Foreign Policy’s David Kenner, who just returned from a trip to Turkey, has an interesting piece on Turkey’s Iran policy.
Iran is becoming the first big test of Turkey’s so-called “zero problems with neighbors” policy. Faced with a serious disagreement between Iran on the one hand (with which it shares a large border and an important economic relationship) and Turkey’s NATO allies and Israel on the other, Turkey may soon be forced to choose sides at the Security Council.
As Kenner notes
Turkey’s diplomatic efforts have achieved their short-term goal of staying on good terms with all sides, but have failed to resolve their long-term goal of lowering tensions between Iran and the West.
Kenner’s full article can be read here.
– Ben Katcher
Dan Cooper,
The deflection scheme employed by Aipac and its fellow travellers, to distract American public awareness of Israeli repression of the Palestinians by frightening those same Americans with false claims about Ahmadinejad, have been all too effective as you clearly see. Many reasonably well-informed Americans (by US standards) think Ahamdinejad wants to annihilate Israel by nuclear weapons in a first strike attack. Astonishing rubbish is swallowed wholesale.
“Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu” ‘s standing in the international public opinion is growing rapidly.
I for one, admire the way they publicly condemned the criminal leaders of Israel for slaughtering innocent and defenseless Palestinian women and children in Gaza.
As you know, the Israel lobby and its corrupt media have brainwashed the American people into believing that:
The victims (the Palestinians) are guilty of the war crimes but the perpetrators of the crimes (Israelis) are heroes.
AIPAC is also the mastermind and the architect of demonization of Ahmadinejad in the international public arena.
They have used all sort of lies and propaganda such as “Election fraud”, “Nuclear Weapon”, “Israel must be wiped off the map “and “Holocaust” to achieve their objective.
Ben, could you please photoshop the photo on this article? Hillary looks for all the world like Alfred E Neuman (What, me worry?)
signals that Turkey is tilting in its ‘Iran’ dilemma:
Israel is ‘main threat to Middle East peace’: Turkish PM
Fiorangela,
Great post! Obama should read it. Claudia Rosett, revealed as a stooge of the war lobby, lying about Turkey’s attitude toward Iran.
According to Shirin Shafaie, writing for CASMII Media Watch Lies, Tea and Talk with Pres. Gul
On Forbes dot com, reporter Claudia Rosett wrote that she and President Abdullah Gul of Turkey “sipped tea” and had a “disturbing talk” that it resided next to “one of the world’s roughest neighbors,” Iran.
For his part, President Gul published a press release stating:
“Following today’s reports by some press organizations that Mr President gave an interview to the Forbes Magazine, the announcement below was deemed necessary: ‘Neither today nor in the past has Mr President ever given any interview to the Forbes Magazine. We respectfully inform the public.’ ”
Moral of the story: don’t believe everything you read in the MSM, on line, in blogs, anywhere. Check the sources, cross-check information, evaluate the prior acts and credibility of parties presenting the information.
Rosett is presently Journalist-in-Residence for Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the current project of ideologues formerly associated with neoconservative think tanks and publications, such as Michael Ledeen, Marc Gerecht, James Woolsey ,,, the usual suspects.
James
If we all make sure to at least gave it coverage on this forum, it will be good start, and I hope that the Levretts will make it a topic.
Looks like our discussions here are getting enough attention that they feel to send in the infantry
Next, you may see that, they may even have to send in the likes of Michel Rubin (I wonder what happened to his daily report of Iran events?)
to change some minds, but that would be a good exchange.Look forward for it.
Dan Cooper,
Yes, Iran is hosting a conference on the topic of eliminating nuclear weapons, and especially in the Middle East. And how much attention will this get in US news media?
Will Brian Williams be on top of the story? Fat chance?
Iran says China to attend its nuclear disarmament meeting.
The conference- dubbed :
Nuclear Energy For All, Nuclear Weapons For No One,
is scheduled to take place days after a U.S.-hosted summit on nuclear security
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1160923.html
Pirouz,
Turkey has been outspoken in its support of Iran’s civilian nuclear power program. Even the US seems to concede Iran has this right under the NPT. China, Brazil, Russia all openly support the civilian nuclear program of Iran.
I’m glad you challenged several of the points raised in the article.
Kenner’s piece gets sloppy in a couple places. He characterizes Iran’s nuclear program as “rogue” And I do not believe Gul opposes Iran’s civilian nuclear program (as Kenner implies); rather the concern is with nuclear weapon proliferation as a whole.
In the past, I’ve actually compared Turkey’s rocky road to acceptance in the EU with Iran’s very rocky road to Western acceptance of its nuclear rights under the NPT. Seems to be more than a cultural chauvinism at work here, extending beyond the Bosphorus as it were.
“Iran strongly calls for nuclear disarmament in the world particularly in the Middle East and elimination of Israel’s nuclear arsenal,” the Iranian Parliament’s (Majlis) First Vice-Speaker Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabifard said in an address to the 122nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Bangkok, Thailand.
The US and its mainly Western allies have been trying to use their privileges at the United Nations Security Council to push through a fourth round of sanctions against Iran for its refusal to bow to pressure by nuclear powers to halt its peaceful nuclear program.
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103250153053&s=107098&e=001tNv14T7gloodtOqa6jZB7DVDVj-H4Cx2YlOWSW9Sqwi11FWA0_tLFEJ_CiK7Oz0aKliRrc1TMuo2Ma4C1zFRx5VIMxKR00dwqA3g_iVMRLav7yAi2Al9REmvAxFX8wTjtaJB8ezxrvOqYf9nNO5KQlO0ztBGeBo4nKK44pPfNip1XSiqTnaowg==
Turkey, along with Russia, China and Brazil, thinks that sanctions against Iran work against diplomacy. The Turkish position is soundly based.
Turkey is quite right about the “madness” demonstrated by Israel in its insane effort to create “facts on the ground” in the West Bank.
Turkey wants Israel to get out of the Golan Heights and accept Syria’s offer of peace, which has been on the table for the past ten years and more.
The US does not win friends and influence others by forcing them into untenable situations.
My guess is that in the end Turkey would vote for sanctions, then disregard them, as the US routinely does with UN resolutions it does not like.