Wednesday
Jan132010
UPDATED Israel & Turkey: A Reset in Relations?
Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 14:02 
UPDATE 14 January: On Wednesday evening, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon sent a letter of apology to the Turkish Ambassador to Israel, Ahmet Oguz Celikkol.Ayalon wrote: "The disputes between Israel and Turkey will be solved in a respectful and mutual manner between the two governments. There was no intention to humiliate the ambassador personally. I apologize for the way Israel's protest was presented."
UPDATE 1655 GMT: Another twist in the tale, according to Haaretz:
The Turkish media reported Wednesday that Ankara has recalled its ambassador to Israel on Wednesday after Jerusalem said it would not issue a second, formal apology for Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon's treatment of the Turkish envoy.
"This is the final decision on the matter," said a senior Foreign Ministry official earlier Wednesday. The decision was made during consultations between the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office, officials said.
Turkish ambassador to Israel Ahmet Oguz Celikkol will depart at 10:30 A.M. on Thursday. It is unclear when, or if, he will return.
On Tuesday, Ankara called in the Israeli Ambassador to Turkey, Gabby Levy, to clarify the statement of Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon's, "The Turks are the last ones who can preach morality to Israel." The message was clear: Turkey wanted a public apology from Ayalon.
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Relations had been inflamed when Turkey's Ambassador, Ahmet Oguz Celikkol, had been received in Israel's Parliament, the Knesset, with the press taking pictures of him sitting "lower" than Ayalon. Indeed, those pictures were taken as Celikkol waited outside the meeting room. Ayalon then said: "I won't apologize. It's the Turks who should --- for what [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan said and for the television series [allegedly slandering Israeli officials and denigrating the Israeli flag]....We are merely setting boundaries."
However, the tension seems to be ebbing. Until late Tuesday, Ankara was sending messages to West Jerusalem that measures would could be taken if Ayalon did not offer an apology, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood behind his Deputy Foreign Minister.
Then Celikkol was recalled to Ankara. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that it was not possible to continue dialogue with Israel. The Jerusalem Post alleged that Celikikol might not return.
Why the shift? Criticisms over Ayalon's "undiplomatic manner" were increasing, as even many officials in Ayalon's party, Israel Beiteinu, said the incident would greatly harm his chances of succeeding party head Avigdor Lieberman as Foreign Minister."He is finished politically," an Israel Beiteinu official said. "This ruins his reputation as a diplomat. It is a stain that cannot be erased. He damaged Lieberman and first and foremost himself."
Labor MK Daniel Ben-Simon called upon Netanyahu to summon Ayalon to his office and put him on a low chair "so he will see how low Israeli diplomacy has stooped." The Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said, "We have enough problems with the Muslim world without picking a fight with a country that has 72 million Muslims."
And Ayalon's behaviour elevated the possibility that Lieberman was trying to torpedo Defense Minister Ehud Barak's scheduled meeting to Turkey next week, in particular preventing Ankara from mediating Israel's peace talks with Syria. "We get the sense that Lieberman wants to heat things up before Barak's visit," a senior Foreign Ministry source said. "All of the recent activities were part of Lieberman's political agenda."
With the moves of the last 24 hours, Netanyahu has checked Lieberman's and attempted to give a "positive" image to the world while maintaining concerns over Turkey's regional manoeuvres. Netanyahu said: "Turkey is consistently gravitating eastward to Syria and Iran rather than westward [over the last two years]. This is a trend that certainly has to worry Israel."
Reader Comments (17)
Israel does not need to apologize to anyone, especially Turkey. As Danny Ayalon’s stated, “The Turks are the last ones who can preach morality to Israel.”
As far as I know "The Turks" never had TV-cameras rolling when they summoned an Israeli ambassador.
See:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/12/world/AP-ML-Israel-Turkey.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Ayalon&st=cse
As far as I know there never has been any government to do something like this in the field of diplomacy - not even blundering Qashgavi of Ahmadinejad's government.
Applaud Turkey's actions. Regardless of postion, Ayalon's behavior was unnecssary. Glad to see subsequent comments from the Israeli goverment.
