Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Turkey's Gambit of Challenging Israel
Nadene Goldfoot

Turkey's threatening Israel with their navy has resulted in the USA telling them that they can forget receiving the US Drones they want till they lift the threat on Israel.  I haven't heard support like this for some time.  NATO  can also step into the arena if they don't watch their threatening.  Turkey is not acting like a reliable NATO partner and has not yet achieved final acceptance status.  Both Canada and the USA belong to NATO besides 26 European states including Turkey (almost). 

Turkey is just impressing the Arabs about who is boss.  It's said that they're really a loose cannon by showing that they are the neighborhood bully.  Actually, their showing off their new colors is only a worry to  their Arab allies who had enough of the Ottoman Empire.  Again, Israel has become the scapegoat in Turkey's bid for power. 

Leaked sources tell us that 3 Turkish frigates aren't waiting for another flotilla confrontation but are already sailing for the Eastern Mediterranean Sea hoping to disarm Israeli warships.  That would be an attack on Israel, who is not a part of NATO.  NATO is a group that means that if one of their members are attacked, the others would come to their aid.  How will they behave when one of their members is the aggressor? 

August 17th was the start of a war in Northern Iraq that has not been on the scene between Turkey and the Kurds who are rebelling.  Kurdish people have been repressed by Turkey in a big way and have desired their own homeland since the 20's when the Ottoman Empire broke up.  Lately their group, the PKK, have been attacking Turkey.   Israel had sold Turkey 10 Herons (amazing modern looking jets) when they were friendly neighbors along with technicians to care for them, but of course Turkey had to expell these Israelis in their recent tantrums and now they are faced with technical problems with them and the situation has crippled the Turkish army.  These were going to be  used against the Kurds. 

Reference: http://www.debka.com/article/21297/
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-256510-report-turkish-frigates-to-confront-israeli-ships-in-mediterranean.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/08/us-turkey-israel-gamble-idUSTRE7871WZ20110908
http://www.uasvision.com/2011/09/06/turkey-israel-political-situation-jeopardises-heron-maintenance/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_NATO
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/feb99/kurdprofile.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/02/iraq_events/html/chemical_warfare.stm

No comments: