Turkey Has To Share The Blame

The ever more Islamist leaning AKP government in Turkey is also growing out of control hysterical over the Israeli commando assault on the Turkish flagged passenger ship Marmara. At the same time Ankara overlooks a ground truth, a very unpleasant ground truth.

Turkey must share responsibility for the chain of events which culminated in the deaths of nine passengers on the Marmara. While the Turks are going ballistic (as is shown by their Foreign Minister equating the actions of the fast roping commandos with the al-Qaeda attacks of 9/11), they cheerfully ignore the fact that they facilitated the spurious and unnecessary "humanitarian effort" funded in large measure by a Turkish charity, IHH, whose linkage with assorted Muslim terror practicing entities is so well known it has even been documented by a Danish research group.

Not only did the government of Turkey (GOT) facilitate the "aid" convoy and well understand the past involvement of IHH with al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and others, it also refused to cooperate with Israel in diverting the flotilla to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The government of Israel (GOI) committed itself to funneling the materials from the convoy to Gaza through its land crossing points. The deal was seconded by Egypt.

Ankara nixed that ever so sane and practical alternative. It must be inferred from this decision that GOT hoped for and expected an armed and violent encounter between militants on board the Marmara and the IDF.

There is a very good reason for the Turks to entertain both the hope and the expectation. The reason is, of course, Iran. The increasingly cozy relationship between the Iranian and Turkish governments was made manifest in the role played by Turkey in the last minute deal whereby the Iranians finally accepted the six month stale proposal by the US and others of the P5+1 to stash 1200 kilos of low enriched uranium in exchange for twenty percent enriched fuel rods.

The rejection of that arrangement, which was compelled by simple reality, has been embraced by GOT as being one more outrageous attack by the US and others upon the Muslim world. Since the deal would not get through the UNSC and sanctions of an appropriately spineless sort would, Ankara had a strong motive to move the Iranian issue down the Security Council's "to-do" list.

The Israeli enforcement of its quite legal blockade of the hostile quasi-state in the Gaza Strip provided the perfect opportunity to move the Iranian sanction question down the priority list at the Security Council by one notch or more, perhaps many more. Ably assisted by the useful idiots of the West, Turkey can make one demarche after another in an ongoing campaign to stall the sanctions.

The willingness to back this play extends far beyond the elites of Western Europe and the Islamophiles of the world generally. It extends, for example, to Beijing. The Trolls of the Forbidden City were quick, very quick to condemn the Israelis. They were as fast and harsh in their criticism of Israel as they have been slow and soft in their disapprobation of North Korea in the Choenan Incident.

It is not illegitimate to posit that the Chinese will capitalize on the partially real, partially artificial revulsion that any Israeli act of self-defense seems to bring in order to preclude or at least weaken even more any sanctions which might emerge from the Security Council. Even the Russians may join this effort. While the Kremlin is not at all pleased with the Iranian obstinacy and understand the arts and crafts of both making atomic weapons and practicing diplomacy of delay, neither are Medvedev, Putin, and company eager to be seen as dancing to a tune called by the Imperialist Camp. (Oops! Bad Geek. Cold War over, Russians friends now. He meant to write, "the US, UK, France, and Germany.")

Neither are the lads of GOT overly perturbed at the fraying of its diplomatic ties with either the US or NATO. Turkey has never been a good fit in NATO as numerous times of friction over the past half century have shown. Nor is Ankara particularly enthralled with the US given the past tendency of American administrations to practice a "tilt" (in Henry Kissinger's term) toward Greece whenever the two historic enemies disagree over something (think Cyprus.)

The GOT has taken a clear eyed (to use one of Mr Obama's favorite phrases of late) at the calculus of forces in the Mideast and Northwest Asian regions and made a choice. Ankara has opted for Tehran over Washington not only due to Muslim sentiments but, far more compellingly, because Iran is the stronger horse. From the perspective of Ankara, the sun has set on the US--and the West generally--while it is rising in the East, and in Iran more specifically.

Turkey has proclaimed itself to be a victim of Israeli "aggression" and even in one particularly egregious fit of hyperbole, "genocide." Its ForMin has demanded "solidarity" between Turkey and both Washington and NATO. It will not get the degree of "solidarity" apparently required. There can be little doubt but Ankara will seek to capitalize on this lack of all-for-one response from both the US and NATO.

GOT will become more and more obstructionist in the UN and other fora. Unless and until the Obama administration jumps clearly to the desires of Ankara, there will be no use seeking Turkish collaboration on any matter whether the nuclearization of Iran or the expanding of the arsenals of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Of course there is a possibility that the Obama administration will undertake "an agonizing reappraisal" (to use John Foster Dulles famed formulation) of American relations with both Israel and Turkey. The combination of President Obama's "Muslim outreach" program and his evident personal distaste for Israel might combine to move US policy in the direction of accommodating Turkish desires. The American support for an international investigation of the factors leading up to the deaths on the Marmara indicates this potential is not slight.

There is one upside to the Security Council's demand for an international investigation, provided such is not a replay of the infamous Goldstone Panel. Any inquiry which makes the slightest pretense of being "objective" and "transparent" as required by American declaratory policy would show the degree of culpability adhering to GOT.

The issue of Ankara's role in the Great Humanitarian Convoy would also be a litmus of any report's accuracy and objectivity. If Turkey is conspicuous by its absence in the roster of malefactors, the report would be simply Goldstone II: Prejudiced Infamy, the Sequel.