Quote:
Originally Posted by MH
Overall i think the incident showed a true nature of some organizations that try to portrait themselves as innocent peace organization whose sole propose is to fight propaganda war against Israel by manipulating mainly EU public.
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The Turks - government and Turkish organisations - had a big hand in organising the flotilla from beginning. While propaganda for the EU audience came as a nice side-effect, the main direction they were aiming at from Erdoghan'S and the government's side where the Arab people. By profiling itself as the broker of Palestinian interest and challenging the Israelis, hopefully embarassing them, Erdoghan tried (and tries) to collect support and sympathy from the population in Arab countries, and strenghen Turkey'S influence and the general acceptance for Turkey amongst Arabs (the relations between Turks and Arabs are stressful due to the Ottoman past where the Turkish empire looked down on the Arabs and let them know that it considered Turks to be superior to Arabs)
The flotilla calculation worked well for Erdoghan - both with the Arabs and the Europeans.
His support for Hamas and Hezbollah, his lining up with Iran and calling it a friend, his merely hidden opposition to and suspected sabotaging of Western attempts to contain the Iranian nuclear program, his proliferation of UN- or Western-banned deals with Hezbollah and Iran, and the massive shift in Turkey towards orthodox fundamentalism that the AKP is maintaining, must be seen in this light. Erdoghan sees modern Turkey and himself as the successor to the Ottomans' attempt of becoming dominant not only in Europe, but the oriental region as well, and for that he paves the way by sowing a seed that he hopes will rise acceptance and sympathy for Turkey amongst Arabs. Love for the Palestinian'S fate, has nothign to do with Erdoghan'S mission, but his hate for Israel. When the Palestinians have served their functional purpose, Turkey most likely would let them down like almost all other Arabs did, too, for there is nothing with the Palestinians that is of worth or any kind of potential for anybody, just the promise of future troubles with them. And for Iran, the Palestinians are just a proxy.
The Palestinian government in the West-Jordan-Land, is cursing Erdoghan. They would prefer him being gone better yesterday than tomorrow, for the Hamas in Gaza that Erdoghan supports is hostile to the government in WJL.
However, MH, I see that it is just you and the other. Don't forget to switch off the light once you are done here.
