In his weekly Canadian Jewish News media analysis column “According to Reports,” Paul Michaels, CIC Director of Communications, looks at coverage of the Turkish prime minister in the wake the Gaza flotilla incident.
Israel's seizure of the Turkish registered ship Mavi Marmara on May 31 thrust Turkey and its controversial Prime Minister Recep Erdogan into the international spotlight. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Erdogan's – together with his senior ministers' – vitriolic verbal attacks on Israel have raised his profile dramatically.
These profiles have varied considerably in the Canadian and western media circles.
For instance, in his June 5 National Post column dealing with the immediate rush to condemn Israel in the absence of established facts about the Marmara tragedy, Robert Fulford drew attention to rarely examined details about Turkey's hypocrisy. He wrote: "It was striking to hear that the Turkish foreign minister called the boarding of the Mavi Marmara 'an act of barbarism.' Turkey, having helped to instigate the flotilla, is a new voice in the self-righteous clamour against Israel. It still doesn't admit that it perpetrated genocide against the Armenians a century ago, it drags its distinguished authors into court for telling the truth about that atrocity and its attempt to contain the Kurdish independence movement has so far cost some 40,000 lives, mostly Kurds."
Writing from Jerusalem for the Globe and Mail (June 11) about the Turkish government's reaction, Patrick Martin argued that Erdogan's "outcry against Israel… have made him the most admired leader in the Muslim and Arab worlds, shaming those who have done so little for the Palestinians."
Precisely what Erdogan has done for the Palestinians, others would argue, is highly questionable to say the least. Erdogan's rhetorical assaults on Israel (including his tantrum in Davos in 2009 against Israeli president Shimon Peres) are no doubt popular in the Arab and Muslim worlds. But his support for Hamas (and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) only serves to reinforce the hardships Palestinian extremists have inflicted on their own people in Gaza.
Martin paints a mostly positive picture of Erdogan, including his policy toward the Kurds: "He offered peace to the country's Kurds and an opening of relations with Turkey's historic foe, Armenia. He established good relations with Iraq and even with its Kurdish Regional Government that sits on Turkey's border."
What Martin didn't mention is that since late 2007, Erdogan's government has authorized deadly strikes into northern Iraq against Kurdish-PKK rebels operating from there in support of increased autonomy in southeastern Turkey. For instance, the BBC reported on May 3, 2008, that Turkish forces claimed in an army statement to have "neutralize[d] more than 150 [Kurdish] terrorists."
Other such attacks have resulted in scores more Kurds being killed and have prompted Iraq's government to warn Turkey about destabilizing the region.
It's no surprise, of course, that Erdogan's “outrage” against such deadly assaults on the Kurds is nowhere to be heard. And, after all, the Kurds are clamouring only for increased autonomy including language rights to be enshrined in the constitution, not any longer for self-rule which is prohibited and a punishable offence in Turkey.
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Against a glut of uninformed, frenzied charges that Israel had committed “war crimes,” “terrorism” and “piracy” in intercepting the flotilla in international waters, Ed Morgan, professor of international law at the University of Toronto, clarified the facts pertaining to what is called the Law of the Sea (Globe and Mail, June 3). He spelled out the terms according to which it is perfectly legal for Israel, being in a state of armed conflict with Hamas, to impose and enforce a naval blockade on Gaza (to prevent the smuggling of arms), including by intercepting and boarding ships that attempt to run the blockade. Click here to read the story.
The Canadian Navy undertakes similar boardings on a regular basis. Between 2001 and 2003, during NATO's Operation Apollo, Canadian naval personnel made over 260 boardings in their efforts to halt the flow of terrorists and weapons through international waters in the Gulf. Global News reported (April 9) on the HMCS Fredericton's boardings off the east coast of Africa mere months ago: "The boarding party, team of specially trained and heavily armed sailors, was regularly dispatched from the Fredericton to investigate skiffs and dhows [Arab sailing vessels] … often used for pirate attacks or to transport weapons and drugs.”
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