Let's talk Turkey

[seemslikeadream]

.........just in time for a new, lucrative natural gas deal

Published on
Monday, June 27, 2016
byCommon Dreams
Turkey-Israel Pact Betrays Gazans, Grants Immunity for 2010 Flotilla Attack
Normalized relations allow Israel to maintain siege on Gaza and raise the prospect of a mutually-beneficial natural gas deal
byLauren McCauley, staff writer

Abandoning Palestinians and its pledge to fight Israel's protracted blockade of Gaza, the Turkish government on Monday announced an agreement to normalize relations with the Middle East powerhouse—reportedly just in time for a new, lucrative natural gas deal.

The two countries have been engaged in a bitter dispute since 2010 when the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) attacked the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmara, which was carrying humanitarian supplies to the people of the Gaza Strip, killing nine people at the time and and fatally injuring a tenth.

In response, Turkey imposed unprecedented military sanctions on Israel and demanded that its former ally issue an apology and compensation for the attack, as well as end the siege of Gaza. According to the Electronic Intifada's Ali Abunimah, Monday's "breakthrough apparently came when Turkey dropped the third and biggest of these demands and accepted that Israel would maintain its blockade."

Underscoring that fact, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted Monday that his government will keep "the defensive maritime blockade" of Gaza, saying: "I was not willing to compromise on it."

The two parties reportedly reached the new agreement because of a mutual desire to exploit natural gas reserves worth hundreds of billions of dollars under the eastern Mediterranean.

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Reuters reports:

Restoring relations with Ankara is a linchpin in Israel's strategy to unlock its natural gas wealth. It is looking for export markets and is exploring a pipeline to Turkey as one option, both for consumers there and as a connection to Europe.

"This is a strategic matter for the state of Israel. This matter could not have been advanced without this agreement, and now we will take action to advance it," Netanyahu said. Gas, he said, had the potential to strengthen Israel's coffers "with a huge fortune."

As Abunimah notes, the Turkish government has tried to put a "positive spin" on the deal, highlighting provisions that will allow Turkey to "deliver humanitarian aid and other non-military products to Gaza and make infrastructure investments in the area," including new residential buildings and a 200-bed hospital.

"Israel’s arrogant attitude as if to say 'I kill people and pay in cash whatever is the cost' is unacceptable."
—Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH)
But as Louis Fishman, an assistant professor at Brooklyn College, wrote at Haaretz on Monday, "Turkey's acceptance of Israeli monitoring of these goods and services is an achievement for Israel, since it essentially is de facto recognition of the Gaza blockade itself."

What's more, the agreement also grants IDF soldiers who participated in the Mavi Marmara raid immunity from criminal charges in Turkish courts.

In response, the Istanbul-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH), which organized the 2010 flotilla, issued a statement condemning the deal.

"The issue is not entry of humanitarian relief supplies into Gaza but making sure that Gaza has its freedom of movement and transactions so that it does not have to rely on external aid. Palestine is deprived of this freedom and doomed to rely on external aid only while international law grants it to every land and government," the group wrote. "It is simply unacceptable."

The aid organization states that it will thus continue efforts on "all fronts including legal and physical arenas for the removal of the illegal and unjustifiable blockade on Gaza," while continuing to litigate cases on behalf of the "international victims of the Mavi Marmara attack from 37 different countries."

"Israel’s arrogant attitude as if to say 'I kill people and pay in cash whatever is the cost' is unacceptable," the statement continues. "Mavi Marmara stood as a hope in the Islamic world and for the oppressed people of the world. It is our duty to keep this hope which stands for the common consciousness of humanity alive."

[seemslikeadream]

Turkey goes BOOM!

(CNN)Two explosions and gunfire took place at the Istanbul Ataturk airport Tuesday, the Turkish interior ministry said.
The ministry reported multiple injuries, but the exact number was not immediately clear.
Developing story – more to come

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/28/europe/tu ... index.html

[82_28]

10 reported dead as of now.

[seemslikeadream]

Death toll climbs to 50

[82_28]

Jesus.

[Nordic]

RT

Erdogan apologizes to Putin over death of Russian pilot, calls Russia ‘friend & strategic partner’

Published time: 27 Jun, 2016

Russian President Vladimir Putin has received a letter in which his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized for the death of the pilot who was killed when a Russian jet was downed over the Syrian-Turkish border last November, the Kremlin said.

