Opmerkelijk nieuwsbericht. Op het Wereld Economisch Forum van Davos is Turks president Erdogan kwaad weggewandeld tijdens een paneldiscussie met o.a. hem en de Israëlische president Shimon Peres. Wanneer Erdogan landde in Istanboel werd hij door een drieduizendtal Turken triomfantelijk onthaald. Waarom werd dit gedaan? Wel, heel simpel, omdat het de man nu eenmaal zeer goed uitkwam. Op geen enkel moment heeft de samenwerking met Israël op het punt gestaan om af te breken, dat zou de militaire elite nu eenmaal nooit aanvaarden.
Israël speelt immers een zeer smerige rol bij de onderdrukking van de Koerden in Turkije en bij het ondersteunen van de machtige Turkse bondgenoot. Denken we maar aan de arrestatie van Öcalan door commando’s van de Mossad of andere voorbeelden van de dubieuze rol van Israël waarbij zij geen enkele last van moraal hebben in de steun voor Turkije:
http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0499/9904060.html
In 1974 there were rumors of Israeli aid in the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Since 1975, the Turkish air force has acquired Israeli-made Shafrir air-to-air missiles, and a large selection of other military equipment. During the 1970s the Mossad also was keeping a close eye on the unraveling of civil order in Turkey as right-wing Islamic and nationalist groups clashed with extreme left-wingers, threatening to plunge the country into a civil war and strain Turkey’s relationship with Israel. After the military coup of 1980, however, the love affair resumed. In fact, to maintain it, any mention of the Armenian massacre of 1915 in Turkey is banned from any Israeli government-owned media. And in 1982 Israel’s Foreign Ministry protested a scheduled discussion of the Armenian genocide at an International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide. [...] For some time it was Mossad that, despite Israel’s warm relations with Turkey, tipped off the PKK leader about Turkish attempts to capture him. This kept him free to harass Israel’s Turkish “friend,” and drive it to seek even closer ties with the Jewish state.
At the same time Mossad, assisted by unit 8200 (Israel’s equivalent of America’s code-breaking National Security Agency), continued tracking Ocalan and his followers in their various Syrian and Iraqi hideouts for many years. The first public mention of that fact surfaced in a 1996 revelation by Turkish authorities after a car bomb in Turkey killed several members of what were believed to be Turkish death squads. In a television interview Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz confirmed that Turkish agents had cooperated with Mossad in an unsuccessful attempt on Ocalan’s life in Damascus.
De uiteindelijke arrestatie van Öcalan (zie ook bovenstaand artikel) zou met medewerking van de Mossad gebeuren. Ook Erdogan heeft ondertussen al gezegd dat het helemaal niet de uitspraken of het gedrag van Shimon Peres waren die hebben geleid tot zijn vroegtijdig vertrek. Met Turkse verkiezingen voor de boeg (lokale verkiezingen op 29 maart) heeft Erdogan een groot aantal Turken aan zijn kant gekregen. Voor zijn islamitische achterban is de Palestijnse zaak een goede manier om een basis te versterken. Voor zijn nationalistische achterban heeft hij het eerargument gebruikt, waarbij hij stelde dat de Turkse eer was gekrenkt.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/wef/article5617169.ece
“I did what I had to do,” Mr Erdogan told reporters. “I cannot remain apathetic when it comes to these things, it’s just not in my nature. I am duty-bound to defend the honour of my country.“ Mr Erdogan blamed the debate’s moderator, David Ignatius of theWashington Post, for the incident, although he condemned Mr Peres’s hectoring behaviour on stage. ”My reaction was directed at the moderator. I think that if we have moderation in this way, we won’t really get out of Davos what we all come here to get out of Davos, and it would cast a shadow over efforts to reach peace,” he told reporters at the meeting.
“President Peres was speaking to the Prime Minister of Turkey – I am not just some leader of some group or tribe, so he should have addressed me accordingly. Each of the four speakers in the debate on the Middle East was to have delivered a five-minute speech. Mr Ban, the UN Secretary-General, spoke for eight minutes and Mr Erdogan for 12. Mr Ignatius intervened to silence the head of the Arab League after 12 minutes, but Mr Peres then spoke uninterrupted for 25 minutes, raising his voice, pointing fingers and challenging the other panellists over what they would do in Israel’s position. ”President Peres you are older than I am. Maybe you are feeling guilty and that is why you are so strong in your words. You killed people. I remember the children who died on beaches,” Mr Erdogan said before he was cut off as the debate was due to end. He then stormed out, pursued by a phalanx of bodyguards and crowds of reporters.
De gevolgen voor de Turks-Israëlische relatie zijn dan ook minimaal te noemen. Kijk maar naar de reacties die na het incident zijn gepubliceerd:
Mr Peres said: “I called him up and said, ’Yes, I do not see the matter as personal … and the relations can remain as they are. My respect for him didn’t change. We had an exchange of views — and the views are views.”