Turkey's Humanitarian Ships
Turkey, which displayed great reticence at the prospect of NATO entering the situation in overseeing the UN-mandated no-fly option over Libya to protect Libyan civilians from Moammar Gadhafi's forces against the militias of the regime's opposition, is playing its humanitarian card.
The Turkish government felt there was no need, originally, for any kind of intervention in what was turning into a civil war in Libya.
Germany and Turkey felt it would be rash to become involved in a protective venture that France and Britain were anxious to become involved with. Now Germany remains disgruntled that a potentially long and costly intervention has been undertaken by NATO, and Turkey has dispatched a hospital shop to Libya to do its part in the protection of Libyan civilians - and opposition forces.
It sent a transformed car ferry, now a hospital ship, the Ankara, to remove injured Libyans from Misrata into Benghazi, en route eventually to Turkey for extended hospital care. The Ankara and its medical crew received a resounding ovation as it arrived in port. "Allahu Akbar!" cried the Libyans waiting on shore, ecstatically.
Young and old men lay on blankets on the decks of the ship. People with limbs amputated, in wheelchairs, shrapnel-wounded, bandaged heads and limbs and torsos. "I was devastated, I never thought it would be like this" one of the 15 Turkish medics on board the ambulance ship said. "We weren't expecting this number of injured. We were prepared for 100 to 150 but we took more than our capacity out of humanity."
"I want to go back. I want to fight again. I want to kill Gadhafi", said one man, lying disabled on the deck of the Ankara. Turkey aiding another Islamic country, a neighbour in need. Pure compassion; response to a humanitarian crisis. It can then be assumed that Turkey is capable of recognizing Moammar Gadhafi as a tyrant, exploiting his people for far too long.
Although that fact never did quite stop any members of the Arab League from supporting Gadhafi at their many meetings. Nor has it ever been known that Gadhafi was ever confronted by any of the other Arab or Muslim leaders on his disturbing record. And Turkey was not known to have considered Col. Gadhafi previously as unfit to govern.
Nor does Turkey see Hamas as unfit to govern the Gaza Strip and Gazan Palestinians. For that matter the same could be said of Turkey's view of Syria and Iran, both countries run by tyrannies, both exploiting their people, both human-rights abusers. And Turkey is proudly prepared to launch another ship, in fact a flotilla of ships, for yet another humanitarian mission.
The same state-approved Turkish "humanitarian" group, IHH, a known Islamist organization along with a number of left-wing European groups stand prepared to send yet another flotilla to the Gaza Strip in May. Following to the month an earlier flotilla led by the Mavi Marmora which had aboard armed Islamists who had attacked and wounded Israeli marines who boarded the ship as neared their coastline.
And which event caused an international furor of condemnation of Israel when its marines, in seeking to defend themselves, shot dead some of the armed rebels who were attacking them. In the guise of a humanitarian mission to bring supplies and relief to Palestinians living in Gaza, when the obvious object of the mission was to confront and challenge the right of a sovereign country to protect itself from the violent actions of a terrorist group, Hamas.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon will summon foreign ambassadors to the ministry today to seek their help in stopping this year's flotilla, which is slated to contain at least 15 ships. The sailing date has not yet been finalized, but the ministry expects it to be sometime between May 15, when the Palestinians commemorate the "Nakba" ("catastrophe" ) of Israel's establishment, and May 31, the anniversary of last year's deadly interception.
Turkey is on a humanitarian roll.
The Turkish government felt there was no need, originally, for any kind of intervention in what was turning into a civil war in Libya.
Germany and Turkey felt it would be rash to become involved in a protective venture that France and Britain were anxious to become involved with. Now Germany remains disgruntled that a potentially long and costly intervention has been undertaken by NATO, and Turkey has dispatched a hospital shop to Libya to do its part in the protection of Libyan civilians - and opposition forces.
It sent a transformed car ferry, now a hospital ship, the Ankara, to remove injured Libyans from Misrata into Benghazi, en route eventually to Turkey for extended hospital care. The Ankara and its medical crew received a resounding ovation as it arrived in port. "Allahu Akbar!" cried the Libyans waiting on shore, ecstatically.
Young and old men lay on blankets on the decks of the ship. People with limbs amputated, in wheelchairs, shrapnel-wounded, bandaged heads and limbs and torsos. "I was devastated, I never thought it would be like this" one of the 15 Turkish medics on board the ambulance ship said. "We weren't expecting this number of injured. We were prepared for 100 to 150 but we took more than our capacity out of humanity."
"I want to go back. I want to fight again. I want to kill Gadhafi", said one man, lying disabled on the deck of the Ankara. Turkey aiding another Islamic country, a neighbour in need. Pure compassion; response to a humanitarian crisis. It can then be assumed that Turkey is capable of recognizing Moammar Gadhafi as a tyrant, exploiting his people for far too long.
Although that fact never did quite stop any members of the Arab League from supporting Gadhafi at their many meetings. Nor has it ever been known that Gadhafi was ever confronted by any of the other Arab or Muslim leaders on his disturbing record. And Turkey was not known to have considered Col. Gadhafi previously as unfit to govern.
Nor does Turkey see Hamas as unfit to govern the Gaza Strip and Gazan Palestinians. For that matter the same could be said of Turkey's view of Syria and Iran, both countries run by tyrannies, both exploiting their people, both human-rights abusers. And Turkey is proudly prepared to launch another ship, in fact a flotilla of ships, for yet another humanitarian mission.
The same state-approved Turkish "humanitarian" group, IHH, a known Islamist organization along with a number of left-wing European groups stand prepared to send yet another flotilla to the Gaza Strip in May. Following to the month an earlier flotilla led by the Mavi Marmora which had aboard armed Islamists who had attacked and wounded Israeli marines who boarded the ship as neared their coastline.
And which event caused an international furor of condemnation of Israel when its marines, in seeking to defend themselves, shot dead some of the armed rebels who were attacking them. In the guise of a humanitarian mission to bring supplies and relief to Palestinians living in Gaza, when the obvious object of the mission was to confront and challenge the right of a sovereign country to protect itself from the violent actions of a terrorist group, Hamas.
 Mavi Marmara - AP "> | Turks greeting the return of the Mavi Marmara last month. |
| Photo by: AP |
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon will summon foreign ambassadors to the ministry today to seek their help in stopping this year's flotilla, which is slated to contain at least 15 ships. The sailing date has not yet been finalized, but the ministry expects it to be sometime between May 15, when the Palestinians commemorate the "Nakba" ("catastrophe" ) of Israel's establishment, and May 31, the anniversary of last year's deadly interception.
Turkey is on a humanitarian roll.
Labels: Africa, Conflict, Crisis Politics, Culture, Middle East
posted by Pieface | 7:50 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home