Evelyn Gordon wrote yesterday about the strange silence of the Western media on the threats made by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to attack Israel. It was no misspeak; later that the day, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—whom President Barack Obama has called one of his top foreign friends—essentially repeated the warning.
Turkey’s hypocrisy is growing. Over the past decade, Israel struck Syria unilaterally on three occasions:
- On October 5, 2003, Israeli jets attacked Ain es Saheb, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad training camp about 15 miles northwest of Damascus. The airstrike followed a suicide bombing in Haifa the previous day. Palestinian Islamic Jihad, of course, is an unrepentant terrorist group founded by Iran.
- On September 6, 2007, Israel bombed Syria’s nuclear weapons plant. Elliott Abrams has a must-read article on the episode in this month’s COMMENTARY.
- And, of course, last week Israel struck at Syrian missiles being transferred to Hezbollah and perhaps also a Syrian chemical and biological weapons laboratory.
Erdoğan calls this “state terrorism.” Of course, over the same period, the Turkish Air Force has bombed sovereign Iraqi territory on a couple dozen occasions, often striking not Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) activists, but villagers and children. In one of the most egregious examples, on December 28, 2011, Turkish warplanes attacked a number of Kurds, killing 34 civilians including women and children. No PKK members were killed or even apparently present. There has been no accountability for what Kurds call the “Roboski massacre.”
The hypocrisy continues. Speaking at a press conference in Prague yesterday, Erdoğan, one of the strongest supporters of Hamas, castigated the European Union: “We need to have a common struggle against terror. The European Union needs to distance itself from terrorist organizations,” he told assembled press. Perhaps Erdoğan could start by ceasing Turkish support and subsidy for Hamas and Sunni extremist terror groups inside Syria and Iraq. It is impossible to call Hamas legitimate while simultaneously expecting condemnation of the PKK.
Rather than become a force for stability in the region and a beacon of democracy, Turkey has become a chief impediment to the fight against terrorism. It is time the White House, State Department, and Congressional Turkey Caucus wake up to reality.
For that matter, Turkey can hardly complain about the occupation with a straight face, considering its occupation of northern Cyprus and the destruction of Greek Orthodox shrines and churches there.
Turkey’s Terror Hypocrisy! Are you kidding? Quit Pot Mike! nHow the hell US Embassy which’s in Kurds custody bombed at daylight. George Bush 'the kid' and his duo obedient Hoe Nu2721ggas Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice cut Arabs flesh and fed it Stateless Kurds for protection. Idiots never learn. It’s interesting that still Americans believe that Armstrong landed Apollo 7 on the moon not in area 51 in Mojave Desert to Piss off Russians who’re 20 years ahead from NASA in space. n
This lying idiot should be removed from the comments section – and the planet if possible.
Pity him. That incoherent outpouring is almost certainly an expression of serious mental illness.
wait wait "Armstrong landed Apollo 7 … in area 51 in Mojave Desert to PIss off Russian who're 20 years ahead from NASA in space." n nas if there's a moon! Ha ha. It's a CIA holographic projection. Truman Show man. It's all true. report to the director.
"According to the Turkish daily Hurriyet, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu lambasted Israel’s reported airstrike on an arms convoy inside Syria and warned that 'Turkey would not stay unresponsive to an Israeli attack against any Muslim country.'" n nNot permissible for Israel to attack any Muslim country no matter the provocation, but how does Davutoglu feel about an attack by one Muslim country against another, as happened last June when Syria shot down a Turkish F-4 and Turkey retaliated with artillery rounds?
"No problem. At least it wasn't those filthy Jews who shot down our plane." n n- A. Davotoglu
Thanks for noting the Turkish violations of Iraqi sovereignty, and deaths of civilians. n nProbably just a coincidence that one of today's iterations on Netanyahu's coalition building is that Avigdor Liberman (new spelling?) might become Israel's next Ambassador to the United Nations. The biassed western media would never give credit to Liberman's successes as Foreign Minister, bolstering Israel's relations with several of Turkey's historical targets, like Bulgaria.
Why listen to them at all? The louder they whine and scream and stamp their feet the less relevant they become.
You think that Turkey is becoming less relevant? Unfortunately, that is very much not so.