Turkish Economy Fails As Predicted Here on this blog

Too much to hope Mr Soros was long on lira RT @JoostNiemoller: The Turkish Market Is Getting Destroyed http://t.co/FGGIm53Dpc
— Sam Schulman (@Sam_Schulman) December 27, 2013

We saw Greece fail, now watch what happens when the people are Muslims

The Erdogan government is facing a massive corruption crisis, and the Turkish lira is getting crushed. Turkey has a large external debt position and an ugly trade deficit, so its economy and financial markets are highly sensitive to the whims of the global investor community. And the global investor community doesn't like what it's seeing. 

It is bad business to be Islamist.

RECEP ERDOGAN MAKES RACIST COMMENTS ABOUT BLACKS

Turkey's premier isn't just an anti-semite. He's also quite a racist against blacks:

Criticizing Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the center-left and secular Republican Peoples Party (CHP), Erdoğan declared, “Kılıçdaroğlu is striving every bit he can to raise himself from the level of a black person to the level of a white man.” The Turkish word—Zenci—Erdoğan used is often used in a derogatory way.

The comments were made during a weekly meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Commentary Magazine, which spotted the report in Turkey’s Gazeticiler online newspaper, notes that “President Obama has described Erdoğan as one of the few leaders with whom he has developed bonds of trust,” calling into question the US’s awareness of how Erdoğan speaks for domestic consumption.

Meanwhile, in keeping with the Turkish government’s anti-Semitic tone that has been on the rise since unrest began in the country May 28th, the website Al-Monitor reports that its coverage of the protests has earned it the label “subcontractor of the Zionist lobby” by Medyagundem, a website said to be under the control of Turkey’s state-run Sabah daily.

Medyagundem writes: “There is a website called Al-Monitor. It is a platform that translates news and comments from Turkish, Arabic, Kurdish, Hebrew and Persian. Obviously, it is a costly operation. You can find local language articles in English on this site. Its selections of news and articles is meticulously made and is highly professional. Its main theme is the news and analysis that will serve the interests of Israel and the global Zionist network.”

“The site’s stated goal is to tell the Western world about the Middle East. They have only one condition while doing that. Works of anyone who is a sworn enemy of Islamists and conservative administrations and actors are translated immediately into English.”

“In addition to translations, they also have regular writers. Some of its Turkish writers are interesting. This team that complains about their own country to the West in an Islamophobic, Zionist media organ has not come together by coincidence.”

The author of the Al-Monitor article that addresses the accusation, Cengiz Candar, writes that a list of Turkish writers accompanying the Medyagundem article includes him, “someone known as one of the most critical writers against Israel for decades,” before broaching whether Erdogan’s administration has “lost its bearings and [is] heading in a McCarthyist direction.”

Turkey borrows money to sustain ISLAMist gov

http://daledamos.blogspot.com/2013/06/daniel-pipes-what-turkeys-riots-mean.html

Turkish banks have borrowed heavily abroad, and especially from supportive Sunni Muslim sources. The resulting current account deficit creates so great a need for credit that the private sector alone needs to borrow US$221 billion in 2013, or nearly 30 percent of the country's$775 billion GDP.

#Kerry's claim of #Turkish ‘sensitivity’ astonishes #Israelis

By HERB KEINON

Israeli official tells 'Post' Secretary of state apparently did not read Turkey’s press reaction reports following PM Netanyahu's apology over the 2010 flotilla incident; says reports included gloating.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, April 7, 2013. Photo: Reuters

Israeli officials expressed astonishment on Sunday that US Secretary of State John Kerry praised Turkey for responding “sensitively” and without triumphalism to Israel’s apology for the Mavi Marmara incident.
“They have taken steps to try to prevent any sense of triumphalism,” Kerry said at a press conference on Sunday with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. “It has not come from the government. In fact, there has been limited response by the government itself and I think it’s important for everybody to take note of that.”
“What country is he talking about?” one Israeli official responded. “I’m afraid the State Department did not show the secretary of state the press reports from Turkey following the apology.”

