TURKEY, ISRAEL, HYPOCRISY

"Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing."
~ Edmund Burke.

Debkafile doesn't have a whole lot of credibility as far as I'm concerned but this is interesting because it's so much in character for Katil Erdoğan:

Monday, Jan. 5, Erdogan outdid himself in vituperation when he accused Israel of "perpetrating inhuman actions which would bring it to self-destruction. Allah will sooner or later punish those who transgress the rights of innocents," he said.

It's so much in character for Katil Erdoğan because it reaches the stratosphere as far as hypocrisy goes, even though Israel apologized for having embarrassed its stalwart ally. I doubt very much, though, that Erdoğan will "freeze the long-standing military ties between the US's foremost defense allies in the Middle East" because there's simply too much at stake. Too much money, that is. It was only one short month ago that Turkey took possession of it's new, highly-coveted Israeli military hardware, the Heron:

December 27, 2008: Israel Aircraft Industries has recently delivered Turkey the first two Heron UAVs, part of a package worth $183 million signed between Turkey and Israel in 2005. The aircraft are deployed at the Batman military base in Southeast Turkey. Israel is expected to deliver the remaining 8 Herons in the upcoming months. The package includes 10 IAI Heron UAVs, operated by ground control systems developed by Elbit Systems.

Turkey steps up reconnaissance operations of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles monitoring suspected Kurdish resistance in Southeastern Turkey and Northeast Iraq

Another Heron delivered to Turkey earlier this year was crashed in July 2008 while on a mission over Southeastern Turkey. Israel provided turkey with a surplus Searcher type UAV to augment its operations, but this UAV has also been lost. Turkey has also leased UAV services of three Aerostar tactical UAVs built by Aeronautics defense Systems, to augment its reconnaissance activities monitoring PKK activities in Southeastern Turkey and Kurdistan.

Not that it looks like the paşas know how to operate the new Herons as well as they know how to operate a golf ball and I guess that's why they've had Israelis operating the Herons for them--a piece of intel that even appeared in Haaretz.

Of course, it's not enough just to have unmanned aerial vehicles but now the paşas want armed unmanned aerial vehicles. Zaman reports that the paşas may spurn the American-made Predator in favor of the Israeli-made Harpy:

In a related development, Today's Zaman learned that Turkey may have now shifted its interest from US-made Predator UAVs, which can be configured into armed UAVs, to Israeli-made armed Harpy2 UAVs.

"Turkey needs at least one armed UAV," said a local industry source.

Despite an earlier acknowledgement by a Turkish commander that Ankara plans to buy a General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator UAV, the SSM is understood to have been delaying its official proposal to the US company for the purchase of a Predator, said the same source.

Turkish Land Forces Commander Gen. Isik Kosaner acknowledged at a press conference on Oct. 27 that Turkey plans to buy a US-made UAV, noting that one Predator UAV is currently at the disposal of the Turkish military and has been gathering intelligence on the activities of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), mostly in northern Iraq.

If purchased, the US has pledged to supply Turkey with the system within 18 months.

However, Turkey shifted its focus to the Israeli Harpy after Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül was introduced an armed UAV during his visit to Israel in late October. That development may have influenced Turkey to go to Israel for the purchase of an armed UAV, said a Turkish defense industry source.

Does anyone really believe Katil Erdoğan is going to say "No" to the paşas? Does anyone really believe the paşas are only going to use armed drones on "military" targets? Sure, just like the US only uses drones on "military" targets? Think again.

Turkey is still trying to bring the Gaza situation to the UN Security Council:

In a swift reaction to Israel’s ground incursion into Gaza, the Turkish capital has harshly condemned Israel’s move, which it said was “unacceptable,” while calling on the UN Security Council to take immediate steps to bring the situation under control.

What's so funny about this is that it was in 2006, shortly after Israel's failed "incursion" into Lebanon, that Turkey became hot to follow the Israeli example in order to invade South Kurdistan--in another failed "incursion", I might add. From AsiaTimes:

This vividly reminds one of a similar blunder in the summer of 2006, when US officials backed Israel's cross-border incursions into southern Lebanon with the stated aim of "neutralizing" a terrorist organization (Hezbollah) and destroying its "organizational infrastructure".

The vocabulary used in both occasions, and the reactions solicited from Washington, are so strikingly similar that, inevitably, they invite comparisons between Israel's ultimately futile misadventure in Lebanon and Turkey's operation that is already a week long. Despite the US's prodding to "keep it short", it may end up approximating Israel's 33-day campaign against Hezbollah. This is particularly so since the Turkish army has to endure harsh winter conditions in addition to a resilient foe of about 3,000 or so PKK fighters.

In both cases, Israeli and Turkish leaders have tried to elicit world sympathy by stressing their "rightful cause", and in the expressions of "understanding" by both the US and the European Union seen at the beginning of both conflicts, one can detect the undercurrents of a failed Western policy that simply does not learn from history.

