Conflicted Turkey

The Kuwaiti parliamentarian, Dr. Waleed Al-Tabtabaei, who had been aboard the Turkish naval flotilla lead ship, Mavi Marmara, must be horribly disappointed that his suit against Israel at The Hague, where he attempted to sue the State of Israel for assault and humiliation by the IDF naval commandos who boarded the ship, has been turned down by his own country's Justice Ministry.

For the simple reason that the ministry was forewarned it could not win such a case because the Mavi Marmara broke international law by violating Israel's sovereign territorial waters. And Kuwait has no wish to see Israel win the case, forcing Kuwait to pay Israel billions in compensation.

And it must be horribly disappointing for Hanin Zoabi, an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset who took part in the flotilla to see the results of the UN's Palmer report exonerating Israel against Turkey's accusations. She, along with Turkey, has chosen to reject the legitimacy of the report which had concluded that Israel's naval blockade of Gaza is "legal and appropriate".

"The blockade is illegal and will continue to be illegal", MK Zoabi fumed. It is assumed that this Arab Israeli parliamentarian had advance knowledge that there were those on board the Mavi Marmara prepared to violently attack the boarding IDF commandos.

Turkey, in advance of the revelations of the details of the Palmer report, warned Israel it had 24 hours to repent and issue a full apology for the deaths of 9 Turks aboard the ship. In an effort to appease Ankara, Israel has issued a sincere regret at the loss of lives, and offered reparations, but it would make no logical, intelligent sense whatever to accede to Turkey's demand for a full apology, for protecting itself and its citizens from violence.

Turkey rejects the conclusions of the Palmer Report. Turkey does not appreciate losing face. Only an apology will do, to have it re-establish even frosty diplomatic relations with its erstwhile ally. This NATO-member country knew full well that the Turkish group I.H.H. meant to foment trouble when it organized the flotilla. The I.H.H. poses as a humanitarian group while being a front for terrorism.

This was a fact recognized by the Palmer enquiry. Which had no hesitation in affirming that Israeli commandos faced "organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers" in the face-off manufactured by the I.H.H. That the panel added their opinion that Israel's reaction was held by them to have been "excessive and unreasonable", seems excessive and unreasonable given the circumstances of naval commandos inadequately armed left to defend themselves against a violent attack.

The blockade, however, is deemed to be legal under international law. And the report confirmed that Israel is within its right to search ships in international waters. Turkey refuses to be assuaged by Israel's 'regret' and promise of reparations to the grieving families. Despite that the panel observed that "there exist serious questions about the conduct, true nature and objectives of the flotilla organizers, particularly I.H.H."

Turkey, which portrays itself as a democratic, human-rights-observing country following the rule of law, is also a country that persecutes its religious minorities. It is a country that has proven itself inept and incapable and unwilling to express deep regret in the form of an official apology for its wartime persecution of Armenians upon whom it practised genocidal intent and determination, through institutional slaughter.

Turkey can afford to be generous about other countries' territories and geographic sovereignty, but it will not budge one geographical inch of its own, to proffer to the long-embattled Kurds within its territory a sovereign state of their own. It has the capacity to work alongside Iraq, Syria and Iran, its great good friends in the Muslim world, to finally grant the world's Kurds their own country, but it will not.

Turkey's aggressive stance toward its one-time ally, Israel, is the predictable result of a once-proudly-secular country turning itself into an Islamist nation for whom warm relations with a non-Muslim country has become unfeasible. Official Turkey looks back on its Ottoman past with longing, rejecting its more recent Ataturk past.