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Tue, Feb 3rd 2009, 16:46

Member deleted

I think the Turks have another point of view as the following Op-Ed at Todays Zaman reads:

Thesis of Mr. Bülent: " I should reassert once again to our Western friends that Turkey is moving nowhere but toward the West. Turkey and Turks are just acting with the awareness that they are human beings, and they expect their Western friends to adopt a stance in compliance with human dignity."


FYI
BÜLENT KENEŞ: Is Turkey alienated from the West?
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/yazarDetay.do;jsessionid=AC5AF3AC...


Israel massacred civilians with the entire world as a witness for 22 days. The toll was high: 1,350 people died and 6,000 people wounded.

Many of the dead and wounded were children, infants (about 430) and women. Israel did not just kill. It also devastated everything in Gaza, which it had already made unlivable through embargoes and land, marine and air blockades, so as to bury the Palestinians' hopes for the future.

Having used not only weapons of mass destruction -- the use of which is regarded as a war crime -- such as white phosphorous shells, but also the heaviest weapons in order to intimidate and terrorize the Palestinian people, the Israeli army destroyed Gaza's superstructure and infrastructure. Today, 1.5 million Gazans need billions of dollars to rebuild, but they are already in dire need of basic foodstuffs. For this reason, it is uncertain when Gaza can recover from this trauma as it lacks even the most basic economy to cover one-tenth of the funds needed for reconstruction.

With a similar arrogance, Israel opts to call what it did in Gaza "war." It puts all the blame on Hamas. And it is obvious that it also blames Gaza collectively for electing Hamas as their legitimate government. What Israel relies on is a cruel logic: If this nation supports Hamas, then they deserve to be massacred collectively, including women and children.

Having implemented state-sponsored terrorism in Sabra, Shatila, Cana, Lebanon and Ramallah in the past and in Gaza in the near past, Israel has an appetite that cannot be satisfied with violence, tyranny and bloodshed. It kills, burns and destroys, but it also shamelessly attempts to put the blame for its actions on other people. Unfortunately, international propaganda mechanisms are most easily triggered by Israel and Jewish lobbies. The world public opinion targeted by the propaganda can easily be turned into a poor dummy by Israel's dexterous fingers. In this way, Israel's incredible massacres are quickly removed from sight while those who protest these massacres are targeted.

This is the case with Turkey. It is true that the biggest reaction to the Gaza massacre has come from the Turkish nation and the Turkish government. But what should we make of the claim that Turkey is quickly becoming alienated from the West? We can understand how the Israeli state, which has been insolently capitalizing on the Holocaust victimization, had successfully cowed the Western world, whose share in this historic tyranny cannot be denied. But it is clear that it has failed to suppress Turkey and the Turkish nation, whose past contains no trace of anti-Semitism. It is for this reason that Turkey can express its reactions against the Israeli tyranny, injustice and ruthlessness with an easy conscience and a democratic self-confidence that we have not seen for some time in the international arena.

We know that this reaction will come at a price. We also know that Israel and Jews are adept at forcing people and countries to pay this price. Here is an example of how they do this: Turkey, which is currently the only country devising security and stability-oriented policies in the region, is being presented with incredible shamelessness and mendacity by Israeli and Jewish lobbies as a country that is "quickly alienating itself from the West." Just because Turkey does not turn a blind eye to the Israeli atrocities, they say Turkey has shown its place next to Syria and Iran.

It is very natural for Turkey to have good relations with Iran and Syria as it does with other neighboring countries. Isn't it a big reversal of the truth to reduce all foreign relations of a country that has always traveled toward the West to these two countries? Does this mean that an Israel that commits all sorts of tyranny, injustice, and inhuman violence is an untouchable state? Moreover, what is Israel's monopoly on giving countries the title of pro-Western or anti-Western? How can it assume that it is the self-styled giver or remover of this title? Can you see the logic? If you act by Israel's interests, then you are pro-Western, and if you criticize it, then you are anti-Western.

Israel's shamelessness does not stop here. In the end, it comes from a tradition that knows no limits in blackmailing. Israel first claimed that Turkey would lose the support of the Jewish lobby in the US if it does not stop criticizing Israel. It now voices the threat that Turkey will lose its mediation role. However, it is Israel that benefits most from Turkey's mediation or facilitating role. If Turkey had implied that it may quit acting as a mediator between Syria or Pakistan and Israel, this would have been a very meaningful threat for Israel. This argument that Turkey may lose its constructive role is nothing but a good example of how Israel and Israeli supporters may insolently reverse things. This fact does not change even if some in Turkey who have no share in the sentiments of their society have already been fooled by this reversal of realities.

I should reassert once again to our Western friends that Turkey is moving nowhere but toward the West. Turkey and Turks are just acting with the awareness that they are human beings, and they expect their Western friends to adopt a stance in compliance with human dignity.

Thu, Dec 3rd 2009, 23:25

Member deleted

Does not anybody realize in the Western World that it is a naive expectation to wait for bouqettes of roses or daisies from the Turkish people after passing one legislation after another even prohibiting to defend contrary views such that 1915 clashes between the Turks & the Armenians encouraged by invaders?

I am tempted to advise Western politicians to check with their archives carefully and seriously or at least confer with some serious historians before opportunistically diving head on into a swamp of manufactured lies. Every serious person knows, I suppose, that all parties involved suffered grave losses with the Turks being hurt the most.

I think this is just one of the clearly defined and well documented double standards practiced in the history of mankind…