The official said those reports were full of interviews and statements by both Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Davutoglu and other government ministers gloating over the apology, which was for operational errors committed that may have led to a loss of life on the Mavi Marmara in May 2010. Nine Turks were killed when Israel Navy commandos, trying to keep the ship from breaking the blockade of the Gaza Strip, were attacked by those on board.
The Israeli perception that Erdogan was indeed rubbing Jerusalem’s nose in the apology led Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, a member of the seven-person security cabinet, to write on his Facebook page five days after the apology that “it seems that since the apology, Erdogan is doing everything to make Israel regret it. He is running a personal and vitriolic campaign at the expense of Israeli- Turkish relations.”
Soon after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s apology to Erdogan in a phone call brokered by US President Barack Obama during his visit here, Erdogan, according to the Anadolu news agency, told supporters Israel may have mistakenly thought the Mavi Marmara incident would be forgotten.
The Israeli perception that Erdogan was indeed rubbing Jerusalem’s nose in the apology led Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, a member of the seven-person security cabinet, to write on his Facebook page five days after the apology that “it seems that since the apology, Erdogan is doing everything to make Israel regret it. He is running a personal and vitriolic campaign at the expense of Israeli- Turkish relations.”
Soon after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s apology to Erdogan in a phone call brokered by US President Barack Obama during his visit here, Erdogan, according to the Anadolu news agency, told supporters Israel may have mistakenly thought the Mavi Marmara incident would be forgotten.
But this time, he was quoted as saying, “the Israelis met with a different understanding and structure. The AK Party government did not remain silent against this illegality, aggressiveness and massacre.”
He went on to add, “The Israeli apology was important in remembering the martyrs of Turkey and those of Palestine.”
Billboards sponsored by the Ankara Municipality appeared within a day of the apology, reading, “Israel apologized to Turkey. Dear prime minister, we are grateful that you let our country experience this pride.”
The words were superimposed over pictures of a confident Erdogan and a tired, gloomy looking Netanyahu.
Fresh in the blush of the apology, Erdogan also announced immediately afterward that he was going to visit Gaza and the West Bank with Turkish relief organizations. He was also quoted by the Hurriyet Daily News as telling parliament that the apology changed the overall equation in the Middle East.
“The point we have arrived at as a result of our consultations with all our brothers in Palestine and peripheral countries is increasing our responsibility with regard to solving the Palestinian question and thus is bringing about a new equation,” he was quoted as saying.
Davutoglu hosted a dinner at his residence for the family members of those killed in the incident, as well as some officials of the radical Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) that was behind the flotilla.
One of IHH’s leaders was investigated by the Turkish government in 2012 for funding al-Qaida, and that same year the NGO was banned by Germany for its connections to Hamas.
“Please make yourselves at home,” said Davutoglu. “This is your home as well. Their blood will not remain on the floor. Nothing is no longer the same,” stated the foreign minister, according to the website of the Turkish paper Sabah.
If all that, and more that appeared in the Turkish press, “was not triumphalism, then I don’t know what is,” one Israeli official said.
Kerry, meanwhile, urged Turkey and Israel to restore full relations, calling this vital to regional stability, but said it was not up to Washington to dictate the conditions of rapprochement.
Kerry said it was imperative for Israel to honor its commitment to pay compensation to the families of those killed on the Mavi Marmara, and for both countries to return their ambassadors.
“With respect to the Israel- Turkey track, it is not for the United States to be setting conditions or terms,” Kerry told reporters alongside Davutoglu.
“We would like to see this relationship that is important to stability in the Middle East, critical to the peace process itself – we would like to see this relationship get back on track in its full measure,” he said.
To do so, said Kerry, “it is imperative that the compensation component of the agreement be fulfilled, that the ambassadors be returned and that full relationship be embraced, but it’s not up to us to discuss the timing.”
One thing that Kerry did not mention was Ankara’s boast afterward that Israel had agreed to lift the blockade of Gaza.
Israel made no such pledge.
An Israeli delegation is expected to arrive in Turkey this week to begin discussing the details of the compensation agreement. Neither country has said, however, when their ambassadors would go back, though the Turkish press speculated this could occur as early as the end of June.

Reuters contributed to this report.

via docstalk.blogspot.com

Jordanian King #Abdullah: PM #Erdogan views democracy as ‘bus ride,’ | #Atatürk #Jordan #Turkey #Islam #Morsi

Jordanian King Abdullah: PM Erdogan views democracy as ‘bus ride,’. (HD)(Other) Jordanian King Abdullah II has criticized Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, saying the prime minister views democracy as a “bus ride.”
Erdoğan is merely promoting a softer version of Islamism, the king told the Atlantic magazine in an interview. “Erdoğan once said that democracy, for him, is a bus ride,” King Abdullah said. “‘Once I get to my stop, I’m getting off,’ [Erdoğan said].” King Abdullah paid a two-day official visit to Turkey earlier this month, where he shed tears as he visited Anıtkabir, the mausoleum dedicated to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey.
The King sees Erdoğan as a more restrained and savvier version of Mohamed Morsi, according to the interview. “Instead of the Turkish model, taking six or seven years, [instead of] being an Erdoğan, Morsi wanted to do it overnight,” the King said.
“There is no depth there,” Abdullah reportedly told the Atlantic of he and Morsi’s discussion on Hamas. “I was trying to explain to him how to deal with Hamas, how to get the peace process moving, and he was like, ‘The Israelis will not move.’ I said, ‘Listen, whether the Israelis move or don’t move, it’s how we get Fatah and Hamas ‘together.’” When Morsi remained fixated on the Israelis, the King said, he tried to reiterate the importance of sorting out “the mess” on the Palestinian side.
“There’s no depth to the guy,” he repeated of Morsi. Hmmmm......The Islam 'Light' will just as well get to the same result, Morsi and Erdogan are not that different.Read the full story here.

