Even The Best Of Friends{Turks And Jews}

[A.R.]

Editorial & Op-Ed

Even the best of friends

By Zvi Bar'el

 

Ha'aretz,Jewish Newspaper English Edition,

Sunday, April 07, 2002

 

"The tanks deal is an open wound," said the deputy chairman of Turkey's

Islamist Justice and Development Party, Abdullah Gul. He was referring to

Ankara's decision to have tanks upgraded in Israel in a $700 million deal.

 

Aside from competition against American firms, the deal was held up by

heavy pressure that Arab countries exerted on Turkey. In normal times they

know they have no chance of influencing the relations between Israel and

its best friend in the Middle East. This time, Gul said, "giving the

contract to Israel means Turkish support for Israeli aggression."

 

Gul, a former state minister for foreign affairs, is not a lone voice in

the Turkish political arena, where the war in the territories has produced

a distinctly uneasy atmosphere. Mesout Yilmaz, chairman of the Homeland

Party, which is a member of the ruling coalition, used language that was

unusually sharp in criticizing Israel. "Turkey will not throw its relations

with Israel into the refuse bin," he said, "but neither will it close its

eyes to the `hard treatment' the Palestinians are receiving."

 

And the prime minister, Bulent Ecevit, went as far as to talk about

"genocide." Demonstrations continued last week in Ankara with the

participation of the leaders of the trade unions and members of the

chambers of commerce. The joint military maneuvers involving Israel, Turkey

and the United States, which had been scheduled for the end of April, have

been postponed indefinitely, and one Turkish paper ran an editorial under

the headline "Adolf Sharon."

 

The reports in the Turkish media do not spare Israel's friends in Turkey

the harshest images from the territories, and every day new groups join the

list of those that are demanding action by the government. "Turkey usually

pursues an independent policy toward Israel, and you know what meager

influence the Arab states have in Ankara," says a senior Turkish official.

 

"But with Turkey waging a struggle for admission to the European Union and

maintaining extensive commercial relations with Iraq and full diplomatic

relations with Iran, it is obliged, at least at the declarative level, to

join the line that is against the Israeli army's operations in the

territories."

 

The word "declaratively" is no consolation, because even if the diplomatic

dialogue is being conducted in low tones, and even if Turkey, despite the

pressure, is not canceling the deal with Israel, the Turkish street is a

powerful voice. "On the face of it, a new balance of terror has been

created, which is more convenient for Turkey," the senior official says.

 

"In this balance, as long as the war between Israel and the Palestinians

continues, there is less chance of an American war against Iraq, which is

opposed by Turkey. But you should take note of the influence that the war

with the Palestinians is liable to have on the relations between the people

of Turkey - not only the government of Turkey - and Israel."

 

Relations between Turkey and Israel are unique even between friendly

countries. They can be described as "cordial ties," which were created from

below, between the Israeli and Turkish publics, and developed into the

close formal relations that now exist. Turkey is not only the sole Middle

Eastern country in which an Israeli can feel safer than he can at home, and

the only European country in which an Israeli tourist doesn't have to keep

his identity a secret - it is the only Muslim country in the world that

takes pride in its relations with Israel.

 

When television announcers in Egypt adopt the term "Zionazism," and voices

in Jordan talk openly about the "level of decline" in relations with

Israel, Turkey, even if gritting its teeth, is continuing to do business as

usual.

 

Turkey's good relations are not with Sharon and his government, but with

Israel and its people, Ilnut Cevik wrote in the Turkish Daily News.

"Governments come and go, but the people and true friendship remain."

 

Cevik and his colleagues will have to work a little harder if they

discover, eventually, that there is no difference between Sharon and his

policy and the "people." The deal to upgrade the tanks may not be canceled

even then, but it's possible the Israeli public could still lose its best

friend.

[aurguplu]

hello

 

1. of all the peoples we have encountered in our history, jews are the only ones we have never had problems with. and we want to keep it that way. if you are short of friends like both turks and jews are, you try to keep the few you have as friends.

