According to Article 90 of the Turkish Constitution, international agreements prevail over domestic laws if there is a conflict between them and no appeal can be made to the Constitutional Court claiming the former are unconstitutional.
Turkey
Salim Tamari discusses his recent book, Year of the Locust: A Soldier’s Diary and the Erasure of Palestine’s Ottoman Past, and puts it in today’s geopolitical context.
[T]he Palmer Report seems to fault seriously the manner by which the Israeli enforced the blockade, but unfortunately upheld the underlying legality of both the blockade and the right of enforcement, and that is the rub.
Haneen Zoabi: “Just as Israelis are beginning to seriously consider a new social order, they must also consider a new diplomatic order in which Israel will pay a heavy price for its policy of oppression, occupation, and belligerence.”
Israel’s ambassador to Turkey reiterates Jerusalem’s opposition to the naval ‘provocation,’ says Israel would allow the pass of humanitarian aid through other channels.
Turkish newspaper reports agencies stopped exchanging intelligence and conducting joint operations following Turkish government decision.
“This is clearly a serious criminal attack,” he said. “It is hijacking in international waters and there were quite brutal murders.” But, although this case is more extreme than others, he said, Israel’s “hijacking ships in international waters, kidnapping people, killing them sometimes, bringing them to Israel, keeping them hostages in prisons for long periods” have been going on for at least 30 years, and Israel can continue those actions because it is tolerated by the United States.
President Barack Obama has personally warned Turkey’s prime minister that unless Ankara shifts its position on Israel and Iran it stands little chance of obtaining the US weapons it wants to buy.
IAF officer: “There are very high mountains in central Romania with a flat area around them and this unfamiliar terrain … provided the crews with a unique environment for training that cannot be carried out in Israel” … As Israeli-Turkish relations began deteriorating … so far as joint air force exercises go, Romania is now Israel’s closed European ally.
IOA Editor: Of all probable future Israeli targets, high altitude training can only serve to emulate conditions in Iran.
Senior Turkish diplomat: If Israel fails to meet the demands, Turkey will downgrade its diplomatic representation to the level of a charge d’affaires … Ankara would consider no new cooperation agreements with Israel … [and] existing deals were being reviewed.
A Turkish military delegation arrived Tuesday in Tel Aviv to conclude test-runs in the delivery of four Israeli-made drones, the remaining lot in a 10-UAV deal between Turkey and Israel.
IOA Editor: From the invisible hand of the market to the invisible hand on the trigger. Killings by Made-in-Israel drones to continue.
As [Istanbul] hosted the third summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), it was clear that Israel, at the receiving end of global condemnation for last week’s attack on an aid ship trying to sail to the Gaza Strip, faced further isolation for its “brazen act” that killed nine peace activists.
[T]he blockade has been a colossal moral, political and diplomatic failure. Not only has it wrought a humanitarian catastrophe on Gaza’s 1.5 million people: it has so strengthened Hamas that it alone could claim the high ground in the wake of the flotilla debacle. It was that moral weight that compelled Egypt to open Gaza’s Rafah crossing into the Sinai on 1 June.
Rashid Khalidi covers Israel’s attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, and turns the focus to Israel’s Gaza siege, Israel-Palestine, and the US – Israel relations in an interview with WBEZ radio, Chicago (Audio).
UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk: the raid is “clearly a criminal act, being on the high seas.” Storming a peaceful boat is akin to a home invasion, with the aggravating circumstance that the invaded space in this case was packed with goods intended to alleviate human suffering.
Analysts say it is no surprise that the main effort to restore the relationship is coming from the two militaries, which have formed its bedrock ever since the alliance was formed in the mid-1990s… Israel and Turkey signed more than 20 military agreements in the 1990s. One called for four joint air force training sessions a year in each country. The two navies participated in joint exercises and staff officers collaborated on war-game simulations…
IOA Editor: In addition to being an important Israeli military industries’ customer and a strategic military partner, Turkey also provides the “Northern Route” alternative for an Israeli air-force attack on Iran, which is not mentioned in this WSJ article. See Anthony Cordesman and Abdullah Toukan’s Israeli attack on Iran: A Study of Options and Consequences
“The governments have failed to display the reactions that the world’s Muslims expected from them. And this has been a pitiful aspect of the matter,” Erdogan told reporters.
Ayalon praised Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s policies. “His policy is proving to be effective. We will not allow a situation where every country will kick us. If there will be an attack on Israel, we will leave all options open, including the expulsion of ambassadors.”
IOA Editor: The “only democracy in the Middle East,” and one that cannot stand criticism.
Alon Liel, a former director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry and an expert on relations with Turkey, said Mr Ayalon’s treatment of the ambassador had made “Israeli diplomacy look ridiculous.”
IOA Editor: The “thugs” of Gaza, to quote former Israeli Foreign Minister Livni, let their thuggery spill into the diplomatic arena. No wonder they look ridiculous.
Press reports highlighted the fact that Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon made Ambassador Ahmet Celikkol sit on a low couch while the Israelis sat on high chairs, as he reprimanded the envoy over a Turkish television thriller which portrays Israeli Mossad agents as baby-snatchers.