King Abdullah doing Obama's dirty work, but both of them are king over an elite aristocracy.

Turkey’s PM slams popular TV series for tarnishing Ottoman history.

Turkey’s PM slams popular TV series for tarnishing Ottoman history.(HD).A historical Turkish TV series has distorted Ottoman history, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was reported as saying by a news agency on Monday. “The Magnificent Century” chronicles the life of Suleiman the Magnificent, who ruled the Ottoman Empire in its golden age, has gained popularity in the Arab World, but according to Erdogan, the series has tarnished the image of the 16th century longest-reigning Ottoman emperor, Sultan Suleiman, Anadolu Agency reported Erdogan saying. “These are not our ancestors who have been portrayed in this TV series,” he said during the inauguration of an airport in Kutahya Province, 190 miles west of the capital Ankara. In the TV series, scenes which have particularly offended show a young and lusty sultan cavorting in the harem and drinking goblets of wine. These pursuits were frowned upon by the Muslim faithful for whom the sultan had religious as well as temporal authority. “We live in a seven-billion-people strong world and we know our role. We go to every place that our ancestors reached on their horsebacks, and we care about these regions,” he added. During the emperor’s reign, the Ottoman Empire reached its zenith, he said. “He spent 30 years of his life on the horseback, fighting wars and conquering cities.” The prime minister said he is pursuing a legal case against the TV directors of the Turkish drama. Read the full story here.

via mfs-theothernews.com

Turkey’s Kurdish Calculus

(Israpundit)Ankara re-embraces its old allies in Washington, at the expense of Tehran and Damascus.
By SONER CAGAPTAY, WSJ
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has made a bloody comeback in Turkey. According to a recent report by the International Crisis Group, PKK-related violence has killed some 700 people since the summer of 2011. This deadly toll recalls the horrors of the 1990s, when thousands of civilians were killed in PKK terror attacks and a brutal war in eastern Turkey between the government and Kurdish militants.
The resurgence of PKK violence is no accident. It is directly related to Turkey’s defiant posture in support of the Syrian uprising and against the Assad regime and its patrons in Iran. The upside for the West is that Ankara is starting to re-embrace its old friends in Washington.

The breakdown in Turkish-Syrian ties began in the summer of 2011. Since then, Damascus has once again allowed the PKK to operate in Syria. Meanwhile, to punish Ankara for its Syria policy, Iran’s leaders have made peace with the Kurdish rebels they had been fighting, letting the PKK focus its energy against Turkey.
This was not Ankara’s plan. When the Syrian uprising began in spring 2011, Turkish leaders initially encouraged Bashar Assad’s regime to reform. In August 2011, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spent six hours in Damascus asking Assad to stop killing civilians.
The Syrian tyrant not only disregarded Turkey’s pleas; he also sent tanks into Hama hours after Mr. Davutoglu left the capital. Thereafter, Ankara broke from Assad and began calling for his ouster. Turkey began providing safe haven to Syrian opposition groups, and media reports have even indicated that Ankara has been arming the Syrian rebels.
Enlarge Image
European Pressphoto Agency
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
Assad responded by letting the PKK operate in Syria after keeping a lid on the group for more than a decade. In 1998, Assad’s father had cracked down on the longtime presence of Kurdish militants in Syria, after Turkey threatened to invade if Syria continued to harbor the PKK. This spring, Assad allowed the PKK to move some 2,000 militants into Syria from their mountain enclave in northern Iraq. Assad, in effect, signaled to Ankara: “Help my enemy, and I will help yours.”
The Iranian regime has spoken in similar tones. In September 2011, immediately after Ankara started to confront the Assad regime, Tehran reconciled with the PKK’s Iranian franchise, the Party for Freedom and Life in Kurdistan. Tehran had been fighting its Kurdish rebels since 2003, as part of a strategy to take advantage of the rift between Turkey and the U.S. at the onset of the Iraq War. By helping Turkey defeat Kurdish militias, Iran had hoped to win Ankara’s favor at the expense of its own archenemy: Washington. But Iran flipped this posture last year, and by making peace Kurdish militants, it gave the PKK freedom to target Turkey.
The new stance on the PKK could not have worked so well against Turkey had the Syrian uprising not excited Kurds across the Middle East, including in Turkey. As Syrian rebels eroded the regime’s power in northern Syria this summer, Kurds started taking control of cities there, just across the border with Turkey.
Encouraged by this development, the PKK has tried to wrest control of Turkish towns, targeting especially vulnerable spots in the country’s rugged and isolated southernmost Hakkari province, which borders Iraq and Iran. Although the PKK has not yet secured any territory, the battle for Hakkari has caused hundreds of casualties over recent months.
Iran appears to be complicit in this new PKK assault, at least in part. Last month Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters that the government had “received information that [PKK] terrorists infiltrated from the Iranian side of the border” before launching a massive assault on the town of Semdinli in Hakkari. Tehran denies this.
Rejuvenated by its welcome in Syria and Iran, and also by Ankara’s stunted “Kurdish Opening”—an aborted effort in 2009 that had aimed to improve Kurds’ rights in Turkey—the PKK is now spreading tension beyond the Kurdish-majority areas of southeastern Turkey. On Aug. 20, the group killed nine people with a car bomb in Gaziantep, a prosperous and mixed Turkish-Kurdish city that had been spared from PKK violence. Once again, the Syrian-Iranian axis cast its shadow over the assault: Turkish officials alleged Syrian complicity in the Gaziantep attack, and when Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili met with Turkey’s prime minister in Istanbul on Sept. 18, he was also reportedly admonished.
Ankara’s Middle East policy rests on one basic premise: that anyone who supports the PKK is Turkey’s enemy. It follows that Ankara has a problem with Damascus until Assad falls, and a long-term problem with Tehran even after Assad falls.
Accordingly, these shifting stones in the Middle East are also bringing Ankara closer to its longtime ally the U.S. Turkey has agreed to host NATO’s missile-defense system, which aims to protect members of the Western alliance from Iranian and other nuclear threats.
After weeks of attacks and riots against their embassies elsewhere in the Middle East, Americans may well be wondering if the Arab Spring has had any positive consequences at all for the U.S. The severing of Turkish-Iranian ties, at least, can count as one.
Mr. Cagaptay is a Beyer Family Fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
(image from Venitism - a pro Kurd blog)

