Posted on 09/06/2011 11:02:57 AM PDT by americanophile
Istanbul (CNN) -- Turkey's fiery prime minister ratcheted up rapidly-escalating tensions with Israel on Tuesday, comparing Ankara's once-close ally in the Middle East to a "spoiled boy" and announcing additional sanctions would soon be imposed.
"We are completely suspending all of these, trade relations, military relations, related with the defense industry," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, according to the semi-official Anatolian Agency. "All of these are completely suspended and other measures will follow this process."
Asked to clarify whether this meant Turkey will halt more than $3 billion in bilateral trade, an official in the Turkish prime ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity under government protocol, insisted Erdogan was not referring to trade relations.
"He was referring to the defense industry," the official said. "Nothing more than the measures that have been announced so far."
Last week, Turkey declared it was downgrading relations with Israel, suspending all military agreements between the two countries and giving senior Israeli diplomats less than a week to leave Turkish territory.
"If the current steps are regarded as 'plan B,' there will be a 'plan C,'" Erdogan said on Tuesday in his first public comments on the matter since Ankara imposed sanctions on Israel.
Erdogan's government is incensed that Israel refuses to apologize or pay compensation for eight slain Turks and one Turkish-American. The humanitarian workers and activists were shot dead by Israeli commandos in a botched 2010 raid on an aid convoy that was trying to bust Israel's sea blockade of Gaza.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Hmmmmm. Hussein has been totally silent on Turkey and it’s antics. The lack of US condemnation of Turkey is spuring them on. Very dangerous for us to just sit on the sidelines.
ping
Yep. Reading all about this now. They also just made some military agreement with Egypt.
Seems to me Turkey is overdue for a military coup.
Way overdue.
Looks like Turkey is putting the band back together.
I suspect Obama is more than happy that Turkey is becoming Islamist and radicalized. The Turkish military should have overthrown the Muslim government when they could have. It is probably too late now. Israel needs to find a way to cause enough pain to force Endogan to back off.
I sense that this would be a good time to start a visible campaign for Turkey to apologize to and pay restitution to the descendents of victims of the Armenian genocide...
Damn good point.
Maybe. I am also reading that Turkey is not suspending all ties and a lot of this is for show.
Have to wait and see.
I bet the Turks are virus-checking all their computers.
Well, Nancy is no longer speaker and the 4TH ID doesn’t need access through Turkey at this point.
Has Erdogan’s Turkey been emboldened by the “arab spring” and/or threatened by Iran?
Not surprising at all. Anyone want to put together a "Nations of Gog/Magog" checklist? I think almost everyone is accounted for already, even Sudan now that they've split. I wonder when Damascus will side with them?
What does turkey have that Israel could possibly need?
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Turkish Spring.
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