Hellenicantidote
Monday, 31 May 2010
Turkey to benefit from flotilla deaths
Interesting this episode with the Israelis shooting dead stick-wielding Turks (and others?) trying to get 'aid' through to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Firstly, the Turks are experts at using disproportionate force against weaker opponents and then boasting about how tough and brave they are and that death is the just desserts of anyone confronting or insulting Turkdom. The amount of comments from Turks I have to delete on my Youtube videos (see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCRnIWVW1oQ and here http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji7xnoOiq_4 revelling in the barbaric murder of Solomos Solomou in Dherynia as he tried to take down the Turkish flag reveals the psychopathic and fanatical basis of Turkish identity. So, we note the irony of overwhelmed Turks bemoaning the barbarism of Israel and its readiness to use lethal force in today's incident.
Secondly, the inevitable collapse of Israeli-Turkish relations these killings will provoke suits the purposes of the Turkish government and its Neo-Ottoman ambitions.
Turkey has been distancing itself from Israel for a while and now has even more credit with the Arab and Muslim world, which it seeks to lead. The improvement of Turkey's hegemonic credentials is bad news for Cyprus, which will find it more difficult to thwart Turkey's campaign in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference for recognition of the Turkish pseudo-state in occupied Cyprus.
On the other hand, it may mean that Israel scales back its involvement in propping up the occupation regime in northern Cyprus through economic investment and tourism. Indeed, Israel has been using this threat of upgrading its relations with the pseudo-state to keep Cyprus from too openly supporting the Palestinians. In fact, over the weekend, Israel warned Cyprus that if it permitted the ill-fated 'aid' flotilla to enter Cypriot territorial waters, Israel would encourage ferry links between Haifa and occupied Ammochostos (Famagusta). Nicosia duly shooed away the flotilla, citing 'national security' interests.
UPDATE: RIK news this evening reported statements from Cypriot MEP Eleni Theocharous, a previous participant in the Free Gaza convoys, that she did not take part this time because she was aware that the campaign had been hijacked by Turkish Islamists and infiltrated by MIT (Turkish secret service) agents out to advance Turkey's interests. She said MIT was behind attempts to use the Turkish-occupied port of Famagusta as a staging post for the flotilla in an effort to upgrade the status of the occupation regime in northern Cyprus and to draw parallels between the Israeli blockade of Gaza and the 'isolation' and 'blockade' which Turkey claims the Turkish Cypriots are enduring.
http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/2010/05/turkey-to-benefit-from-flotilla-deaths.html