I guess this is Lieberman's "confrontational" style of diplomacy in action. That man should not be in charge of an ice cream stand let alone a country's foreign policy.
"Israel does not need to apologize to anyone, especially Turkey. As Danny Ayalon’s stated, “The Turks are the last ones who can preach morality to Israel.”
*******
Yeah. Just ask the Armenians.
And the Serbians.
@ Dave
Come to the point! And the point is professional diplomatic behaviour (or rather misbehaviour) in the present time, not historical reminiscences of behaviour in war. Are you sure you want to discuss the latter?
And the Kurds. These people are a bunch of hypocrites.
Ali, do you know anything about this?
"This is silly. At the last conference of the Turkish General Staff's Strategic Research and Study Center, the flags of all ambassadors present were flying with the exception of the Israeli flag. Parity, anyone? The Israeli diplomat did not respond with a temper tantrum."
Sure! How about Turkey's actions at the Doha Summit last year? How about it being the lead member of the OIC? - the very organisation that seeks to outlaw all criticism of Islam the world over. What about the AKP's red carpet welcome for al-Bashir, the genocidal maniac wanted by the ICC for crimes in Darfur?
Erdogan behaves like a theocratic dictator. Ataturk must be rolling in his grave right now.
@ Islam
You forgot to mention your source:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTA4MjgzMTU5NzRhOTBkMmQ5YTliMzhiYjc0OGYyZjk=
My pleasure!
Unfortunately Michael Rubin names no source for his flag counting. But never mind, who needs sources anyway?
Back to the point, and the point still is: TV cameras rolling when an ambassador is summoned.
Oustider,
That is why I was asking Ali if he could independently very the claim. I never said it was true. Leeden did not provide an original source for that.
@ Islam
As far as Google could see, the quote was from Michael Rubin. Now you mention Michael Ledeen. At least I assume by naming "Leeden" you mean Ledeen (not Laden :-)). But please correct me if I am wrong.
Or do you thing there isn't much difference between the two? May-be we could agree on that.
Not Leeden, but Rubin. My mistake.
Islam,
I have been checking that link re Turkey's General Staff, especially the sites in Turkish, but could not get any source for that. If you can reach another one, can you send it to me?
It's funny how Turkey gets all heated up over the issue. Let's keep in mind:
1) Edrogan said "its a crime against humanity" for Muslims to assimilate in Europe.
2) To this day largely denies and ignores the Armenian genocide
3) Edrogan said "I do not believe that there has been assimilation or genocide in Darfur. In any case, verses of the Quran reject tribalism and clans..." and "Gaza and Darfur should not be confused with each other. Fifteen-hundred people were killed in Gaza. If there was something like this in Darfur, we would follow that to the end as well..." Both of these statements elicit a "what planet is he on? Hey while your at it please pass me the bong! Oh did I mention 2 million have died in Darfur since the mid 90's."
4) Their EU entry bid office is a confiscated Christian church they obtained after they had driven most of the Christians out of Turkey.
5) Is the home of orthodox Christianity but is now 99% Muslim while the Christians and Jews comprise .2% of the population
6) Regularly produces TV shoes presenting the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as fact and documentaries portraying Israeli's as baby killers. Just imagine if Israel did this about Islam
7) Had the gall to complain about the Swiss minaret ban when they have laws on the books that openly prohibit and persecute those not Muslims. Just read up on the Human rights reports on Turkey for some perspective
8) Decried Islamophobia as one of the world's worst problems completely ignoring the fact it is the OIC nations who are the world's worst abusers of human and religious rights. For some perspecitve read the OIC report on Islamophobia and compare it to any number of Human rights reports in Islamic states--the hypocrisy will clearly knock you out of your chair.
I'm sorry this is another Islamist nation in the making that no one needs to apologize to. Any government that warmly embrace Bashir/Ahmandinejad and openly espouses Islamist beliefs should be slapped every time it can be. These guys should never ever be let into the EU.