There are important differences between the two cases, but the similarities are unmistakable. This is particularly so in the area of asymmetrical warfare and the not-so-declared motives of the invading armies, ie, in Lebanon for Israel to fight a proxy war with Iran and in Iraq for Turkey to undermine the Kurdish path toward greater autonomy and, perhaps, eventual independence.

Zaman is also crying over its claim that Israel has been using cluster bombs in Gaza. It didn't do that when Turkey carpeted civilian areas in South Kurdistan with cluster bombs in October 2007.

Besides, even as far back as nine years ago, it was widely recognized that there was more than just a military relationship between Israel and Turkey, that there were economic ties like free trade zones, tourist resorts populated by Israeli visitors (and benefiting TSK), water agreements, and, perhaps most importantly, support for Turkey from the Israel lobby in the US. All of this in spite of the Israeli-Turkish relationship as a destabilizing factor in the Middle East.

I'm also completely amazed that global corporate media lapdogs have failed, in recent days, to point out the US role in maintaining destabilization, something David Rose of Vanity Fair pointed out last April. The only recent article on that can be found at Alternet.

No, I don't believe that Turkey is going to freeze its relationship with Israel, militarily or otherwise, no matter what Debkafile says. Even Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek will back me over Katil Erdoğan over that:

Turkish government spokesman and Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek signaled during a news conference on Monday that Ankara was not considering retaliation against Israel through suspending the countries' military relationship or canceling a recent project agreement signed with Israel.

Çiçek's statement came in response to a reporter's question about whether Ankara would cancel the recent arms deal with Israel -- a reflection of heightened expectations among the Turkish public that Turkey should cancel or suspend military cooperation with Israel as a means of deterring Israel from attacking Gaza.

The "recent arms deal with Israel" referred to here is the $141 million contract awarded to Israeli Aerospace Industries (the same people that brought you the Heron) for "comprehensive intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance applications" for the Turkish air force. These systems will help Turkey to continue its bombing of North and South Kurdistan. Further cooperation will ensure that Turkey benefits from the military lessons learned by the IDF in the current Gaza campaign.

After all, money, influence, and power speak a helluva lot louder than Kerdoğan.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

"We have not approved any decision, it is not for us to approve. However, we were informed before the event."
~ US Embassy official, Ankara.

Some of you may remember Ken Silverstein at Harper's as one of the journalists who questioned the conflict of interest that Lockheed Martin's Joseph Ralston brought to his appointment as "PKK coordinator" for Turkey.

Now, Silverstein has something significant to add to this weekend's bombing of Kurdish civilians by the Ankara regime--an email from a "insightful and well-connected former US government official working in Kurdistan":

The blowback here in Kurdistan is building against the U.S. government because of its help with the Turkish air strikes. The theme is shock and betrayal. The Kurds see themselves as the only true friend of the Americans in the region, and the only part of Iraq that is working, and are especially hurt by the attack.

The Turks are of course emphasizing that the U.S. Air Force was heavily involved in the attack. They are reveling in this turn of events. They have tried since the first Gulf War to impede or rupture the U.S. relationship with the Kurds. Since March of 2003, they have redoubled their efforts. The key factor in the air strike is what they hit–it wasn’t a collection of PKK fighters, it was a series of small mountain villages, widely disbursed, some as far as 70 kilometers inside of Kurdistan. The people killed and wounded were villagers, not PKK fighters or support people.

The initial explanation from Washington that the United States did not authorize the Turkish strike is bullshit, and every Kurd here knows it. The U.S. Air Force controls and authorizes the movement of every aircraft in, through, or around here. For Washington to say they didn’t authorize the strike, or to use some other doublespeak bullshit Washington term, just makes people here more angry.

Aside from the fact that there were PKK casualties, here's the doublespeak bullshit the guy's talking about:

A U.S. embassy official said: "We have not approved any decision, it is not for us to approve. However, we were informed before the event."

More doublespeak bullshit, this time in Turkish:

"I can categorically state that not a single civilian target, not a single village was hit. Previously identified PKK camps were hit. There is no question of any accident," Anatolian news agency quoted Buyukanit as saying.

From the IHT, more doublespeak bullshit:

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Monday that the Iraqi government had expected Turkey to coordinate with it before striking the rebels inside Iraq. He also indicated that the fact Iraqi civilians were killed showed Turkey had not hit the right target.

"What happened yesterday was based maybe on misinformation," he said.

Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan, told AP Television News: "We call on the Turkish army to differentiate between the PKK and the ordinary people. We don't want the conflict between the Turkish troops and the PKK to turn into a conflict between the Turkish forces and the people of Kurdistan."

[ . . . ]

"This operation, which was carried out under night conditions, was a success," Erdogan said Sunday. "Our struggle (against the PKK) will continue inside and outside Turkey with the same determination."