fascinating. I was about to open my arms to the Kurds about two years ago when social media rumors were hinting that we should support them as atrocity victims. I've no doubt that they are indeed victims, but their recent allegiance to Iran and Syria isn't exactly the type of response I'd of hoped for. The Kurds are an interesting third or fifth,,, or maybe sixth leg in mid-east politics. I've heard that they all aren't Shia either. Some of the Kurds are also Sunni Islam... or maybe I was being lied to about that as well. It's hard to know what to believe. Often times Westerners are told they are ignorant about mid-east political matters. That might be true... but usually because the sources we ask lie to us.

Erdogan's BFF Obama allowed Israel to be excluded from the NATO summit to satisfy the Turks.

(other) Erdogan's BFF Obama allowed Israel to be excluded from the NATO summit to satisfy the Turks.(Israelmatzav).The State Department is scrambling to deny it, but the reality is that Israel has been excluded from the NATO summit in Chicago because President Hussein Obama's best friend forever, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wanted it that way.

Administration officials first condescendingly insisted that critics had a “misconception” about how NATO worked. There just wasn’t enough time and space to invite members from “all those partnerships and alliance[s].” Then it turned out that there was room for members of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative. The Initiative, though undoubtedly valuable, is unlikely to be as critical to NATO’s core focus on the Mediterranean than the Mediterranean Dialogue of which Israel is a part.
So last week the standard for attendance shifted. The new bar was participation in the NATO missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo. Quote-unquote from NATO’s Secretary-General Rasmussen: “Israel has not been invited to attend the summit because Israel is neither a participant in ISAF, nor in KFOR.”
But that still won’t work. Summit participant Jordan is a formal ISAF partner but provides exactly nothing worth listing to the mission. Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Qatar are also in Chicago, even though none are in ISAF or KFOR.
One wonders, then, what new excuse the Obama administration will trot out this week?
The answer can’t be about providing input on Kosovo or Afghanistian. That might colorably bring the Stans on board – regional presence, supply lines, etc – but not Qatar. Even worse for the administration’s prevarication, they can’t use that to justify excluding Israel. It was just last month when IAF chief Ido Nechushtan was awarded a U.S. Air Force decoration for the contributions the IAF has made to America’s war-fighting capabilities in Afghanistan. If the goal is to brainstorm how to fight in and/or withdraw from the country, Israeli input would seem relatively valuable.
The White House’s overarching narrative is that Turkey never vetoed Israel’s invitation to the Chicago summit because Israel was never invited to the Chicago summit. That’s hard to believe but – if it’s true – it’s a cause for deep concern. Invitations were sent out to over 30 non-NATO members, including those with no connections to NATO, but no one remembered to invite the American ally and NATO partner that controls the Middle East’s most powerful military? Forget the Obama White House’s supine acquiescence to Turkey’s neo-Ottoman weight throwing. According to this theory, the most successful military alliance in history is being run by idiots.

Just imagine what it will be like if God forbid Obama is reelected. Not only will Israel be excluded from NATO, but NATO might even be used to attack Israel.Hmmmm.........Obama: “A man is judged by his deeds, not his words.” So if you want to know where my heart lies, look no further than what I have done — to stand up for Israel."Read the full story here.

Turkey freezes all ties with France

I don't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Erdogan here. This is not an enlightened way of thinking. I'm of the position that the Armenians were in fact killed in mass, but it can not be compared to the Holocaust of Jews because it was an open call to arms against the Ottomans. This would immediately make me in conflict to this law as well.

