http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.9343/pub_detail.asp
April 26, 2011 A Turkish Flotilla - In Reverse <http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/authors/id.91/author_detail.asp> Leslie Sacks Print This <javascript:%20printVersion()> E-mail This <javascript:%20emailVersion()> <javascript:void(0);> http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/images/share.png ShareThis <javascript:void(0);> Comments (2) <http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/comments.asp?id=9343> http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/imgLib/20110425_MaviMarmara2.jpg Last year, Turkey claimed the moral high ground in actively supporting the "Free Gaza" flotilla, aimed at breaking Israel's "siege" of the Gaza Strip. In truth, of course, the siege is a shared effort with Egypt and relates primarily to armaments, rockets and other war-faring materials (Israel itself transferred about 1 million tons of aid, 137 million liters of fuel and 50,000 tons of cooking gas last year to Gaza, a territory ruled in authoritarian style by the Islamists of Hamas). The Israeli navy's raid on the flotilla's Mavi Marmara ended up with 9 activists dead and a public relations disaster for Israel. Feigning outrage, Turkey-which appears to view this incident as an opportunistic goose, laying the golden egg of Turkish pre-eminence in the Middle East-now plans support for many more and much larger flotillas. Yet hypocrisy drips deep from Turkey's poisoned well. Discussion of the Armenian genocide (never mind its acknowledgement) is still officially disallowed, while Turkey's large Kurdish population (now at 18%) remains oppressed and largely disenfranchised. An estimated 30-40,000 Kurdish lives have been lost in the last 3 decades, the result of Kurdish attempts to achieve a degree of autonomy, including political and language rights. Turkey has already disqualified a number of candidates for the June parliamentary elections, many from the Kurdish Peace and Democracy party. Moreover, while Turkey sees fit to wax eloquent about Gazans' rights to open borders, nary a word is said about the more than 15,000 rockets and mortars fired on Israeli civilians from Gaza since Hamas took power. To give the Turks a much needed dose of perspective, I propose that a flotilla sail from Tel Aviv or Cyprus to Istanbul, with Kurdish and Armenian protestors on board, carrying Kurdish and Armenian books and cultural objects and accompanied by journalists and banned political candidates. I will not hold my breath waiting for the premier human rights organizations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to join - once Israel is removed as their "Cause Celebre", motivations drop dramatically-but they are welcome as well. Let Turkey show the world its real taste for free expression, for democracy at work, for open borders. Upon arrival in Istanbul, the flotilla should disembark and a caravan of participants and goods should wind its way through Anatolia to Eastern Turkey, to the centers of Kurdish and Armenian culture. There, the rights and freedoms of Turkey's oppressed minorities should be loudly proclaimed. If the flotilla and caravan proceed unhindered, we should all publicly laud Turkey for their tolerance and democratic ideals. I somehow doubt, however, that will happen. Much more likely, in fact, is that the same access Turkey demands for Gaza-namely, unhindered access of all people and goods, including armaments-will be violently refused in the name of Turkey's own (far more dubious) security considerations. My $10,000 seed money is ready and waiting, for just such a flotilla. Any takers? <http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/> FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor <http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/authors/id.91/author_detail.asp> Leslie Sacks is an art dealer and gallerist in <http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.3499/pub_detail.asp> Los Angeles.He has a blog called <http://strengthandtolerance.com/> Strength and Tolerance. Feedback: <mailto:editorialdirec...@familysecuritymatters.org> editorialdirec...@familysecuritymatters.org. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, discuss-os...@yahoogroups.com. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor biso...@intellnet.org http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: osint-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: osint-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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