Since 20 October 2008, the Turkey Government has been occupied with Ergenekon, a neo-nationalist group accused of plotting against the State.
It all started with 27 hand bombs, TNT moulds, and detonators found in a house on 12 June 2007. Since then, evidence from wiretappings, weapons taken from excavations, and purported assassination plans allegedly show a “grand project” pursued by the “deep state”. According to an indictment which is now more than 2500 pages, arrested politicians, journalists, lawyers, intellectuals, and generals formed a “terrorist” organization to create chaos weakening the ruling Justice and Development Party and justifying a military coup.
2120 GMT: Author, translator and journalist Omid Mehregan has been released from detention.
2100 GMT: So all our watching on many fronts is overtaken by the “Iran Might Be Getting A Bomb” story. Little coming out of Iran tonight; in contrast, every “Western” news outlet is screaming about the draft International Atomic Energy report on Iran’s nuclear programme. (Funny how each, like CNN, is implying that it “obtained” an exclusive copy.)
1830 GMT: Political Prisoner News. “Green media” pull together reports that we carried last night: 50 detainees were released, including Shahabeddin Tabatabei, member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front and head of youth in support of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mohammad Khatami, Parisa Kakaei of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, student activist Maziar Samiee, and Khosrow Ghashghai of the Freedom Movement of Iran.
Another war is looming in the Middle East, say the pundits. It is hard to ignore the whispers — now louder — when they are regularly punctuated by hostile statements from various officials in the region, leading further credence to a possible conflagration.
The likely site of the newest regional battle is the Levant. Funnily enough, nobody can pinpoint exactly where, although it is clear that Israel will be involved. Which should tell us something right there.
Since the Jewish state’s military attack on Lebanon in 2006, it has been itching for a “do-over.” Why? Because for the first time in its history, Israel did not win a war. The month-long bombardment of Lebanon resulted in a stalemate — an intolerable outcome by the standards of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
To add to the indignity, it was a mere few thousand men — not even a national army — that took the IDF by surprise.
The cornerstone of Israel’s military strategy is deterrence — whether though brandishing a nuclear arsenal to warn off threatening nation-states, or by Gaza-style intensive attacks that send a strong message to a weaker party. This is a highly militarized state that has lived under the legacy of conflict its entire existence. Loss — or even perceived loss — is not an option.
Last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan made a two-day trip to Moscow, with energy, trade and the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute high on the agenda. Erdogan and senior members of his government, in talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitri Medvedev, launched the process for an agreement on visa-free travel for the citizens of both countries and took important steps on the use of the Turkish lira, and the Russian ruble in bilateral trade. Most significantly, the two sides signed a declaration of cooperation to construct Turkey’s first nuclear power plant.
The energy issue is the rucial factor in the economic and trading relations of Turkey and Russia. Turkey is highly dependent on Russian gas but now also wants to become a major energy corridor, transporting that gas to the Middle East. This South Stream rivals the U.S. and EU-backed Nabucco pipeline plan, even though Ankara also backs Nabucco and says the two projects should complement each other.
UPDATE 1020 GMT: Despite the criticism of his behaviour, Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon is not expressing regrets. To the contrary, he is backing away from his formal apology to Turkey: In an interview with Channel 2, he said:
[Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's] policy is proving to be effective. We will not allow a situation where every country will kick us. If there will be an attack on Israel, we will leave all options open, including the expulsion of ambassadors. We do not want to argue with anyone, but we will not sit idly by.
Ayalon took a specific swipe at Turkey in the guise of “clarifying” the incident with Ankara’s ambassador:
The story with the cameras wasn’t planned, I didn’t think it was being recorded, and if it was — I didn’t think it would be aired with sound. My intention wasn’t to humiliate, but to send a visual message. The ambassador didn’t feel humiliated either — only once reporters started calling him. The picture was aimed at the Turks, to send them a message. I think what (Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan did to (Israeli President Shimon) Peres in Davos (over the Gaza War) is humiliation, not this.
Haaretz’s Zvi Bar’el questioned today Israel’s humiliation Turkey’s ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol, which he called “gangster diplomacy’, and wrote the prescription for a moral Israel to demand morality from others:
Now we have also shown the Turks who we are, because when it comes to the Jewish, Zionist honor of a nation that endured the Holocaust and the Goldstone report, no one will make a movie about us – certainly not the Turks – portraying us as war criminals. If Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan thinks he can reprimand us without a reaction, we’ll show him and all the other countries of the world.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry was divided into two camps over the apology of Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon for his treatment of Turkey’s ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol. Some officials say, “Israel will benefit from the way in which Ayalon managed the crisis. The result is that today Turkey will be much more careful in its statements [about Israel],” but others claim:
(Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan will only change his rhetoric if he sees that it costs him something. But blasting Israel does not cost him anything, and actually gains him points both at home and in the Arab world.
The Israeli Government is still in some confusion after Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon’s full apology over his “undiplomatic” attitude towards Turkey’s ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol. Israel’s President Shimon Peres said that Ayalon’s treatment reflected the “mistake of one man, not of the state”:
It was not diplomatic… and it’s good that he apologized. This should not be connected to the whole state or to all diplomats. We must learn not to do this again.
However, the Israeli Foreign Ministry slammed a group of 17 members of Parliament who sent a letter of apology to Turkey over Ayalon’s treatment of the ambassador. A member of Ayalon’s staff told Israel Radio:
Ayalon respects the MKs who apologized, but where were they over the past two years of anti-Semitic broadcasts in the Turkish media and unbridled criticism of Israel from Ankara? After two years in which Turkey has failed to get the diplomatic message, we had to start making a noise one official told Israel.
The Jerusalem Post’s Michael Freund has criticized public demands for Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon’s apology and bombarded Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an opinion piece, “Going Cold Turkey”:
Since the start of the week, Israel’s media have been in a tizzy. With all the frenzied fury at its disposal, the press has been relentlessly targeting Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, slamming one of the country’s most talented diplomats for his handling of a meeting at the Knesset on Monday with the Turkish ambassador.
Ayalon had called in Ankara’s envoy to protest a new Turkish television show called The Valley of the Wolves which seems primarily designed to foment anti-Semitism. Among other things, it depicts Israeli agents abducting Muslim children in order to convert them to Judaism against their will. Read the rest of this entry »
EA Correspondent Aysegul Er reports:
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