(israelmatzav.blogspot.com) On Thursday, the lower house of the French parliament passed a bill making it a crime punishable by one year in jail to deny any genocide. That includes the Armenian genocide committed by the Turks between 1915-18, and Turkey reacted with predictable seething and rage (Hat Tip: Will).

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday a bill passed by France's lower house of parliament, making it a crime to deny genocide, was racist, discriminatory and xenophobic and said it had opened wounds with Paris that would be difficult to heal.
Erdogan said Turkey was cancelling all economic, political and military meetings with NATO partner France and said Ankara would cancel permission for French military planes to land and warships to dock in Turkey as a result of the bill.

That's even more than the steps they've taken against Israel (so far).
Let's go to the videotape.
The BBC adds:

Under the bill, those publicly denying genocide would face a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros (£29,000: $58,000).
Armenians say up to 1.5m people were killed by the Ottoman Turks in 1915-16.
Ankara says closer to 300,000 people died, and that Turks were also killed as Armenians rose up against the Ottoman Empire when Russian troops invaded eastern Anatolia, now eastern Turkey.
More than 20 countries have formally recognised the killings as genocide.
...
Turkish TV announced the recall of the country's envoy in response to the bill.
Ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu will leave France on Friday and further measures will be announced in Turkey by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a Turkish embassy spokesman confirmed for French news agency AFP.
Earlier, Turkey's main political parties issued a joint statement condemning the bill, saying it "denigrates Turkish history", and there have been protests outside the French embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara.

CNN adds:

"We are reviewing our relations with France," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after the French National Assembly passed the so-called Armenian genocide bill. "We will take our measures phase by phase depending on France's behavior from now on.
Erdogan said Turkey is recalling its Paris ambassador for consultations to Ankara, is canceling bilateral visits, and won't cooperate with France in joint projects within the European Union.
"We are stopping all kinds of political consultations with France. We are canceling bilateral military activities and joint exercises from now on. We are canceling the permission granted annually for all military overflights, landings and take-offs. We are starting permission process for every military flight individually. From today on, we are rejecting the permission requests of military ships to visit ports. We will not attend and held the bilateral Turkey-France joint economic and trade partnership committee meeting that was planned for January 2012 under the co-chairmanship of the economy ministers of the two countries," Erdogan said.
"I am underlining this. This is the first phase."

WHERE IS AMERICA'S LOYALTY?

Back stabbed. cuckolded?“There is an exuberant atmosphere of narcissism rampant amongst the close advisors of Erdogan. They all believe if Turkey attacked Israel, the United States will stand by Turkey”. Obama to Erdogan: 'We'll defend Turkey before we defend Israel'?

the Obama Administration (who's your bitch?)

Israel sent Heron drones back to Turkey (Ontime after being humiliated by Erdogan)

Stay Classy Erdogan

(h/t Israel Matzav) YNet reports that Israel has repaired and returned to Turkey the Heron unmanned aerial vehicles that Turkey bought from Israel and has been using to attack its Kurdish population.

About two months ago Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of failing to meet its obligations in defense deals, adding to tensions with Israel which have escalated since an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla killed nine people last year.
Erdogan accused the Jewish state of not returning drones that Turkey had bought from Israel and sent back for maintenance.
They are not loyal to agreements between us in the defense industry," Erdogan said. "There might be problems, you may not be speaking to each other, but you have to fulfill your responsibility under international agreements."
According to Wednesday's report in Zaman, the drones have been returned to Turkey. The report further claimed that after a long period in which Israeli technicians refrained from visiting Turkey for security reasons, Israel sent technicians employed by Aeronautics, the company which manufactures the drones, to work on drones at a Turkish army base.
In a conversation with Ynet, a Israeli security official confirmed that the drones had recently been returned to Turkey, but denied any delay in the shipment. "The company returned all of the drones on schedule," he said.

Whoever made this decision has a masochistic streak. Why should we be giving Turkey anything?

Turkey headed for civil war?

(h/t Israel Matzav) Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has largely defeated his secular, Kemalist opponents. Many of the military's leaders are in jail, as are more journalists than any other country in the world. While this development is negative for Turkish democracy, it also may turn out to be negative for Erdogan himself.

