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In a CNSNews.com report U.S. President Obama characterized Turkey as “a great country” and Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan “as a personal friend“. Obama said also that he was optimistic about the prospect of “stronger and stronger” bilateral ties in the future.

President Obama removes his shoes during a visit to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul on April 7, 2009. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

According to Obama Turkey could be “an important player” in efforts to prod Iran to keep its nuclear program peaceful. But in saying this, questions arise about Obama’s real  intentions. Unless Obama is utterly naive or his main goal is becoming a world peace leader at the cost of Israel. Iran will never have a peaceful nuclear program. Not with an Ayatollah regime which strives to have all women behind veils and the whole world under Islamic Sharia Law. Not with a dictator like Ahmadinejad, who is devoted to erase Israel from this world and hail the coming Islamic Messias “the Mahdi” for Islamic World domination. You have to be utterly naive or… a muslim yourself to call Erdogan “a personal friend” and to believe Iran’s peaceful intentions as a nuclear power. In the recent events, where Iran’s regime violently oppressed the democratic protests for more freedom, its no surprise Obama kept silence “…because of his friends.”

Turkey’s changing policy is unmistakable clear as Ankara has tilted perceptibly towards Tehran this year in its standoff with the West and its attitude to Israel since the Gaza war. As a result, Turkey decided to abstain rather than vote in favor of the Nov. 27 IAEA resolution for sanctions on Iran. In the vote by the 35-member board of IAEA governors, three countries – Venezuela, Cuba and Malaysia – voted against the resolution and Turkey was joined by Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan, Brazil and South Africa in abstaining.

Turkey has shown troubling signs the past year in its efforts to expand its relations with Muslim Dictatorships and its shifting away from Israel and the West:

• In February, Erdogan stormed off the stage during a televised debate in Davos after a heated exchange with Israeli President Shimon Peres over Gaza. American Jewish organizations subsequently wrote to Erdogan, linking a spate of anti-Jewish incidents in Turkey to the inflammatory denunciation of Israel by Turkish officials.
• In April, Ankara announced  it planned to hold its first joint military exercise with Syria, a prospect Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called very troubling.
• In June, Turkish lawmakers aligned themselves with those from eight other Organization of the Islamic Conference member states in a resolution supporting Iran’s and condemning interference by countries critical of Iran’s conduct during and after its disputed presidential election.The same meeting of Islamic lawmakers complained that Iran was being pressurized for peaceful activities while Israel’s nuclear arsenal was being ignored. And it demanded that Israel be prosecuted for “crimes” against Palestinians, while condemning the International Criminal Court’s attempt to indict Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
• Over the summer, Erdogan said a key pipeline project – aimed at bringing Caspian natural gas to Western markets via Turkey, bypassing Russia – would fail unless Iran was also permitted to supply gas for the project.

Erdogan said any sanctions targeting Iranian gas would bring the pipeline plan to a dead end. Iran has the world’s second largest natural gas reserves. (We don’t believe Iran should be a participant, was the response from U.S. special envoy for Eurasian energy, Richard Morningstar.)

Citing other reasons for opposing sanctions, Erdogan said Iranian tourism to Turkey was significant, and that overall Turkey-Iran trade amounted to around $10 billion annually. The two are also planning to develop a tax-free industrial zone on their joint border.

• In the fall, Turkey asked Israel to withdraw from a scheduled NATO air force exercise that it was preparing to host. After fellow participants U.S. and Italy pulled out of the Anatolian Eagle exercise to protest the move, Ankara canceled the event altogether.
• At the U.N. in New York in September, Erdogan again voiced opposition to sanctions against Iran, while turning the spotlight on Israel.

We are completely against nuclear weapons in the Middle East, he told reporters. There is a country in the Middle East that possesses nuclear weapon: Israel.

Erdogan used the opportunity to accuse Israel of using phosphorus bombs … a weapon of mass destruction in Gaza and asked why Israel’s conduct was not being scrutinized by the Security Council. These issues are never brought to the table, and this personally annoys me, he said.

• In October, Turkey hosted Mohsen Rezai, one of five Iranians wanted by Argentina in connection with the 1994 suicide truck bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Despite the fact that Rezai, a former head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, is the subject of an Interpol red notice, he traveled freely to Turkey, where he held talks with President Abdullah Gul and other officials.
• The same month saw Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and other cabinet colleagues visit Syria, where they signed a bilateral strategic cooperation agreement and pledged to improve defense ties. Syria’s closest strategic ally is Iran.
• Also in October, Davutoglu cancelled a visit to Israel, where he had been invited to take part in a major international conference in Jerusalem, hosted by Peres.
• Several days later, Erdogan visited Tehran, where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly thanked him for his stance towards Israel.

Mazzeltov,

Crethi Plethi

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