Erdogan expressed readiness to restore relations with Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

The incident involving the downing of the Russian Su-24 bomber led to the worst deterioration of Turkish-Russian relations in recent history, with Russia describing it as a “stab in the back.” ...

continued

And .... How many hours after this did da bombs go "BOOM"??

Methinks someone disapproved of the overtures to Putin.

Poor little Turdogan is stuck in the middle. On the one hand, Russia could come down really hard on them, on the other, the US/Saudi/Israeli head hopped want them to follow orders even if it's suicide.

Poor little old Erdogan. Sucks for all the dead and wounded civilians.

[mentalgongfu2]

Bloody fucking hell.

I don't claim to have any firm grasp on what is going on in the world at this point among all the various threads of physical, political and emotional violence and turmoil. I'm at a loss, but I'm going to drop this story here because I'm wondering at the moment if there is any insight it might provide to the greater scheme, if there is a greater scheme, if it's not all just a meaningless melange of horror and death. I haven't read it that carefully or evaluated the sources on my own, I just looked for articles about Turkey and the EU, this popped near the top of the feed, and the headline and certain wording in the article caught my attention. I started to highlight portions, but honestly, my head is too muddled right now to decide which portions might deserve it. So take with a grain of salt and feel free to deconstruct if you know more than my admittedly ignorant ass, but something told me it might have a relevant bit or two in it given the latest murderous shitshow took place in Istanbul.

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A time bomb ticking: What happens if the EU-Turkey deal falls apart?


Turkey's president has warned that if Europe does not honour its part of the refugee deal, the Turkish parliament will not ratify it

Will the rapid though silent escalation of political tensions between the European Union and Turkey, which has been taking a dangerous turn over the last few weeks, push Ankara to drop a “human bomb” on Europe by opening its borders for refugees to enter Greece and other EU countries?

The question is anything but trivial - it is rather a source of deep concern among the many non-governmental humanitarian organisations and the United Nations, who are making relentless efforts to fill the huge relief gaps caused by the apparent indifference of those powers who greatly contributed to creating this unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

These powers are mainly the United States, the United Kingdom and France who, supported by other Western countries and rich Arab nations, led military coalitions that invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and who, along with Russia, have been providing weapons to most of the fighting parties in Syria.

Ironically, these four powers are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

The above-posed question is more than mere alarmist speculation. In fact, Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan has recently made veiled, though specific threats to the EU, by warning against the consequences of Europe continuing to fail the two key commitments it made in exchange of the EU-Turkey refugee agreement - also known as “the shame deal”– which the two parties sealed on 22 March this year.

The deal is about Turkey taking back the hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers who fled to its territories, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and crossed from there to EU bordering countries like Greece. Once “re-taken”, the EU said it would “select” an undetermined number of asylum seekers, mainly Syrians.

In exchange, the European Union promised to pay Ankara three billion euros a year, starting in November 2015, to share only a relatively small part of the big financial burden that Turkey shoulders by providing shelter, food and health care to the repatriated asylum seekers. Turkey currently hosts three million refugees.

The EU also promised to allow Turkish citizens to access its member countries without entry visa, also as part of the “shame deal”.

The tensions between the EU and Turkey were made clearly visible at the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS), which Turkey hosted in Istanbul on 23-24 May, covering a big portion of its cost.

The summit was meant to highlight the fact that human suffering has now reached unprecedented, staggering levels as stated to IPS news agency by Stephen O’ Brien, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs (OCHA), who called on world leaders to mobilise the much-needed resources to alleviate this human drama.

For this, the UN submitted to the summit a set of shocking facts: the world is witnessing the highest level of humanitarian needs since World War II, and experiencing a human catastrophe “on a titanic scale” as stated by summit spokesperson Herve Verhoosel: 125 million humans in dire need of assistance, over 60 million people forcibly displaced, and 218 million people affected by disasters each year for the past two decades.

The UN also quantified the urgently needed resources: more than 20 billion dollars needed to aid the 37 countries currently affected by disasters and conflicts.

It also stressed that unless immediate action is taken, 62 per cent of the global population – more than 4.5 billion human beings - could be living in what is classified as fragile situations by 2030.

In spite of these staggering facts, none of the leaders of the most industrialised countries – the so-called Group of Seven richest nations (G7) - nor any of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, attended the summit.

