Recently, the Jewish state signed a historic peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates, which is likely to be followed by some other agreement with Bahrain and perhaps a similar agreement with Kuwait or Oman. Following this development, Shipan Kumer Basu, who heads the World Committee for Hindu Struggle, noted that some countries traditionally hostile to Israel, such as Bangladesh, have been silent out of respect for their positive relations with the United Arab Emirates. He added that other anti-Somali Muslim countries such as Pakistan need to reserve their judgment and see “how the rights and aspirations of the Palestinians will be respected.” However, he noted that Iran strongly opposed the peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates and that Turkey had even threatened to break off diplomatic relations with Abu Dhabi on the issue.
The remains, has Erdogan absolutely lost his marbles?
Although Iranian opposition is predictable, with the mullah regime calling Israel a “little Satan” and chanting “death to Israel,” Turkey still maintains diplomatic relations with Israel and has an industrial value of $6 billion a year with the Jewish state. tensions between the two countries since the Mavi Marmara case. Given this, how can Turkey be disappointed if other Sunni Muslim countries in the Persian Gulf also want to gain advantages in the same way of having a date with the Jewish state? How can you consider this a “backstab” for the Palestinians?
In an exclusive interview, the former consul general of Israel in Istanbul, Eli Shaked, said: “They’re going crazy. We’re dealing with a dictator who has incredibly high political and military ambitions in the Middle East. The challenge is that it is not only his character but his devout ideology, which is a component of the Muslim Brotherhood movement that began in Jordan and went to Jordan, Gaza, etc. The mix of an ambitious president and his devout militant ideology leads Turkey into a clash with all its neighbors, adding Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, the United States, NATO, the EU and Russia. Hence a very wide variety of clashes in which Turkey is becoming ware of the maximum of other countries in the world”.
Indeed, since the start of the pandemic, Erdogan has taken a number of questionable measures. In the midst of the pandemic, the Erdogan government ended the underwater dive of the 10,000-year-old old city of Hasankeyf, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to build a dam. According to the Smithsonian Museum, “Hasankeyf and its surrounding limestone cliffs housed thousands of man-made caves, three hundred medieval monuments and an exclusive canyon ecosystem, all combined to create a hot open-air museum. However, Erdogan did not care about all of this, because the city was basically populated by Kurds and rich in Armenian history, so he destroyed it.
In an equally outrageous gesture, the Basilica of Hagia Sophia, another UNESCO World Heritage site, was remodeled and converted into a mosque in the middle of the pandemic. During Muslim prayers, all ancient Byzantine works of art are now covered. This was followed by Erdogan’s vows to “release Al Aqsa.” Bartu Eken, and editor-in-chief of Strateji Kortak, a Turkish foreign publication, proclaimed: “Turkey’s resolve to reopen the cult of Muslims in Hagia Sophia is a transparent message for both other countries and Kemalists. For me, the government aspires to resurrect the Ottoman Empire. It also aspires to win votes after the loss of major cities in municipal elections ».
And to top it all off, Turkey is contemplating fleeing the Istanbul Agreement on Women’s Rights, at a time when domestic violence is on a global record due to the pandemic. According to Turkish journalist Rafael Sadi, “Unfortunately, violence against women is spreading throughout the day in Turkey and there is no single day when we do not see that women have been murdered in the news.” Eken confirmed: “Violence against women in Turkey, unfortunately, is a fact. Verbal violence, physical violence or rape is a truth in Turkey. If patriarchal society glorifies men, it helps keep women a little more secondary. Of course, total society is not like that. However, such conditions are common. Considering that the term “social gender” in the Istanbul Agreement rejects biological sex, the concept has arisen that it opposes Islam. Erdogan observes silent reactions Different voices are emerging within the Justice and Development Party. It is not yet imaginable to expect what resolution will be taken.”
