http://www.welt.de/debatte/kommentar...te-Linien.html
Translation:
Quote:
Turkey crosses red lines
Anti-israeli policies have become Turkish state doctrin. The West, especially Europe, should stop Erdoghan on this course.
by Clemens Wergin
The most amazing thing in the Gaza-crisis is the fact, that turkey so far has not been hit by any criticism. And this although Ankara shares the major burden of responsibility in creating a dangerous escalation, which plays especially into the hands of radicals.
The Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had declared the flotilla with "aid" quite early as a national mission. and this although the turkish government knows very well that the main organisation, the IHH, supports international djihadists under while hiding this by claiming to be a wellfare organisation. That in itself already is an extremely unfriendly act against the former ally. Even more so since international law rules that the breaking of a military blockade is an act of military aggression itself.
That Erdogan has made the mission of Hamas his own , already worries Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and moderate Arab states, who also watch turkey'S turn towards iran with bgreat suspicion. After the Gaza war 2009, erdoghan now again competes with Ahmadinejadh for the title of who can produce the most shrilling anti-Israelic paroles.
Anti-Israelism has turned out to be the new Turkish state doctrin.
And erdoghan is in the middle of a transformation process from a former partner of the West to a strategic rival in the middle East. He flirts with the extremists, in order to anchor turkey as a strong and powerful player in the region. And Europe - stays silent. The West behaves as if all this is not of any interest for it. This passivity, and the isolation of Israel, deliver the extremiests one strong message: we can win.
Just imagine. Official Turkish and Iranian navy vessels would appear off the coast of Israel to break the blockade. the conseqeunce would be an open miolitary confrontation between Israel, and the new partners Turkey and Iran.
The united Staes and Europe finally must make it very clear now, that Turkey is crossing several red lines currently.
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I do not see europe and the US in a position to impress turkey that much anymore, however, if NATO member Turkey provokes a military confrontation with Israel, Europe and the US should make it clear that this would result in NATO standing up aganst Turkey, politically and militarily. Of course such events would also need to end Turkish NATO membership - and German weapons deliveries that I find unacceptable since many years.
The only good thing from all this is that the Turks make it difficult to defend a Turkish EU membership anymore.
What I worry about is that the AKP, after having successfully hijacked the political stage and the highest political offices and the administration in the country, now is trying to undermine the secular order of the Turkish army by infiltrating it's ranks and troops with Islamists that had been religiously indoctrinated even before they join the army. That way, the constitutional status of the army as guardian of the Turkish secularism could be eroded, and the last bastion of secularism in Turkey would be destroyed without needing to confront the generals openly or fearing a coup by the military. A Turkish army falling under the rule of the AKP's fundamentalists dogma would mark the final death of Atatürk's conception of a secular Turkish state.