 

2. the fact that there is an israel today is chiefly due to the dismantling of the ottoman empire, in which arabs played a large part by siding with the christian british to rise up against their fellow muslim turks. the result was the creation of the numerous arab states in the arabian peninsula (syria, iraq, saudi arabia, jordan, kuwait, yemen, u.a.r, dubai) and one israel. today we have no pretensions over these lands, and if we have good relations with israel, the one nation that does not have any right to criticise this is the arab nation. you reap what you sow.

 

3. the israelis and jews in general tend to speak in one voice, whereas the arabs are in complete disarray, stabbing one another in the back. if they cannot have a consensus amongst themselves, how can they expect others to prefer them over other who have?

 

4. the israelis made a miracle out of a desert, the arabs a desert out of a miracle (the oil). one is naturally inclined to side with the smart at the expense of the dumb.

 

5. the arabs try to reimpose the backward lifestyle of medieval islam to secular turks. we have this behind us and want to keep it there.

 

6. both nations had gone quite far in peace negotiations at the time of barak, when arafat blew it all. now they will have to start back from scratch.

 

the comments above stem largely from the religious bunch in turkey, and do not represent the viw of the majority. it is true that we as the rest of the world are highly critical of the situation in palestine, but palestinian responsibility in this cannot be ignored. the arabs must first resolve to recognise israel formally if they want to have a lasting peace and if they want to see a palestinian state formed.

 

regards,

[Nikephoros_Phokas]

That is a lie that Turks have had good relations with the Jews always. Turkey stripped its Jews of their property unlawfully with the Turkish Head Tax, the Varlik Vergisi in a very racist and chauvinist action typical of Turkish state and society to try to place the economy out of the hands of Greeks, Armenians and Jews and give Turks more economic power. In WWII Turkey was neutral playing both sides for favors but it was more pro-Axis then Allied, it even turned back a ship of Jews fleeing the Holocaust to not anger Germany.

 

The modern Turkish identity is based on alot of anti-arab chauvinism as you display. If you look at the pictures of clothing that many Turks used to wear before the authoritarian dress reforms you will see they are similiar to arab dress, also the Turkish language reforms purging words seen as arabs for words considered "pure Turkish" display this chauvinism. I do not think many Armenians are impressed with the "secular" Turks and their new ultra-nationalist Kemalist ideology, so save the crap about backward Islamism as if this new ideology is better or less authoritarian. When the Ottoman Empire was collapsing the leadership turned to pan-Islamism to try to keep the Ottoman Empire together and as you display many Turks even today resent the Arabs for rising up with the "imperialist Brits" ignoring that the Ottoman Empire(Empire=Imperialism) was imperialist. I think what System of Down said in their song about the Armenian genocide can apply to any group under Turkish rule, even these arabs who "stabbed Turks in the back":

 

"Revolution, the only solution,

The armed response of an entire nation," ...

 

For even today you show resentment and trouble in accepting the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, you talk about not violating its or Turkey's territorial integrity in other threads, it is a Turkish idea fixee about minorities stabbing them in the back for not wanting part of their despotic Ottoman Empire and rebelling and then to hypocritically talk about imperial Brits. My friend the average Brit of today accepts the collapse of his British Empire and can admit that their Empire deserved to die, unlike the Turks who are still fixated on "people stabbing them in the back".

[Nikephoros_Phokas]

That was a huge failed opportunity. Turkey has no trouble in using real-politik to further its genocide denial, Turkey is a good Western ally, let us forget its genocidal past and its poor human rights record, its aggressions againsts its neighbors, because they are such a good NATO ally who helped in the Cold War and today it buys American and Israeli weapons. That would have been a good opportunity to get Israeli politicians to recognize the Armenian genocide in retaliation for accusing Israel of genocide.

[Basterman]

Young Turks...or Young Jews???

Ataturk´s Mother???

Ben Gurion studying laws in the Ottoman Empire???

Henry MOrgenthau Secret Agent of the B´nai B´rith in The Ottoman Empire???

The Donmeh Masonic Lodges of Istambul and Izmir???

hmmm, we have to study all this...be careful EZRAH!!!