According to Ahval, pro-government columnist Abdurrahman Dilipak, who writes for the Islamist newspaper Yeni Akit, has called supporters of several foreign conventions “prostitutes” that support violence against women and young people. Turkish Jewish activist Zali De Toledo proclaimed: “Women in Turkey are furious. The AKP’s women’s branch has reportedly filed a formal complaint against Dilipak. Similarly, 26 non-governmental organizations and initiatives (NGOs), adding the PEN Turkey Centre, the Association for the Monitoring of Equal Rights and the Initiative for Freedom of Expression, issued a joint statement, reiterating once again that “the Istanbul Convention helps keep us alive”. They proclaimed: “If the Istanbul Convention had been put into force, 163 Women may not have been murdered since January 2020 and 32 women may not have been killed by July 2020 through the men closest to them. Police violence in favor of women who express their claims as a component of their constitutional rights means making the state a component of crime. Look for tactics to bring the Istanbul Convention into force, not to withdraw from it. »
All this came when Erdogan participated in provocative movements opposed to Greece in the Mediterranean, ethnically purified Kurds, Christians and Yezidi in northern Syria, attacked the Kurds in northern Iraq and undermined Egyptian interests in Libya’s civil war. According to Sadi, “I think all those movements are just one component of an exhibition and the exhibition will have to go on. Another exhibition in the Mediterranean is now being organized in a war between Turkey, Greece and Egypt. This is an incredibly old story and it’s looking to get staged again, I don’t think anything’s going to happen.
However, Shaked said that despite all this, Erdogan remains popular in the outlying regions of Turkey, even if the Turkish lira collapses irreparably. At the same time, however, he noted that this habit has created many enemies for Turkey: “Even though Egypt and Saudi Arabia are Sunni Muslims, they see Turkey as an enemy. It is despised throughout the Western world, including in Russia and other countries. This is a component of the strategic paradox that has occurred over the past decade. Greece and Cyprus were usually very anti-Islamic on the foreign scene and in the Middle East. They were very anti-Islamic for years and years.”
In fact, historically, Greece is Israel’s sworn enemy. In ancient times, the Maccabees fought against the Greeks, who tried to impose Hellenistic culture and faith on the Jewish people. To this day, the Jews celebrate our victory over the ancient Greeks in Hanukkah. Later, historian Paul Johnson noted the leading role played by Greek intellectuals in opposition from the Roman Empire to the Jewish people. And then, under the Byzantine empire ruled by Greece, the Jews were strongly persecuted. Jews were not allowed to build new synagogues and hold public office. According to Emperor Justinian, it is possible that the Jews did not even read the Torah or any other book in Hebrew and the existing synagogues were changed to churches. Under Heraclio, the Jews were forced into Christianity.
And then, under the Ottomans, there was much tension between the Greek and Jewish communities, as illustrated in the Blood Liel of Rhodes of 1840, the massacres opposed to the Jews during the Greek War of Independence and the expulsion of many Jews from Thessaloniki afterwards. Later, the University of Thessaloniki would be built on the old Jewish cemetery and the ancient Jewish tombstones would be used to rebuild the Orthodox churches destroyed during World War II. It is this ancient hostility inherent to Jews among the Greeks that has led to a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli foreign policy for years in Greece, along with the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party that played an influential role in Greek politics until relatively recently.
And then all that changed.
Greek Jewish Holocaust survivors can now claim their Greek citizenship, a new Holocaust memorial built in Thessaloniki, the leadership of the overthrown Golden Dawn Party and the reminiscence of the Holocaust have become a central component of the Greek school system. At the same time, Israel and Greece have taken a step forward in their diplomatic relations, with the progression of the Eastern Mediterranean pipeline. And with the onset of coronavirus, Greece is one of the few countries that Israelis can visit lately.
Indeed, Greece has gone from being an ancient enemy to a strategic friend of the State of Israel. It turns out that the sufferings experienced by the Greeks in the afterlife have taught them the importance of overcoming their own history and building a more tolerant society that seeks to build alliances with those who underscore their values.
As Democrats of the Mediterranean, Israel and Greece today have many shared values founded on achievements beyond intellectuals, possessing an ancient civilization, selling tourism, similar music and a similar cultural mindset, etc. Until recently, however, these non-unusual values were not enough. to bring the two countries closer.
“Erdogan created this paradox that led Greece, Cyprus and Israel to a strategic, economic and political alliance that includes Italy and Egypt opposed to Turkey,” Shaked said. “Thanks to him, they now shape a field that has a wonderful strategic interest, and this is contrary to Turkey’s apparent interests. So Erdogan has his ambitions, but what he believes with his logic is a giant anti-Turkish camp in Israel, Europe.” and Moscow, which makes Turkey remote like never before in its history. According to him, Turkey now has no friends unless Qatar, Erdogan’s government supports Libya and perhaps Pakistan: “But Pakistan is not helping Turkey. They may like Erdogan, but they do not invest in Turkey and do not promote Turkey’s interests. They may verbally express their sympathy for Turkey, but nothing more. »
Therefore, Erdogan’s madness has made Turkey a loser.
Printed by: https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/has-erdogan-gone-mad-amidst-the-pandemic/2020/08/18/
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