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Kerry struggles to get Turkey to mend Israel ties
Associated Press ^ | Apr 7, 2013 2:22 PM EDT | Bradley Klapper

Posted on 04/07/2013 3:53:44 PM PDT by Olog-hai

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry struggled Sunday to convince Turkey’s leaders they should promptly restore full diplomatic ties with Israel, two American allies counted on by President Barack Obama to help calm the turbulent Middle East.

But Turkey demanded that Israel first end all commercial restrictions against the Palestinians before the once-close partners could end their estrangement, which stems from an Israeli raid in 2010 on a flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip. Eight Turks and a Turkish-American died.

Obama revived the rapprochement during a visit to Israel last month, and Kerry aimed to firm that up in Istanbul, the first stop in a 10-day trip.

The stakes are high, given that the U.S. sees Turkey and Israel as anchors of stability in a region riven by Syria’s civil war, Arab Spring political upheavals and the potential threat posed by Iran's nuclear program. …

(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: antisemitism; iran; johnfnkerry; johnkerry; russia; syria; turkey; waronterror
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Kerry struggles with reality daily, as the AP also does. Turkey is a failed state.
1 posted on 04/07/2013 3:53:44 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai
What ridiculous outfit is JFnK wearing today?
2 posted on 04/07/2013 3:55:19 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("Somebody has to be courageous enough to stand up to the bullies." --Dr. Ben Carson)
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Kerry struggles to tie his shoes


3 posted on 04/07/2013 3:57:09 PM PDT by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ. In the US the number is 54%)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

J Effing Kerry, is Sheriff Rupert T. Justice’ son!


4 posted on 04/07/2013 3:58:10 PM PDT by vette6387
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To: Olog-hai

Cut all commercial restrictions, I assume that means guns and ammunition too.


5 posted on 04/07/2013 4:00:05 PM PDT by Venturer
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To: dsrtsage

6 posted on 04/07/2013 4:02:11 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: Olog-hai

Turkey today has no desire to be involved with Israel. It’s no longer an anchor of stability. 1.200 new mosques, and not one new school. Turkey is gone.


7 posted on 04/07/2013 4:02:53 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

Under the Ottomans, Turkey was a militantly Islamic state, and engaged in perhaps the most paleo-Nazi regimen of extermination of minorities the world had known, until the advent of the Nazis themselves.

The minorities were not merely forced into exile, they were hunted down, stripped of worldly goods, and exterminated through starvation in concentration camps, or by mass executions. Even today, the Turks will not acknowledge the excesses of the Ottomans. And they are fast returning to that old theocracy.


8 posted on 04/07/2013 4:15:51 PM PDT by alloysteel (Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.)
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To: Olog-hai

Kerry has THREE purple hearts.


9 posted on 04/07/2013 4:17:14 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Olog-hai

TURKISH ANTI-JEW DEMONSTRATORS CARRY A
NATIONAL-SOCIALIST BANNER WITH THE TEXT
“THANK YOU (TO ADOLF HITLER)”


10 posted on 04/07/2013 4:18:14 PM PDT by South40 (I Love The "New & Improved" Free Republic!)
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To: driftdiver
Kerry has THREE purple hearts.

Yes, but was he ever in Vietnam? Cambodia?

11 posted on 04/07/2013 4:19:15 PM PDT by South40 (I Love The "New & Improved" Free Republic!)
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To: South40

Yes I think he witnessed some really really bad things in Vietnam, right before he got rice in the butt.


12 posted on 04/07/2013 4:22:19 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Olog-hai

Forget about Turkey. If Kerry wants to do something significant, get Saudi Arabia to pay $1 trillion in reparations for the damages those 19 Saudi citizens did to the United States on 9/11. If he can do that, then his career will not have been totally worthless.


13 posted on 04/07/2013 4:26:40 PM PDT by allendale
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To: Olog-hai

Stuff turkey!


14 posted on 04/07/2013 4:29:37 PM PDT by MestaMachine
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To: Olog-hai

Let’s not forget, Kerry is a wounded warrior.... likely still suffering from his 3 paper cut injuries.


15 posted on 04/07/2013 4:41:59 PM PDT by Gator113 ( ~just keep livin~ I drink good wine, listen to good music and dream good dreams.)
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To: Olog-hai

The Koran requires the Genocide of every person of Jewish decent on earth. How you gonna fix that Mr Kerry? Convince Turkey to convert to Christianity?


16 posted on 04/07/2013 4:50:15 PM PDT by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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To: Olog-hai

Turkey is not a failed state, largely due to Mustafa Ataturk’s (founder) advocation of secularism which has so shaped Turkish society. The Turkish Constitution was amended by Ataturk long ago to remove Islam as the state religion, although 99% of the population is Muslim and in Turkey you are not even allowed to wear a hijab on state property.

If you’re a government worker in Turkey, you are not allowed to wear a hijab, or wear a cross if you are Christian. You are not allowed to pray at all in schools, whether it is the Islamic prayer or the Christian prayer. You are not allowed to attend university or go to school with explicitly religious attire.

You are not allowed to even hint at religious preference in Turkey if you are a government official, which a young Erdogan learned the hard way when he spent a year in jail for quoting an Islamic poem in public.

To put it simply, Secularism is to Turkey, as Freedom is to the United States.

Erdogan is definitely opposed to a lot of this, but even he does not have the popular support to challenge Ataturk’s ideology directly, who is essentially the George Washington of Turkey.

It irritates me sometimes when Americans are so quick to consider many non-Western countries as ‘failed’. An especially ignorant example of that was when someone on FR called Singapore a third world country.


17 posted on 04/07/2013 4:52:08 PM PDT by Corporate Democrat
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To: South40

He spent Christmas Eve in Cambodia. He said that was burned into his mind. Or something.


18 posted on 04/07/2013 4:54:33 PM PDT by SkyDancer (Live your life in such a way that the Westboro church will want to picket your funeral.)
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To: Olog-hai

The Koran requires the Genocide of every person of Jewish decent on earth. How you gonna fix that Mr Kerry? Convince Turkey to convert to Christianity?


19 posted on 04/07/2013 4:55:08 PM PDT by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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To: Corporate Democrat
Please spare the propaganda. As soon as Erdoğan and Gül got into power, Atatürk’s Turkey was dead. The country’s attitude towards Israel says everything that needs to be said on that score.

BTW, the hijab ban is no more.

As for Singapore, the terms first world (US and western “capitalist” states), second world (the communist sphere) and third world (everyone else, mostly “developing countries” that were caught between the two) is out of date. Not to mention that worrying about “Americans” implies an antagonistic stance against same.
20 posted on 04/07/2013 4:59:33 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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