Yet, while Erdoğan may appear to be at the pinnacle of power, it is his government’s “Gülenist” allies who have grown increasingly powerful. Members of the transnational Gülen movement – inspired by followers of Fethullah Gülen, a Pennsylvania-based Muslim theologian – are staffing Turkey’s police, judiciary, bureaucracy, and universities. The Gülenist media now set the country’s new ideological tone, producing a steady stream of disinformation in their vocal support of the country’s show trials.
These trials are, in fact, often staged to serve Gülenist ends specifically. Prominent detainees, such as the journalist Nedim Sener and police commissioner Hanefi Avci, landed in jail after exposing the wrongdoings of Gülenist police and prosecutors. Editorials in Zaman, the Gülen network’s Turkish-language daily newspaper, no longer mince words: a new Turkey is being created; those who stand in the way are getting what they deserve.
Erdoğan has benefited greatly from Gülenist support, yet he detests sharing power and remains suspicious of the movement. Early on, he successfully exploited the Gülenist-supported political trials in order to demonize the opposition. But, as the charges have increased in scope and implausibility, the trials have complicated his relationships with the military, domestic liberals, and outsiders such as foreign media and the European Union. Moreover, individuals close to him and his administration have recently become entangled in the net of judicial manipulation, which suggests that he may be losing control over the police and the special courts.
Given that the fight against the common enemy, the secularist old guard, has been decisively won, an eventual break between Erdoğan and the Gülenists is perhaps inevitable. Unfortunately, regardless of which side emerges victorious, the outcome will not be good news for Turkish democracy.

Read the whole thing

Turkey Seeks Simultaneous Drilling Halt

(Hudson-NY.ORG) Washington is closely monitoring the recent developments on the issue...

Redrawing the Sea: Erdogan says Israel will not be able to move in the eastern Mediterranean as it wishes.
...oh and don't forget about those Turkish warships that are being built domestically. oh joy! (Hurriyet)...in the mean time Turkey acts like it is being diplomatic with it's other neighbors:

(AA.com) Turkish Cypriot President Derviş Eroğlu on Saturday submitted a four-item proposal to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to resolve the spat with Greek Cyprus over drilling in the eastern Mediterranean.
The proposal starts with a bid for both sides to simultaneously suspend oil and gas exploration, a move that seemed to show Turkey's reluctance to start drilling work in the Mediterranean.
In the first item of the new proposal submitted to Ban, Eroğlu made an offer to the Greek side to "suspend the oil and natural gas exploration simultaneously until a comprehensive solution is found to the Cyprus problem."
If this is not going to happen, Eroğlu offered to "set up an ad-hoc committee shaped by representatives of both peoples" on the divided island.

Disgusting denial of the correlative. Turkey is on the gas pipeline and has no gas shortages like Europe does. It is not generous at all to meet this demand. Hindering exploration would raise the price of the resource... this would make Turkey profit. It sounds like as if they are making nice, but they are not. Erdogan's ploy at diplomacy is hostile and manipulative.

"We shall give some authority to the committee, such as [authority over] explorations, agreements and licenses dependent on written approval of both sides, and we will negotiate the ratio of sharing the riches that will be found," Eroğlu said.
Thirdly, the Turkish Cypriot leader proposed, "We shall use the income to finance the comprehensive talks," adding that "the adoption of the plan shall not harm the positions of either side."

He is playing as if he is generous and ready to negotiate terms... typical Islamic move of demanding conditions for negotiations.

Eroğlu said Ban was pleased with the proposal, in which he repeated Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's earlier call for the two sides to simultaneously renounce the energy explorations. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Turkey supported the new proposal that was presented to the UN chief.

We all know Ban's bias already

"If the two parties renounce natural gas exploration, we will accept it," Erdoğan told Ban late Thursday on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly in New York, asking the UN chief to intervene with the Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia and urge them to stop their offshore explorations.
Turkish Cypriot Foreign Minister Hüseyin Özgürgün said Sunday that required coordinates had been set and drilling for oil would soon begin in northern Cyprus. If the Greek Cypriot administration sees Turkish Cypriots as a minority on the island and carries out exploration work unilaterally, Turkish Cypriots can begin exploration in the north of the island, Özgürgün said.
Richard Stone, a leader of Jewish communities in the United States, meanwhile told the daily newspaper Kathimerini on Sunday that Turkey's actions to prevent the gas and oil drilling efforts of Greek Cyprus and Israel in the East Mediterranean is "a reason for war." He said.

Meanwhile Ankara Prepares to Penalize Syria to look good for the international community and sadly the United States. Keep in mind that Assad isn't even a Muslim

(Hurriyet)"If you're going to act against fundamental rights and liberties, and the law, you will lose your position in my heart as my brother and my friend," Erdoğan said, referring to al-Assad. "I was very patient. Patience, patience, patience. And then I cracked."

It is amusing to think anyone would cooperate with Erdogan based on such dishonest intentions.

(Zaman) Opposition Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, leader Devlet Bahçeli has accused Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of working for the security of other countries while his country has been suffering from terrorist attacks.

Yikes, U.S., Turkey Agree on Delivery Schedule of Predators

(Zaman) "These [Predators] are UAVs with better qualities and features than the Herons," Yılmaz said, adding that the Turkish-made Anka would also be ready for the TSK around the same time as an alternative to Israeli-made Herons.Turkey was disappointed by Israel's failure to return six Herons it had sent to the country for maintenance, as it relies heavily on spy aircraft for surveillance missions that gather data on the activities of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, across the country's borders in the Southeast.... Meanwhile, the domestically made Anka, named after the legendary flying creature of Persian mythology, was brought out of the hangar for the first time in July 2010 and is expected to provide Turkey with a crucial advantage in its fight against the PKK. The Anka is capable of disrupting the electronic ware of enemy aircraft and has made Turkey the third country in the world, after the U.S. and Israel, to engineer UAVs.

