all foreseeable to those of us who did not harbor the romantic view of the Arab Spring, which in many places was just a venting of anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel which had been suppressed by dictatorial rulers.  Just ask Lara Logan, who was sexually abused in...

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PM Erdogan: Turkish warships to help break Gaza blockade

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Posted by    Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 3:46pm

I wasn’t sure Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan really would follow through on threats of a military confrontation with Israel over the Gaza blockade, but the recent U.N. panel decision upholding the legality of the blockade over Turkish protests seems to have sent Erdogan off the rails.

Turkey just announced that...

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Turkey can’t handle the truth

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Posted by    Friday, September 2, 2011 at 8:07am

I posted yesterday about a U.N. report finding that Israel’s sea blockade of Gaza is legal under international law, that Israel had a right to board and search...

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U.N. Report says Gaza blockade legal and Israel faced “organized and violent resistance” by flotilla

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Posted by    Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 2:56pm

I have posted about this U.N. report before, and Turkey’s attempts to prevent its release or at least modify the findings.

Considering that this is a U.N. report, and the U.N. almost never is fair to Israel, the findings are astounding.  As reported by The NY Times:

A United Nations review has found...

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Turkey slide

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Posted by    Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 8:00am

Among the stories I neglected because of the focus on the debt ceiling debate is the continuing slide of Turkey, once a secular pro-Western country which also maintained good relations with Israel.

As I have noted since January 2009, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been slowly destroying Turkey’s secular foundation,...

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Gaza Flotilla of Fools (open thread)

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Posted by    Monday, June 27, 2011 at 9:35am

I’ll be updating links and reports about the Gaza Flotilla 2 throughout the day, although if someone just happened to fall off one of the ships, maybe I’ll do a separate post.  Feel free to add in links in the comments.

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Anti-Israel Activists to Converge On Israel Soon

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Posted by    Friday, June 3, 2011 at 4:44pm

Although the precise date is not clear, calls have gone out for anti-Israel activists to converge on Israel on or about June 8, in anticipation of a large flotilla of ships trying to break the military sea blockade of Gaza later in June, and additional attempts to crash through Israel’s borders.

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Maybe Israel Should Now Recognize The Basque State

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Posted by    Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 7:00am

And the Kurdish State.
 
Via Israel Matzav, Spain to recognize ‘Palestine’ on the ’1967 lines’

The Palestinian Authority announced on Thursday that Spain has decided to recognize a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines before September. A spanish diplomat told Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath that Spain would support making the state...

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Turkey Threatens Israel Over June Flotilla

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Posted by    Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 1:32pm

Turkey is threatening unspecified intervention if Israel again uses military action to prevent a flotilla, organized in part by Turkish Islamist groups, from reaching Gaza.  Via AFP:

Turkey on Saturday warned Israel against another act of bloodshed in international waters after activists announced plans to send a new aid flotilla to the blockaded...
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How International Humanitarian Law Is Made (Warning – Sausage Alert)

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Posted by    Monday, May 16, 2011 at 12:41pm

Actually, I’d rather watch sausage being made.

International humanitarian law, while it sounds nice, often is nothing more than power politics.  Witness Turkey’s attempt to manipulate and influence a draft U.N. report on last summer’s Gaza flotilla, sponsored in substantial part by Turkish Islamist organizations:

The first draft of the panel’s report, which...
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Why The Gaza Naval Inspection Blockade Must Be Maintained

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Posted by    Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 8:24am

During the so-called Gaza flotilla last summer, I pointed out that the main goal was to bust the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, in which ship heading for Gaza would be inspected for weapons, to open up sea lanes for shipping large quantities of weapons to Gaza.

There is a long history...

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