Thx
Bill
Outsider says,
Thank you for your response and here are my thoughts:
1) thank you for the reference. I am an American of Lithuanian, Irish, and Cherokee decent(a mutt we call it here!) I was able to read the article by using a translation program. While I feel better reading the whole article the tone of it still has a "no assimilation" feel to it. If you also read some of the comments at the bottom this thought was shared by quite a few as well. And, if I recall correctly this was also about the time Edrogan was rebuffed in his attempts to import Imams and teachers from Turkey(we have a problem with this in the states when our "friend" the Saudis continually sending over Wahhabi hate preachers.) In an interesting twist a German MP called him out on it and asked if they could reciprocate and the answer was a resounding no. Double standard? Yes and akin to the whole outcry over the Minarets when the Islamic world clearly outlaws or severly restricts other faiths.
2) Yes I beleive for the sake of the future we shouldn't let the past burden us. However, when a State makes it illegal to discuss or bring it up fire alarms go off in my head. These alarms then get louder when Edrogan can deny Darfur and yet harp on Gaza which absolutely pails in comparision to the humanitarian disaster in Darfur.
3) Regarding the population exchanges I did read your links. My counter point is all of these transgressors at one time were colonized by the Ottamans and a lot of that animosity stems from that. Greece only won its independece through war. Least of all lets not forget the carnage the Ottamans unleashed in the balkans with war, tens of millions enslaved, and piracy that essentially sealed off Europe from the East. It should also be noted that the population exchange consisted of primarily of turks in Greece who were not natives while in Turkey it was primarily people who were natives and happened to be Christian. Islam was foreign to Greece while Orthodox Christianity's birthplace is in fact Turkey.
Here are couple more gems from Edrogan:
1) On democracy "You ride it until you arrive at your destination, then you step off." Wow does this imply he will just use democracy? To what end and it sounds eerily familar to Muslim Bortherhood tactics of using Democracy to come to power only to use to impose theocracy. In his defense I have not yet been able to ascertain exactly what he meant by this statement but none the less it troubles me.
2) "One cannot be a secularist and a Muslim at the same time..." While I can understand this from an Islamic standpoint it leaves troubled when a Muslim who beleives this is in a secular state. Being a Christian I will admit this is a problem for me because Christianity does believe in a seperation of Religion and State which Islam clearly does not. The question regarding this statement then is will those who believe this continually try to abolish secular(man made rule) so they can usher in God's rule? Frankly this issue is at the heart of relations between the Islamic world and the West. One believes in man made law while the other sees no validity in it. If your a Muslim great but if your an infidel unwilling to submit it means second class status. You can look no further than any number of Islamic states to see vestiges of Dhimmi law in effect persecuting religious minorities Turkey being one of them.
Having said all that I am torn over the subject because like you I do harbor some beliefs that Turkey coming into the EU would be great for relations visa via the west and the Islamic world. However, as stated above I have serious concerns because the ideology governing much of the Islamic world is cleary hostile to the non believer. This ideology also has its backing in the Quran, Hadith, and Sira not to mention you can see it in practice by looking up the human rights conditions of religious minorities in the Islamic world. Edrogan and his party clearly endorses Islamic law and I understand it but for a non Muslim I view it as a threat. I view it as threat because unlike Christianity which follows the golden rule of "live and let live" Islam clearly does not but continually strives to have all submit. The fact remains no other relgious based group has had such difficulties getting along with the other and that my friend is why I am concerned. I just don't see how any Islamic state that espouses the political ideology of Islam should ever be allowed in the EU. To do so would be instilling a fifth column of sorts. Sorry if this is not multiculturally or politically correct it is just my view. I don't hold to the belief I am universally right so I would encourage you to correct me if you see points of error. I also hope you don't see me as an Islamophobe but just someone who is airing his concern. I want us to get along and I do acccept Muslims but I wonder if the Islamic world and Islam itself will ever accept us as we are. I also do care about Muslims but regardless of their faith. I see everyone equal and it is why I am so vocal about Iran--also helps that two of my best friends are Shias from Iran(and yes we have animated debates about Islam and the West!) All the best to you and look forward to your feedback.
Thx
Bill