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Ok what's going on with Israel and Turkey anyway ?

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posted on Jun, 11 2010 @ 02:18 AM
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Does anyone find it a bit strange to see Turkey positioning its self against Israel ?

Lets face it , Israel is not doing anything new over there . Nor is this blockade and subsequent shooting any worse than has been done in the past .

So why now all of a sudden does Turkey , a NATO country decide to take issue with Israel ?

With this question on my mind I did a a few searches on Israel and Turkey relations and found nothing in the recent past that would indicate any type of bad relations towards one another .

To my surprise I found just the opposite , Israel and Turkey seem to have strong friendly ties to one another .....


Israel–Turkey relations were formalized in March 1949[1] when Turkey became the first Muslim majority country (before Iran in 1950[2]) to recognize the State of Israel.[3][4] Since then, Israel has been a major supplier of arms to Turkey



On January 1, 2000, Israel and Turkey signed a free-trade agreement.[18] named the "Turkish Israeli free trade agreement" making it the first Muslim country to sign such as an agreement with the Jewish state.[19] Israel exports an annual $1.5 billion in goods and services to Turkey, and imports more than $1 billion.[20] There is a plan to build a massive pipeline from Turkey to supply water, electricity, gas and oil to Israel.[21]
The strong relationship between Turkey and Israel has angered the Arabs. Turkey has attempted to maintain an image of neutrality on the topic of various Arab issues such as the Palestianian-Israeli conflict and Lebanon.[22][23] The Israeli Mossad also played a role in arresting the PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan.



Military collaboration
Modernization of Turkey's F-4 Phantoms and F-5 aircraft at a cost of $900 million.
Upgrading 170 of Turkey's M60A1 tanks for $500 million.
Popeye-I and Popeye-II missiles.
400 km (250 miles) range Delilah cruise missiles.
Popeye-II surface-to-air missiles for $150 million.
Arrow anti-ballistic-missiles. (Agreed by Israel. Approval of the United States is awaited.)
400 km (250 miles) range Delilah cruise missiles. (Negotiation)
The agreement provides exchange of pilots eight times a year; allows Israeli pilots to practice "long range flying over mountainous land" in Turkey's Konya firing range; and permits Turkish pilots to train at Israel's computerized firing range at the Nevatim airfield.(Nechmani, 1998: 24; Pipes, 1997 34)
The two navies conducted maneuvers during Operation Reliant Mermaid (the U.S. also participated) in January 1998.
[edit]

Source

In all fairness the report did state....


Israel-Turkey relations after the Gaza war
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan heavily criticized Israel's conduct in the Gaza war at the 2009 World Economic Forum conference in Davos. [38]
On October 11 2009, relations were strained even further when Israel was barred from Anatolian Eagle military exercise in Turkey. The aerial exercise was to consist of Turkey, Israel, the United States, and Italy. However, Turkey refused to allow Israel to attend. In response, the United States pulled out of the exercise. [39]
Another deterioration in October 2009 was noted following the TV debut of Ayrılık (Farewell), a prime-time serial on Turkish state-sponsored television channel TRT 1 featuring fictionalized scenes of Israeli soldiers shooting Palestinian children and mistreating elderly Arabs.[40] Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman criticized the program,[41] and rebuked the Turkish Ambassador in front of assembled media.[42] He subsequently apologized in the face of a Turkish threat to withdraw its ambassador.[42]
In January 2010 Israeli politicians and media outlets condemned an episode of the popular Turkish soap opera, "Valley of the Wolves: Ambush," on private Star television that depicted the Israeli intelligence service Mossad spying inside Turkey and kidnapping Turkish babies. The program also showed Mossad attacking the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv and taking the ambassador and his family hostage. On 11 January 2010 Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon summoned Turkish ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol to a meeting, At the session, Celikkol was seated below Ayalon. With cameras rolling, Ayalon turned to his aide (without knowing the television crews were filming) and said, "The main thing is that you see that he is seated low and that we are high ... that there is one flag on the table (the Israeli flag) and that we are not smiling.[43][44]
[edit]Gaza flotilla attack
Main article: Gaza flotilla raid
On 31 May 2010 nine Turkish activists were killed by Israeli troops in a raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, part of the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla",[45] a convoy of six ships carrying 663 people from 37 nations, including pro-Palestinian activists,[46] journalists, and humanitarians. After the raid, which took place in the Mediterranean Sea in international waters,[47] the tension between the two countries dramatically mounted. Many of those on the ship were Turkish and several of the ships taking part to the demonstration had the Turkish flag. The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the raid as "state terrorism". He said that Israel "has shown that it does not want peace in the region" and has "violated international law."[48] Turkey recalled its ambassador from Israel, and summoned the Israeli ambassador to demand an explanation. During an emergency session of the Security Council, Turkey urged the UN to punish Israel for its actions.[49] A Turkish Foreign Ministry written statement stated that "we strongly condemn these inhuman practices of Israel. This deplorable incident, which took place in open seas, and constitutes a fragrant breach in international law, may lead to irreparable consequences in our bilateral relations".[50] On June 2, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey passed a resolution calling for ties with Israel to be reviewed, and for Israel to make a formal apology and pay compensation to victims of Israeli actions.[51]


