Over the past several months, the Turkish government has become increasingly antagonistic to the United States and its allies, most notably redoubling its embrace of Hamas, and threatening to use military force against both Israel and Cyprus. Turkey refuses to accept a universal definition of terrorism, and instead argues that terrorism perpetrated against the Jewish state is legitimate. Egemen Bağış, a minister and close aide to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has gone so far as to suggest that Al Qaeda is not Turkey’s concern.
Rather than let Erdoğan know that incitement, anti-American rhetoric, embrace of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and legitimization of terrorist groups has a cost, President Obama has instead decided to provide our most advanced military technology to Turkey. Late last week, the White House formally notified Congress of the Obama administration’s intention to supply Turkey with cutting edge military technology. Turkey says it wants Super Cobra Helicopters and Predators to fight Kurdish terrorists, but given Turkey’s threats to Israel and Cyprus, Congress must exercise its oversight.
If Turkey wants American weaponry to fight terrorism, Congress should demand Turkey first:
- Acknowledge that sympathy to a terrorist group’s cause does not legitimize its terrorism.
- State clearly that Hamas, Al Qaeda, and Hezbollah are terrorist groups
- Repair its relationship with Israel and Cyrpus and explain Minister Bağış’s threats to use Turkish weaponry against America’s Middle Eastern and European allies.
it's also an election year, rcaruth. but it'll be interesting to see what happens. n nthat aside, however: has Barack Obama ever met an enemy of the United States he didn't like? seems like the more antagonistic a country is, the more he wants to befriend them. I hope Obama uses all that free time he will have after January 2013 to do some thinking about this.
Can somebody explain what "Repair its relationship with Israel and Cyrpus" entails? nI can understand about Israel but to repair what with Cyprus? the militery occupation?
You must be kidding? This is the most uninformed writing to date i have read about Turkey. I guess you guys have never traveled to Turkey before. I was in Turkey just this summer, and I can I tell you Turkey is a staunch Nato member: Turkey has agreed to have Nato's defense shield on its land for all of Nato's security, and Iran and Russia are very upset with Turkey over this. Number two, Prime Minister Erdogan visited Egypt this past summer, and in his speech to the muslim brotherhood he said "secularism is the path to Democracy." To the dismay to the Muslim brotherhood he made it very clear that he does not embrace sharia law. Third, Turkey is a thriving economy with little debt, and had never defaulted on its loans from the IMF or anyone else. Fourth, Turkey has made it clear its very upset with the Assad regime in Syria and is urging Assad to step down. Also it has set up refugee camps along the boarder of Syria and Turkey. Lastly, in terms of its squabble with Israel, I don't blame Turkey for being upset with israel. for over twenty years Turkey and Israel held military exercises together, worked on joint military excursion, and when some Charity group sends a boat filed with medicines for old people, and school supplies for kids, Israel shoots and kills 9 Turkish charity members on International waters! Israel won't apologize nor pay reparations for the victims families? Give me a break! But they can do joint military exercises with Turkey , but can't trust the Turks, a Nato alley, to send in supplies? Couldn't they have stopped the ship and searched it without shooting? There were no guns on the boat! Israel needs to stop this shoot first and ask questions later policy. Especially with a Nato alley. So Turkey is upset, rightly so. Please stop picking on Turkey. nThe West is lucky to have Turkey on its side. As a gateway nation to the Asia and the MiddleEast Turkey is a thriving secular nation. So stop picking on Turkey.
Humor me some more Dave. The point of my comments are that Turkey does not support any acts of terrorism: By Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaida, plus the PKK. What's happening here is that Israel is becoming paranoid. More over, Israel has a shoot first and ask questions later policy. You can't do that and say you're a Democracy. Even American jews are tired of this extreme right wing government that caves in to all of the settlers demands at the expense of peace. n nYes, Dave the soldiers are invading the boat, on International waters, I might add. At that point I don't know what the people on the boat thought, but it looks like they might be defending themselves from the soldiers invading the boat. I don't see any guns except for sticks. Read the UN report Dave , because even the UN committee said that Israel used excessive force. Turkey and Israel were friends for many years, is this a way to treat friends? At this point, I think Israel will only have ONE friend, and that is the US, best of luck, it'll be a lonely neighborhood.