This signals an improvement in the currently strained Turkish-Israeli relations, as Ankara excluded Israel at the last minute from the Anatolian Eagle international maneuvers
A leading Israeli defense analyst said the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan has decided to end defense and military cooperation with Israel. Analyst Ron Ben-Yishai said the Turkish Defense Ministry has shelved a range of proposed Israeli projects.
[U]nderneath those still waters on which Israel’s ship is sailing lurks an iceberg. The Goldstone report marked the iceberg’s first appearance. Turkey turning its back on Israel was the second. Attempts by European courts to try Israel Defense Forces officers were the third; the boycott of Israeli products and companies in various places round the world was the fourth;
IOA Editor: Shavit represents Israel’s self-righteous center-right: profoundly immoral – in fact, evil. In Gideon Levy’s The Golda wars, Shavit falls into the category of Israeli Government and IDF “demagogic cheerleaders:” he cheered Israel’s Gaza attack, and now he whines about the Goldstone report.
Shavit omits the most obvious: it’s Israel’s own actions that delegitimize Israel – the Gaza closure and attack being only the most recent. Rather than proposing a “diplomatic initiative that would prove that Israel is truly and genuinely striving to end the occupation,” how about taking actual steps to End the Occupation? It could start with a complete freeze on settlements and a large scale release of Palestinian prisoners, followed by a unilateral declaration of intentions to withdraw, etc. Instead, Shavit goes back to “Hasbara” – the propaganda approach to gaining legitimacy: an old, familiar Israeli method.
Importantly, Shavit’s “iceberg appearances,” above, can form the basis for an effective anti-Occupation campaign.
Yossi Melman, Haaretz chief military intelligence analyst: “The reason Turkey banned Israel from this week’s NATO air force exercises had nothing to do with January’s war in the Gaza Strip. Rather, it was because of delays in the delivery of unmanned aerial vehicles to the Turkish army, a source in the Turkish Air Force said.”
IOA Editor: Whether it was Israel’s attack on Gaza or the failure to deliver Israeli killer-drones to Turkey on schedule, note that the right to use force, by either country, is assumed to be absolute. Melman doesn’t even mention it, let alone question it.
Turkey agreed four years ago to buy 10 Heron UAVs [drones] for over $180 million from Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Elbit Systems, Ltd. However, the Israeli firms missed the deadline for delivery.
Dr. Samir Awad, Birzeit University: “The Turks could bring pressure to bear on the Israelis to moderate their treatment of the Palestinians as Israel values its strategic relations with Turkey. The Palestinians can only benefit from this… Turkey could also exert influence on the Americans to lean on their Israeli ally”.
Key questions:
- What are the implications of a Turkey-Israel rift on the international effort to stop Iran’s nuclear quest?
- Does this signal a dramatic change in relations between the Turkish military and the moderate Islamic Administration of the ruling AK party?
- Will the Turkish ban on Israel prove to be the first tangible boycott by a country allied with Israel?
- And, what effect will this have on Israel’s obdurate policies with respect to easing their unrelenting pressure on the Palestinians?
The foreign, defence, interior, economy, oil, electricity, agriculture and health ministers of the two countries attended the strategic talks in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
“… When phosphorus bombs were rained on innocent children in Gaza, the whole world, all of humanity, watched…” the Turkish prime minister said. “… unfortunately from time to time in international discussion platforms, the term ‘Islamic terror’ began to be used, and efforts were made to place blame on the Muslims and Islam.”
Israel’s relationship with Turkey’s military, which is highly secular and generally supportive of Israel, has remained strong. The apparent disruption of the two countries’ strategic military cooperation is therefore a sign that something is going terribly awry.
His Middle East policy is collapsing. The Israelis have taunted him by ignoring his demand for an end to settlement-building and by continuing to build their colonies on Arab land. His special envoy is bluntly told by the Israelis that an Arab-Israel peace will take “many years”. Now he wants the Palestinians to talk peace to Israel without conditions.
“It may be that the reality has changed and the strategic ties that we thought existed [with Turkey] have simply ended,” said a senior Israeli official.
IOA Editor: If true, this will be the first significant negative consequence yet to Israel from its Gaza attack. After the US, Turkey has probably been Israel’s most valuable strategic ally for 50 years. It might also bear on any Israeli attempt to bomb Iran, which might have involved US-Israeli bases in Eastern Turkey.
More Israeli-centered Analysis of the Turkey-Israel crisis
several Turkish requests are currently under consideration by the Defense Ministry’s Foreign Defense Assistance and Defense Export Organization (SIBAT). These will now need to be reviewed due to the change in the diplomatic ties between Jerusalem and Ankara.
IOA Editor: It is unclear who stands to lose more by stopping Israeli military arm sales to Turkey: might it not be the Israeli military industries?
Another Israel-centered story, suggesting how potentially serious the change in relations with Turkey is for Israel.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been under pressure recently to exclude Israel from the drill, on the grounds that Israel should not be allowed to participate while its planes are bombing the Gaza Strip.
IOA Editor: The Turkish people have spoken.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s planned visit to Israel has been left in doubt after Jerusalem warned that he would not be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip from Israeli territory.
IOA Editor: It’s us or them. Remember, We’re-Always-Right. Even after international organizations pointed to Israel’s international law violations, Israel maintains a position of totalitarian self-righteousness, as if the truth could be concealed by preventing a Gaza visit.
