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Hayasa
07-19-2014, 05:43 PM
http://news.az/articles/region/90442

Turkey has excoriated Israel over its continued attacks on Gaza, declaring the country to be a grave threat to peace in the world.
Turkish leaders have strongly condemned an Israeli ground operation into Gaza that has killed scores of civilians, declaring the Israeli administration a “threat to international peace", Hurriyet Daily reports.

While President Abdullah Gül warned Israel that its military actions could have dangerous repercussions in the region, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused Israel of committing “genocide” against the Palestinians. Gül and Erdoğan met with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the developments in the wake of Israeli aggression.

"Particularly, this noncompliant aggression of Israel is spreading the seeds of hate throughout the whole world, not just in Palestine," Gül said July 16, "Israeli attacks have come to a very dangerous phase. I want to warn Israel once more. If they do not stop, the outcome will be massive."

Gül has urged Israel to end its military operations in the Gaza Strip, warning against “massive consequences,” and called on the U.N. Security Council to make a “cogent decision to end the Israeli offensive.”

Erdoğan’s reaction against Israel was much blunter. Talking to reporters following Friday prayers in Istanbul, Erdoğan accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people and terrorizing the region.

“Israel is a country threatening the world’s peace. It’s a country that threatens the Middle East peace. [Israel] has never pretended to be pro-peace. It has always tormented [the Palestinian people], and today it is continuing to do so,” Erdoğan said, stressing that good relations with Israel were impossible under the current circumstances.

“The government and I will never look positively [at Israel] as long as we are in power … [Israel] may seem like the winner for now. But it will eventually be defeated,” Erdoğan added.

He also blamed the United States, Russia and other world powers for being passive in condemning Israel’s actions.

“They want to progress [but they only] express their concerns [over the situation]. It’s impossible to get somewhere by only expressing concerns,” the prime minister said, adding the United Nations was undergoing a test over its role as the world’s “peacekeeper.”

Hayasa
07-19-2014, 05:44 PM
‘Israel knows best how to kill children’

Erdoğan also underlined that the attacks by Israel were not related to the death of the three Israeli children whose bodies were found in June. “These are all lies. Israel is the country that best knows how to kill children. I said it before at the Davos Summit. They shot children on the beach at that time. Now they are killing children on the beaches with bombs.”,

Both Gül and Erdoğan refuted claims made by Israel and Egypt that Turkey prevented a truce between Hamas and Israel with Gül calling these assertions “ridiculous and remorseless.” Erdoğan also criticized the Egyptian leadership, saying, “[President Abdel Fattah] el-Sisi is himself cruel.”

Abbas in Istanbul

Both Gül and Erdoğan held talks with Abbas, who paid a short visit to Turkey on July 18. Abbas informed the Turkish leaders about the developments in Gaza and exchanged views about how a cease-fire could be reached. Abbas said Israel’s objective was to try to nix the efforts of Hamas and Fatah to form unity in Palestine. “We count Turkey as our fundamental partner in our Palestine cause,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ankara called on the U.N. Security Council, Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and U.N. Commission on Human Rights to stage an emergency meeting over Israel’s ground offensive on Gaza, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said.

“We vehemently condemn the ground operation launched by Israel on Gaza last night following its inhuman murders by air strikes,” Davutoğlu announced on his Twitter account early July 18.
“Humanity’s conscience is being tested once again with the Palestinian issue,” he added.

During a phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry late July 17, Davutoğlu said he explained to Kerry the “indignation in Turkey and the Islamic world over Gaza.”

“We exchanged views with the aim to immediately reach a lasting cease-fire that can be accepted by Palestinians,” he said.

“I expressed our demand for the immediate halt of Israeli attacks,” the minister said. Davutoğlu also talked with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid al-Attiyah and OIC Secretary General Iyad Madani late July 17. Turkey’s discussions with Hamas and Fatah officials are also continuing, Davutoğlu said.

