by bill cobbett » Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:18 pm
Bagis the Clown gets his just deserts...
In the wake of the refusal of the US Congress to ship two frigates to Turkey...
This is part of a speech made by Congressman Elliot of NY to support the move to defeat the Bill...
..."But Turkey’s poisonous rhetoric and menacing behavior towards Israel is not the only reason to oppose this ship transfer, and perhaps not even the most potentially explosive. To cite the other important reason: Turkey has repeatedly threatened Cyprus and its energy explorations. One year ago, Turkey used its naval forces–and, by the way, the very naval forces this bill would enhance–in an effort to harass and intimidate Cyprus and workers employed by the Houston-based Noble Energy company as they sought to explore for offshore natural gas in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone. Prime Minister Erdogan also threatened that Turkey would use force to stop these explorations. Probably because of U.S. opposition, it has not done so, but, again, Turkey has never rescinded the threat. Almost exactly 1 year ago, Turkey conducted a dangerous live-fire naval exercise in the vicinity of both the Cypriot and Israeli offshore natural gas explorations, which Cyprus and Israel are doing jointly.
The Turkish attitude is epitomized by Turkey’s Minister for European Union Affairs, Egemen Bagis, who addressed the issue of Cypriot natural gas exploration last year. This was his warning, and I quote:
This is what we have a navy for. We have trained our marines for this. We have equipped the navy for this. All options are on the table. Anything can be done.
And I want to remind my colleagues that Turkey has continued to occupy the northern part of Cyprus since the 1970s. It’s just unacceptable..."
....
(Thank you Bagis the Clown ... you're a rare gem.)