The sole exception was German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had reportedly gone to Istanbul to meet Erdogan over the growing political tensions rather to participate in the summit.

This absence of the top decision-makers of the richest countries has been widely criticised, starting with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who on 24 May publicly decried it. Also Turkish President Erdogan expressed deep disappointment at such a political boycott by world leaders.

Moreover, in a press conference at the closure of the summit on 24 May, Erdogan revealed that Europe had not met its promises as it had not provided the committed financial resources, nor kept its commitment to let Turkish citizens enter the EU without visa as from June this year.

He then expressed strong indignation, fury even, over the set of 72 new conditions the EU has suddenly imposed on Ankara in exchange of suppressing the entry visa requisite for Turkish citizens. These conditions imply, among others, that Ankara changes its current anti-terrorist laws.
Nightmare scenario

All this moved Erdogan to warn that if Europe does not honour its part of the refugee deal, the Turkish Parliament will not ratify it.

This simply means that Turkey would not only stop allowing refugees to be forcibly returned to its territories, but that it would also permit more and more of them to cross its borders to the EU countries.

In the meantime, more and more organisations have been accusing Europe of sealing an immoral, unethical and, above all, illegal refugee deal with Turkey. But meanwhile Europe has been turning rapidly, dangerously towards far right parties and movements that are feeding hate, xenophobia and islamophobia.

Also, tens of thousands of refugees and migrants are still trying to reach Europe, many of them drowning at sea, prey to inhumane practices and manipulation by smugglers.

Humanitarian assistance organisations such as Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, the UN Children Fund, UN refugee agency, among many others, have been warning that a growing number of unaccompanied children - estimated at one in three refugees and migrants, are crossing Mediterranean waters and European frontiers.

Only two days ahead of the World Refugee Day, marked on 20 June, the UN secretary general visited the Greek island of Lesbos, which has become migrants’ entry point to Europe. There he called on “the countries in the region” to respond with “a humane and human rights-based approach, instead of border closures, barriers and bigotry”.

“Today, I met refugees from some of the world’s most troubled places. They have lived through a nightmare. And that nightmare is not over,” Ban told non-governmental organisations, volunteers and media.

The “human bomb” is ticking at Europe’s doors amidst the inexplicable passivity of its leaders.

- Baher Kamal is an Egyptian-born, Spanish-national, journalist. You can follow him on Twitter @Baher_Kamal. This article is originally published by the Inter Press Service.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.



© Middle East Eye 2014 - all rights reserved. Only England and Wales jurisdiction apply in all legal matters.

[82_28]

Where the fuck do the refugees go then? Everywhere is going to be hostile to differing degrees. Like seriously why can't a stop to this be made? Why is war and violence always the answer (besides profits and outright feasting on cruelty)? I just shake my head in discouragement that anything will ever stop.

You got a shit ton of people well removed from the area who continue to be concerned about this. Why? Why the fuck are we so sympathetic with regular people in places we'll probably never go to? It's obviously because no one should ever have to endure undue hardships and deaths. Leave them be.

Thank god we have a choir here to preach to and I never wade into comments to give them "a piece of my mind" on sites because it is pointless.

[Morty]

He then expressed strong indignation, fury even, over the set of 72 new conditions the EU has suddenly imposed on Ankara in exchange of suppressing the entry visa requisite for Turkish citizens. These conditions imply, among others, that Ankara changes its current anti-terrorist laws.

Apologises to Putin, AND starts getting all lippy and demanding about the refugee return/visa deal and further amendments? Here are some suicide bombers for you, Mr Erdogan! Have a happy tourism industry!

[backtoiam]

mentalgongfu2 that was a good article. I read it.

About a year ago I saw this coming but I was not sure how bad it might get. So far it has gotten as bad as I expected. Unfortunately I see a great potential for this to get worse.

Greece has taken a ton of pain already. The ptb broke that economy to make sure there was no resistance and have now made them a port for migrants. Greek life, in that beautiful environment, was fairly close to paradise and in a flash its gone. That is how quick this shit can happen.

When the migrants get to their destination, of course, they are sort of pissed off. They wanted to stay home right?

I am attempting to understand this bubble and determine how bad this might get. I have not accomplished that, but i'm looking, always looking...

[Rory]

He then expressed strong indignation, fury even, over the set of 72 new conditions the EU has suddenly imposed on Ankara in exchange of suppressing the entry visa requisite for Turkish citizens. These conditions imply, among others, that Ankara changes its current anti-terrorist laws.