In a separate statement, the minister said Turkey conveyed an official proposal to open U.N. Security Council extraordinary meeting.

A joint communiqué issued by the Human Rights Investigation Panel of the Parliament also condemned Israel, claiming that Israel’s main target was to eradicate all of Palestine. “We have lost our hopes with governments and international organizations. We call all people of conscience of the world to show their democratic and humane reactions,” the communiqué read.

Hayasa
07-19-2014, 05:45 PM
Turkish PM slams ‘silence’ of Muslim states on Gaza
http://news.az/articles/region/90392

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused Israel of attempting a “systematic genocide” of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“We have been witnessing this systematic genocide every Ramadan since 1948. The world remains silent because those who lost their lives are Palestinian,” Erdoğan told a meeting of Islamic scholars in Istanbul to mark Ramadan.

“Do you hear the voice of the United Nations? They are doing something only for a show. Is there executive action? No. Why was the United Nations established? For world peace. Does it make a contribution to world peace? What does it stand for? It serves only their secret purpose,” Erdoğan said, a day after slamming the world body over its inaction to Israeli strikes.

In the last few years, particularly since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, Erdoğan has grown increasingly vocal in his criticism of the U.N. for its failure to reach an agreement on how to respond to the bloody conflict in Turkey’s neighboring country. Both Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu have fiercely argued in favor of reform at the U.N. Security Council, which they describe as an unequal and unfair system that fails to reflect the will of most countries.

Still, having held one of the non-permanent seats of the council, the “Western European and Others” seat, in 2009-2010, Turkey is currently exerting intense efforts for the 2015-2016 period. An election on the matter will be held in October.

The prime minister also lashed out at the Islamic world. “When the West remains silent, the Islamic world watches too,” he said, calling on all sides to be moderate on Palestine. “We demand an immediate stop to the bloodshed . . . We are very much aware the Middle East deserves peace, prosperity, and solidarity,” he said.

“What happens in Palestine is not Shiite vs. Sunnis; that is why the Islamic world keeps silent. Our children and brothers are dying in Palestine. Humanity has been destroyed there, as well as the honor of Muslims,” he told the audience at Dolmabahçe Palace.

“Some Islamic countries are content with what is happening in Palestine today. If that is not the case, they will find themselves involved in the matter,” he said.

Hayalet
07-19-2014, 05:45 PM
Why is this in Armenia subforum?

Hayasa
07-19-2014, 05:50 PM
Turkey Concerned About Election Of Israel's New Pro-Armenian President
http://armenpress.am/eng/news/765352/turkey-concerned-about-election-of-israels-new-pro-armenian-president.html
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Hayasa
07-19-2014, 05:56 PM
TURKISH-ISRAELI RELATIONS
http://www.meforum.org/569/turkey-israel-speed-bumps

In the 1990s, the world witnessed the forging of a unique entente between Turkey, a predominantly Muslim secular democracy, and the Jewish state of Israel. A range of shared interests brought the two states into alignment, reinforced by joint military exercises, intelligence sharing, and high-level diplomatic visits. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, one of the Turkish architects of the relationship, former deputy chief of staff Çevik Bir, listed the advantages to Turkey and Israel in fields ranging from deterrence to diplomacy. He urged the United States to invest still more in the relationship, which could "develop as the pillar of a wider security architecture for the Middle East, with the objective of keeping theocratic extremism and martial despotism in check."[1]

But in the spring of 2003, when the United States moved to eliminate Saddam Hussein, Israel and Turkey stood on opposite sides of the debate over the war. Turkish public opinion ran strongly against the war, and Ankara's new Islamist-oriented government denied U.S. forces access to Turkish territory. In contrast, Israeli public opinion strongly supported the removal of Saddam by force, and the Israeli government coordinated its wartime moves closely with Washington.