This one is hysterically funny! Turkey’s economic lie ...Erdogan Says Turkey is a Role Model in Region?

Turkey no economic powerhouse, Erdogan’s credit bubble will soon explode

(AA.com) Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey is a role model in its region and has become a country whose friendship and cooperation is asked for in the whole world. Attending a brunch meeting of the Investment Support and Promotion Agency in New York on Saturday, Erdoğan said that a country needed some qualities to draw investment and make commercial relations with another country, listing the qualities as a democratic milieu, stable economy, strong political state, dynamic real sector, big domestic market and export potential. Stressing the importance of stability and confidence, Erdoğan said that Turkey had these qualities. Turkey gives confidence to investors in the world with its economy, public financing and banking sector, Erdoğan said, adding that Turkish economy grew nine percent in 2010, 11.6 percent in the first quarter of 2011, and 8.8 percent in the second quarter of 2011. He said that Turkey became one of the fastest growing two economies together with China in the first half of the year. Noting that Turkey became an attraction center for investors, Erdoğan said that private sector investments, which were only 43 billion Turkish Lira, or TL, in 2002, rose to 164 billion TL in 2010. Erdogan noted that Turkey created 1.5 million new employment opportunities in June 2011 when compared to June 2010. He added that Turkey's success was not related with conjuncture, noting that it was related with economy management, real sector and the potential of the country. He said that Turkey's export increased from $36 billion in 2002 to $130 billion in 2010, adding that Turkey had free trade agreements with 20 countries, and opened to Middle East, Africa and South Africa countries to make export. Erdogan said that trade volume between Turkey and the United States was $16 billion in 2010.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Says Turkey Appreciated in IMF Meetings?

(Anadoluajansi) "This is the first time in nine years that I have seen such a high-level political will in the United States, aiming to make business with Turkey," Babacan said.

Turkish Opposition Says No to 'Israel Shield' aka that NATO thing Obama wanted so bad ...doesn't sound like the West likes them or vise versa as much as Erdogan's propaganda claims.

(Hurriyet) The Turkish government is doing nothing but ensuring Israel's safety by allowing the establishment of a NATO radar base in Turkey, Republican and People's Party, or CHP, leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Erdogan goes bananas at UN, demands apology and payoff from Israel

(EYE) NEW YORK (JPost) – In an animated speech, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke out vehemently against Israel and put the blame for the current Israel-Turkey tension solely on the shoulders of the Israeli government.

Calling Turkish support for a Palestinian state “unconditional,” Erdogan said that “it is necessary to put pressure on Israel to achieve peace.”

“What you face today is not a simple equation of peace for security,” he said. “You must read the newly flourishing political and human geography in the Middle East.”

A new approach was necessitated by the changing political climate created by the Arab Spring, he said.

Citing May 2010’s Mavi Marmara incident, Erdogan said that Israel “has seriously wronged a country and its people.”

“Israel must apologize, pay compensate to the families of our martyrs, and lift the blockade on Gaza,” he said.

Turkey threatens to freeze EU out too

(Simply Jews) The Turkish international activities are reaching a state of frenzy. First Turkey became mad at Syria. Then they decimated their relationship with Israel. Following up with pissing off a good part of Egyptians. Erdogan now goes for a package deal:

EU-candidate Turkey will freeze relations with the European Union if Cyprus is given the EU presidency in 2012, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay was quoted as saying by state-run news agency Anatolian late on Saturday.

Turkey’s economic lie

Op-ed: Turkey no economic powerhouse, Erdogan’s credit bubble will soon explode

Guy Bechor
Israel Opinion
Some refer to him as “the Middle East’s new sultan in a neo-Ottoman empire” – yet the truth about Erdogan’s kingdom is utterly different. We are not facing an economic power, but rather, a state whose credit bubble will be bursting any moment now and bringing down its economy.
The budget deficit of the collapsing Greece compared to its GDP stands at some 10%, and the world is alarmed. At the same time, Turkey’s deficit is at 9.5%, yet some members of the financial media describe the Turkish economy as a success story (for comparison’s sake, Israel’s deficit stands at some 3% and is expected to decline to 2% this year.)
While Turkey’s economy grew by some 10% this year, this was merely the result of financial manipulation.
So how does the system work? The banks in Erdogan’s Turkey handed out loans and mortgages to any seeker in recent years, offering very low interest rates; this was in fact a gift. As the interest rate was so low, Turkish citizens used more and more credit, mostly for consumption.