I can't help wonder why Turkey would decide to now start challenging Israel , considering the strong ties that they share ?

I can see why they would be upset at the fact that a Turkish ship was boarded but why was that ship put in such a position in the first place ? Everyone knows what Israel would do to a ship challenging one of there blockades .

Also the timing of all this is also a bit puzzling , just as we see " stronger " sanctions placed on Iran and a time drawing nearer where Israel will have to decide if they are to attack Iran or not .

Israel is now in a position that if ANYTHING else happens Israel will isolate themselves to such an extent that if Israel does attack Iran they may find themselves at war with as many as 4 countries not just Iran . And oddly enough , one of those countries just might involve a NATO member country .

Given just how close Turkey and Israel " were " and given the current political tensions Israel faces with such nations as Iran , Syria & Lebanon why do we now see Turkey on the radar screen , seemingly out of nowhere ?





[edit on 11-6-2010 by Max_TO]



posted on Jun, 11 2010 @ 03:28 AM
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reply to post by Max_TO
 


I have said this before, I will say it again.

America is as weak as it can be, everyone is looking for that chance to pull the US in to a conflict, even Iran.

All it takes is one conflict to bring the US down, and Israel can't survive without the US.

The current tactic Turkey is using is just to rally support against the US and it is working magically.

See every time Israel gets in to trouble, Turkey knows US will back it up, as we saw only 2-3 weeks ago US vetoed another condemnation of Israel.

The world sees this, the world is uniting against the US.

What is going on?

The world powers have their eyes on the US, everyone wants a piece of it, another conflict with a foreign country is deem to put America at risk of civil war, and that is where the price is.

.



posted on Jun, 11 2010 @ 04:29 AM
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reply to post by Max_TO
 


Turkish governement changed Turkey's regional strategy. Since Turkey's ecomony is growing despite the global crisis, she tries to use it as a regional hegemony. Not only economically but also culturally Turkey began to have a power over the region. In all Arab TV's there are at least 5 Turkish tv drama. It is a kind of the same what Hollywood did before. Because Turks are secular and have a much more modern life than Arab countries, it becomes like an object of desire. Turkey is aware of all this and tries to make the relationhip with those countries much stronger. Turkey knows that it never will become a member of EU.
Maybe it is a dangerous tactic to turn the face to the East, but it seems a wll timing right now. It all has to do also with the relations with Israel.
Balance of power is changing.



posted on Jun, 29 2010 @ 04:44 PM
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Too bad your thread did not get much attention, lost in the mix of so much going on I guess.
I just ran across this today and thought it was relevant.

Turkey Closes Airspace To Israel Military Flights


Perhaps the fact that Israel never apologized for the aid ship killings, or the deal Turkey now has with Iran regarding low and high grade uranium exchange has contributed to Turkey's new stance. I also wonder about Turkey's relationship with Brazil and maybe them, China and Russia have something in mind in terms of unification. Will they switch to the Euro? Could that alone be a factor?
online.wsj.com...

Countdown to destruction.....

[edit on 29-6-2010 by speculativeoptimist]



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