In the immediate aftermath of Saddam's fall, Ankara and Jerusalem sought to reaffirm their commitment to their relationship despite this sharp divergence. Israeli president Moshe Katsav, during a July 2003 visit to Ankara, was feted in a burst of publicity. The Turkish foreign ministry was also quick to invite and receive Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom. But this could not obscure the question marks left by the fact that Turkey and Israel had been poles apart over a key strategic issue in the Middle East.

Mutual interests have driven the entente between Turkey and Israel. Nevertheless, the interests of the two countries are not identical, and in a number of areas they diverge. There has been a tendency on both sides to ignore these divergences, perhaps out of a sense of enthusiasm for the entente's potential. But as the United States discovered in the spring, a failure to appreciate differing interests can lead to unanticipated disagreements down the road. All of Turkey's bilateral relationships deserve more critical scrutiny than before, perhaps none more so than Turkey's relations with Israel.

In this article, the indisputable strengths of the Turkish-Israeli relationship are taken for granted. Turkey and Israel are democracies; they have a shared interest in regional stability; and they are oriented toward the West. They are the most economically productive and militarily powerful states in the Middle East. The political, economic, and strategic compatibilities between the two states make them natural partners in an unpredictable region. The strengths of the entente have been analyzed in numerous official statements, press articles, and academic studies.[2]

This essay is an attempt to enumerate some of its weaknesses. The U.S.-Turkish relationship struck a mine in the spring; likewise, there are a number of potential mines on the path ahead of Turkey and Israel. These include, in descending order of importance, political Islam in Turkey; Turkish public sympathy for the Palestinians; Turkey's relations with many of its regional neighbors; possible disagreements over Kurdish aspirations; and the desire of influential segments of the Israeli public to recognize the Armenian genocide as a fact. What follows is an effort at mapping these mines without attempting to predict whether the Israeli-Turkish entente will ever strike any one of them.

Hayasa
07-19-2014, 05:58 PM
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/12/us-israel-turkey-armenians-idUSBRE85B16320120612

(Reuters) - An Israeli cabinet minister said on Tuesday that the Jewish state ought to change its policy and recognize the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as an act of genocide.

Gilad Erdan, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, answered a motion in parliament by opposition lawmakers marking the massacre's anniversary.

"I think it is definitely fitting that the Israeli government formally recognize the Holocaust perpetrated against the Armenian people," Erdan, Israel's environmental affairs minister said.

Israel has long avoided acknowledging the mass killings of Armenians as genocide, in deference to already strained ties with Turkey which rejects that view.

Relations with Turkey have been tense since the 2010 killings of nine Turkish activists in a commando raid on a Gaza-bound ship. Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel after that incident and suspended military cooperation.

Erdan said the Israeli government had not formally changed its policy on the Armenian's past tragedy, adding: "we should definitely support holding an open and in depth discussion that analyses the data and facts."

Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the Ottoman government.

Successive Turkish governments and most Turks feel the charge of genocide is an insult. Ankara argues that there was heavy loss of life on both sides during fighting in the area.

Israeli lawmakers voted that the issue would face further debate in the education committee. Any parliamentary decision on the issue would not be binding on the government.

Yigal Palmor, a spokesman at Israel's Foreign Ministry, said Israel's formal position on the Armenian tragedy remained that the issue "must be decided by historians and not be subject to political deliberation."

The Armenian issue has stirred emotions in Israel where many feel that the Jewish people who suffered six million dead in the Nazi Holocaust during World War Two have a moral obligation to identify more closely with the Armenians' ordeals.

"Those who demand recognition of the murder are not engaged in lobbying but are simply seeking historic justice," Israeli Parliament speaker Reuven Rivlin, a member of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, said.

Nino Abesadze, a lawmaker with the centrist Kadima party, counseled against linking the issue to relations with Turkey.

"We must not link our sentiments about the Armenian tragedy to considerations about other dangers in the region. Events such as genocide are above politics," Abesadze said.

