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Turkey Tag

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 the eastern Mediterranean and that Turkish warships could be there at...

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 of context. But other Turks apparently are getting ready for another type of war with Israel: Turkish hackers...

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...

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...

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 the vessels in the May 2010 Gaza flottila (organized by a Turkish Islamist group), and that the Israelis...

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...

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. Israel Matzav has a good...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

The Muslim Brotherhood has announced that it will not run a presidential candidate and will not seek a parliamentary majority in the coming elections.  This announcement is being hailed as a sign of moderation, but it is no such thing.The Muslim Brotherhood must know that...

...for thinking that the election of David Cameron in Britain might make a real difference in the direction of British policy.I was wrong. In a speech in Ankara, Turkey, Cameron did his best imitation of Barack Obama's apology tour:... let me turn to the prejudiced...

Remember Joe Biden's comment that hostile forces would test Obama in his first six months?Well, whatever tests have come before, the big test is about to take place, as Russia, Iran and Turkey are uniting to break American influence in the greater Middle East and...

Well I guess Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's repeated warning to Israel that "thou shall not kill" only applies to Israel:"I am speaking to them in their own language. The sixth commandment says 'thou shalt not kill'. Did you not understand?" Prime Minister Tayyip...

The "Freedom Flotilla" to Gaza, organized and financed by Turkey, purports to address the poor health conditions in Gaza.One critical measure of public health is infant mortality (children who die before reaching 1 year of age), because it reflects a wide range of underlying heath...