Apologises to Putin, AND starts getting all lippy and demanding about the refugee return/visa deal and further amendments? Here are some suicide bombers for you, Mr Erdogan! Have a happy tourism industry!

Turkey publicly apologizes to Russia (for shooting down their bomber jet) and pivots towards repairing their relationship. A day later, International arrivals (probably the softest target and maximum ROI in terms of terror affect) in Ataturk airport is hit with a deadly ISIS attack, killing a few dozen people (at the start of the Summer holiday season). Maximum damage to their already suffering tourism industry and economy (in a large part due to Russian sanctions).

What are the odds that these events happened so close together.

[seemslikeadream]

and also the gas pipe line deal with Israel

[stillrobertpaulsen]

He then expressed strong indignation, fury even, over the set of 72 new conditions the EU has suddenly imposed on Ankara in exchange of suppressing the entry visa requisite for Turkish citizens. These conditions imply, among others, that Ankara changes its current anti-terrorist laws.

Apologises to Putin, AND starts getting all lippy and demanding about the refugee return/visa deal and further amendments? Here are some suicide bombers for you, Mr Erdogan! Have a happy tourism industry!

Turkey publicly apologizes to Russia (for shooting down their bomber jet) and pivots towards repairing their relationship. A day later, International arrivals (probably the softest target and maximum ROI in terms of terror affect) in Ataturk airport is hit with a deadly ISIS attack, killing a few dozen people (at the start of the Summer holiday season). Maximum damage to their already suffering tourism industry and economy (in a large part due to Russian sanctions).

What are the odds that these events happened so close together.

I was wondering, why now? Thanks for answering that question.

[seemslikeadream]

Turkish PM Wants Better Ties with Syria
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that Ankara aims to develop good relations with Syria and Iraq, and both countries need to be stable for counterterrorism efforts to succeed.

Since taking office in May, Yildirim has repeatedly said that Turkey needs to “increase its friends and decrease its enemies” – an apparent tacit admission that past policies have left Ankara sidelined.Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim

“It is our greatest and irrevocable goal: Developing good relations with Syria and Iraq, and all our neighbors that surround the Mediterranean and the Black Sea,” Yildirim said, in comments broadcast live on television.

“We normalized relations with Russia and Israel. I’m sure we will normalize relations with Syria as well.”

ISIL has established a network across the border in Turkey that has been blamed for a series of suicide bombings, some of which have targeted foreign tourists.

“There is currently no change in Turkey’s Syria policy. Turkey does not want to have problems with any countries in the region and emphasizes the importance of ending terrorism as well as engaging in close cooperation for regional stability,” one official told Reuters after Yildirim’s comments.

“Of course Turkey wants to normalize ties with Syria, but there is no change in Turkey’s policy regarding Syria with Assad.”

[Rory]

Twitter a flutter with reports of a coup underway in Ankara/Istanbul...

From MoA

Turkish Military Takes Down Wannabe-Sultan?

There are some signs that the military in Turkey is currently launching a coup against the wannabe-Sultan's government.

This is developing and unconfirmed.

Some very recent tweets:

12:18 PM - 15 Jul 2016 agitpapa @agitpapa

Something fishy's going on military blocking Bosphorus bridge, jets buzzing Ankara. Tayyip took Turkey back decades is it already 1980?

12:20 PM - 15 Jul 2016 ilhan tanir @WashingtonPoint

Bosporus Bridge currently blocked by Turkish Military. Everybody is asking: what is going on? Turkey. Istanbul. pic.twitter.com/7pqwTY9zQw

12:21 PM - 15 Jul 2016agitpapa ‏@agitpapa

Curfew declared in Ankara.

12:30pm · 15 Jul 2016 Mahir Zeynalov @MahirZeynalov

Reports of significant military presence in urban areas in Turkey. Two Istanbul bridges on lockdown by military.

12:32 PM - 15 Jul 2016 Mahir Zeynalov @MahirZeynalov

Turkish fighter jets flying low over Ankara pic.twitter.com/wqcPmLBOyW

12:54 PM - 15 Jul 2016 Piotr Zalewski @p_zalewski

Roads to the General Staff headquarters in Ankara have been blocked: TR media t24.com.tr/haber/ankarada…