Hayasa
07-19-2014, 06:00 PM
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/knesset-speaker-working-to-boost-recognition-of-armenian-genocide-1.365034
Knesset Speaker working to boost recognition of Armenian genocide
Reuven Rivlin says it is his duty as a Jew and Israeli to recognize the 'tragedies of other people.'
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Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Monday that he wanted to convene an annual parliamentary session of the full Knesset to mark the Armenian genocide of 1915 and 1916 at the hands of the Turks. "It is my duty as a Jew and Israeli to recognize the tragedies of other peoples," Rivlin said, speaking to an Israel-based Armenian action committee.

Rivlin added: "Diplomatic considerations, important as they may be, do not allow us to deny the disaster [experienced by] another people."

In recent years the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry have applied heavy pressure to head off such sessions of the Knesset out of concern that relations between Israel and Turkey would be harmed. Turkey denies that it committed genocide against the Armenians.

Since 2008, the full Knesset has allowed the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to hold sessions that have been closed to the media about the Armenian genocide. Last week, for the first time, the full Knesset approved the convening of an open, public session on the issue by the Education, Culture and Sports Committee, at the request of Meretz Knesset member Zahava Gal-On. This represents a complete change in approach on the issue.

In 1915 to 1916, between a million and a million and a half Armenians reportedly lost their lives in Turkey, representing about a third of the Armenian people. Armenians have been campaigning for international recognition of the genocide, but the Turks have been active in countering these efforts. Turkey claims there was no genocide, and that in the course of the Armenian fight for independence between 250,000 and 500,000 Armenians and a similar number of Turks lost their lives.

Hayasa
07-19-2014, 06:05 PM
Armenian PM invites Israeli tourists
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4202499,00.html
Armenia calls on Israeli tourists to visit country in backdrop of mutual conflicts with Turkey, Iran. Armenian PM: 'We're preparing to welcome Israelis'
Ziv Reinstein

Have you been to Armenia yet? Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan invites tourists to visit the Caucasus country. Armenia borders with Iran and Turkey, and opts to attract Israeli tourists, who are now more reluctant to go to neighboring Turkey.

In a special interview with Ynet, Sargsyan said Armenia is working to prepare the infrastructure to welcome more tourists as early as spring 2012. "We plan to accommodate up to 3 million tourists in the coming years, many of them from Israel," Sargsyan said. Armenia currently hosts about 750,000 tourists annually.

Preparations include upgrading the hotel infrastructure and training travel agents. "Armenia is proud of its history and Christian heritage," Sargsyan added. "We have great potential for religious tourism, and we wish to learn more from Israel in this area."

Identify with Israel

Armenia shares common features with Israel and views it as a role model for coping with tragedy. The Armenian people suffered through genocide during World War I, a horrific event that is still being denied by many nations. Armenia also deals with prolonged territorial disputes with Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Armenia offers many attractions to Israeli tourists. The lush sceneries of the Caucasus are spotted with remote villages and lakes. The first country to accept Christianity, Armenia has numerous ancient Christian sites from the early middle ages, part of its rich cultural heritage. One can also visit the famous Armenian Brandy factory, and the small and unique Jewish community in Yerevan.

Sargsyan promised to find ways to improve accessibility to Israeli tourists. Today, Israelis can easily receive a tourist's visa at the Yerevan airport. However, Armenian tourists seeking to visit Israel are encountering more obstacles since there is no Israeli embassy in the country, and are required to apply for a visa in neighboring Georgia.

Hayasa
07-19-2014, 06:08 PM
'Jewish lobby behind U.S. Armenia genocide vote'
http://www.forward.com/articles/126556/
Haaretz

Pro-Israel activists manipulated Congress to damage Turkey, says London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

Jewish lobbyists contrived a U.S. congressional vote that labeled the World War One-era massacre of Armenians by Turkish forces as genocide, a London-based Arabic-language newspaper claimed on Saturday.