And how did Turkey’s Central Bank finance this credit party? Via loans: Erdogan’s bank borrowed money in the world and handed it out to its citizens. However, Turkey’s deficit kept growing because of it, until it reached a scary 8% of GDP; by the end of the year the figure is expected to reach 10%.

Turkey’s external debt doubled itself in the past 18 months, which were election campaign months. Only a small part of the deficit (15%) was financed by foreign investment. The rest constitutes immense external debts.

Now it’s clear that Erdogan’s regime bought the voters in the recent elections. Most of the Turkish public elected him not because of Islamic sentiments, but rather, because he handed out low-interest loans to everyone. I will provide you with cheap money so you can become addicted to shopping, and you shall elect me.

The Israel diversion
This created Turkey’s credit bubble, which may explode any day now, because the date for returning the loans approaches. Will the Saudis help Erdogan as he hopes? This is highly doubtful. Nobody is willing to pay for attacks on Israel, and the West is annoyed by Erdogan’s thuggery. Why should they help him?

Moreover, Turkey’s unemployment rate is 13% and the local currency continues to plummet vis-à-vis the dollar – it reached its lowest levels since the 2009 global crisis. With a weak currency and with a stock exchange that lost some 40% of its value in dollars in the last six months, Erdogan wants to be the Middle East’s ruler?

Once the bubble explodes, the score with Erdogan will be settled, by the journalists his government ordered to arrest, by army officers charged with imaginary accusations, by the restrained scientists, the politicians, and mostly the general public, which shall be facing an economic disaster.

And this is where Israel comes into the picture. Why talk about the approaching economic catastrophe? Why talk about this disgrace, when it’s better to create an artificial crisis vis-à-vis Israel, a spin that the whole world will be talking about instead of talking about the sinking Turkey? After all, the Marmara raid happened more than a year ago, why did it emerge again now? Is it only because of the Palmer Report?
We shall wait a few more months, and then we shall see what really happens in the new sultan’s kingdom.

via docstalk.blogspot.com

Erdogan to Tunisians: Israel will not be able to move in the eastern Mediterranean as it wishes.

“Israel will not be able to move in the eastern Mediterranean as it wishes,” Erdogan said at a joint news conference with his counterpart, Interim Prime Minister Beji Caid el Sebsi. “It will see our determination in this regard.”

Wikileaks: Israeli ambassador to Turkey called Erdogan AntiSemite Hate MaviMarmara

Israel's ambassador to Turkey Gabby Levy described Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a “fundamentalist” who hates the Jewish state on religious grounds (Hat Tip: Sparky the Wonder Dog via American Thinker). Levy's term in Turkey expires next week. The cable was written in October 2009, long before the Mavi Marmara incident. More on Erdogan's anti-Semitic background here. More on Erdogan's anti-Semitic mentor here. - Carl

Turkish military's mass resignations show the end of Turkish military's role in government

The resignations of Turkey's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the commanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force, may symbolize the end of the Turkish military's power in the country's government.

“This is effectively the end of the military’s role in Turkish democracy,” said Asli Aydintasbas, a columnist for the Turkish daily newspaper Milliyet. “This is the symbolic moment where the first Turkish republic ends and the second republic begins.”

Muslim countries can't handle freedom... arresting their leaders only to replace them with Islam friendly generals.

The resignations were the culmination of a year of frustrations, in which more than 40 generals — approximately a tenth of the senior military command — were taken into custody, an assault that has infuriated the military but left it essentially helpless to fight back.

“This was their last resort,” Ms. Aydintasbas said of the resignations. “It is happening precisely because there is no likelihood of a coup. There is nothing else for them to do.”

Two analysts have raised the possibility that the resignations are preparations for a military coup, but that appears unlikely with so many officers imprisoned. One report even claimed that Kosaner's resignation was forced by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey is not headed toward a more democratic government.
It is headed toward a more Islamist one.

This is the first time in the history of the republic that we are seeing something like this,” said Gursel Tekin, vice president of the main opposition political party, who was speaking in the seaside city of Canakkale. “Honestly, this situation is not good.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

Turkey: Erdogan's New "Ottoman Region"

Assad and his ruling clique are not Sunnis. They are Alawis -- not exactly the same as Turkey's Alevis, but similar in that they also revere Ali as a deity, much as the Christians revere Jesus. As a result of the continuing upheaval in Syria, the ruling party of Turkey might see itself as surrounded by various active religious threats from the east and from Syria, along Turkey's southern border... It is in this context that we should understand Turkey's renewed interest in the U.S. and Israel. As such, both the U.S. and Israel should be extremely wary of Erdogan and his associates. Erdogan's Turkey does not see long-term interests with either. Given economic developments in Iran, Alawite oppression in Syria, and Shiite-dominance in Iraq, Erdogan understands that he must take a temporary hiatus from his goal of reasserting what appears to be his real goal -- the Turkish Sunni domination of the entire Middle East. via hudson-ny.org