Pro-Israel lobbyists had previously backed Turkey on the issue ? but changed tack in retaliation for Turkish condemnation of Israel's policies in the Gaza Strip, the Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily said in an editorial, according to Israel Radio reports.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1154423.html

Jewish Lobby Sits Out Vote On Armenian Genocide

Washington — Deteriorating relations between Turkey and Israel led Jewish groups to step back from active lobbying this year against a congressional resolution declaring the 1915 Turkish slaughter of Armenians a case of genocide.

For decades, Armenian-American groups have pushed the resolution, which on March 4 narrowly passed the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, sparking a harsh backlash by Turkey. Some Jewish members of Congress have been among its prominent supporters. But Jewish organizations have marshaled their political clout and moral capital on the issue of genocide to lobby Capitol Hill against the resolution in years past, moved in large part by Turkish warnings that its passage could harm Turkish-Israeli ties.

That warning appears destined to remain academic. In response to strong pressure from the Obama administration, congressional leaders have reportedly agreed to refrain from scheduling the measure for a full congressional vote. But the shift in stance by Jewish groups was notable for its reflection of shifts in the Middle East and of the balance between moral considerations and realpolitik.

This year, no major Jewish groups lobbied for or against the resolution. As Jess Hordes, Washington director of the Anti-Defamation League, put it, “Inevitably, for some people the enthusiasm isn't as great as it was in the past, because of concerns about Turkey’s policy on Israel.”

https://www.stormfront.org/forum/t690245/

Drawing-slim
07-19-2014, 06:20 PM
Respect for Turkey. It's one of the only powerful countries in the world today that stands straight on all international issues with no biased it seems. Therefore most honorable big country.

Kemalisté
07-19-2014, 06:24 PM
The ironical part is that's coming from someone who's giving aid and support to al-Nusra, ISIL, Hamas etc. and doing business with al-Qaeda financiers like al-Qadi, not to even mention protecting and defending a genocidal dictator like Omar al-Bashir. Erdogan is a criminal person he should be brought to account by international courts like in Nuremberg.

Musso
07-19-2014, 07:28 PM
The ironical part is that's coming from someone who's giving aid and support to al-Nusra, ISIL, Hamas etc. and doing business with al-Qaeda financiers like al-Qadi, not to even mention protecting and defending a genocidal dictator like Omar al-Bashir. Erdogan is a criminal person he should be brought to account by international courts like in Nuremberg.

Unfortunately it seem Erdogan will be reelected

Kemalisté
07-19-2014, 07:40 PM
Unfortunately it seem Erdogan will be reelected

He's running for presidency so things are different now

Musso
07-19-2014, 07:42 PM
He's running for presidency so things are different now

He's going to make Presidency more powerful, and let's be honest with ourselves, he'll still be calling the shots.

Kemalisté
07-19-2014, 08:16 PM
He's going to make Presidency more powerful, and let's be honest with ourselves, he'll still be calling the shots.

That's for sure, but I mean the opposition has come up with a joint candidate so let's see what happens. There's a chance that he can get defeated. Even if he gets elected, it will be still quite challenging for him to increase the powers of the presidency as his party doesn't have enough seats to change the constitution and AKP can't get any more in the general elections without him. We shouldn't be pessimistic.

turkojew
08-03-2014, 09:35 AM
That's for sure, but I mean the opposition has come up with a joint candidate so let's see what happens. There's a chance that he can get defeated. Even if he gets elected, it will be still quite challenging for him to increase the powers of the presidency as his party doesn't have enough seats to change the constitution and AKP can't get any more in the general elections without him. We shouldn't be pessimistic.

Someone should move this topic to the Turkish subforum, this is a good topic. And mate, he will win in the first round fo sure. He is going to use every single resource in his command to take presidency. I was heading back to Istanbul from Antalya and every time i looked outside, i saw his poster. Even in the middle of nowhere. Also there is that Syrian refugees issue. Some say that he is going to give them citizenship and convince them(that wont be hard) to vote for him.

Flower
08-03-2014, 10:00 AM
Turkyi!

Having said that, you have a problem with spammers here.