And more on the doublespeak bullshit of the fascists from the BBC.

So Erdoğan contradicts Jamal Abdullah, and confirms that this is, in fact, "a conflict between the Turkish forces and the people of Kurdistan."

Check out more doublespeak bullshit and denial, from Al-Jazeera:

Ankara denied that civilian areas had been hit in the attacks.

"Warplanes of the Turkish air force conducted a comprehensive air campaign against targets belonging to the terrorist PKK-Kongra Gel organisation in the Qandil mountains from 0100 this morning," a Turkish military statement said.

"The operations solely target the ... terrorist movement. They are not conducted against people living in northern Iraq or local groups not engaged in enemy activity."

[ . . . ]

Buyukanit said that Sunday's attacks had been successful and all targets destroyed.

"No civilian targets or villages were hit even accidentally," he said.

Let's hear that doublespeak bullshit again:

Dismissing reports the raids hit villages, Turkey's General Staff said its targets were fixed "after it was established that they were definitely not civilian residential areas."

[ . . ]

"According to initial valuations, all the planned targets were hit accurately," the General Staff said on its Web site.

There you have it. The Paşas admit that their attack was planned to target the Kurdish people--civilians. Therefore, no matter the doublespeak bullshit of KRG spokesman, there is a war between the Turkish military and the Kurdish people. And the Pentagon wants a piece of this war, too:

A Pentagon spokesman also said Washington had given Turkey intelligence to track Kurdish fighters hiding in Iraq, but would not say whether it gave precise targets used in the raids.

Really? But the Americans have lied about the fact that they opened Iraqi airspace to the Turks, so they must be lying about providing specific targets, too. Maybe now is the right time to give them a piece of what they long for, and that was one of the topics mentioned on NPR's report on the bombing this morning. Bearing in mind, of course, that not even the southern peşmêrge want to fight PKK gerîlas. Listen to it here.

The same conclusion is starting to be drawn in the blogosphere:

The risk, of course, is that the PKK has a wide base of support among the Kurds. If the Kurds conclude that the TAF wouldn't have bombed without the permission, whether overt or tacit, of the Americans, then you have to wonder if the PKK will decide that Americans are now legitimate targets.

Even Mesûd Barzanî recognizes doublespeak bullshit when he hears it:

Massoud Barzani, leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in the north, condemned the assaults as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty that had undermined months of diplomacy. “These attacks hinder the political efforts exerted to find a peaceful solution based on mutual respect,” he said in a statement.

At a news conference in Najaf, he went further, declaring that “the Americans are responsible because the Iraqi sky is under their full control.”

In contrast to the all the doublespeak bullshit of the fascists, here are some of the words from the ground:

Mukhlis Khadar, 44, said he and his family were woken by the raids and fled their home as soon as the school was hit.

"We left an unbelievable scene behind us," Khadar said. "When we climbed the rocks of the nearby mountain ... we saw flames of fire burning our village. ... Our house disappeared."

Saoqo Mohammad, a 30-year-old woman said: "We are civilians, with no arms or any relation to the PKK, why do they allow such horrible acts against civilians?"

More words from the ground, from The Boston Globe:

The targeted towns included Suradeh, a hamlet of about 30 homes nestled in the Qandil Mountains more than 50 miles from the Turkish border. Yesterday afternoon, residents who had sought shelter in frigid mountain caves during the overnight bombardment returned to a scene of damaged homes and dead livestock. Many were packing up and leaving in fear of additional attacks. As they bundled blankets, dishes, food, and clothes in vehicles or on the backs of mules, they spoke of the overnight terror.

"My youngest daughter is still crying and saying, 'Mama, I'm scared,' " said Muneera Khalid, who sought shelter in a cave with her husband and three children, ages 7, 10, and 14. It took them a half-hour to reach the cave, going by foot in the dark after the first air strikes began at about 2 a.m.

"Why is the Turkish Army bombing our village?" she said, breaking down in tears.

[ . . . ]

. . . [L]ocal residents insisted that civilians bore the brunt of the attacks. Musheer Ahmed said his daughter lost a leg in the bombing and his home was destroyed. Nashneel Bayz, a schoolteacher, said she was sleeping in her bedroom when the windows were shattered by bombs.

"I ran like a crazy person. I saw the others running in panic and terror. It was chaos," said Bayz. "We are non-armed people, we have nothing, and they send modern airplanes to bomb us."

She said those who suffered were civilians, not PKK fighters.

"The PKK positions are still intact," she said. "We even had some PKK fighters with us in the cave, in addition to women, children."

This is the operation that Erdoğan is celebrating as a success.

Meanwhile, Aleksu at Eusko Blog opines on the situation of all oppressed peoples:

When will the nations without statehood get some respect?

When will the colonialist powers evolve and leave behind their blood lust and greed?

When will the mega-nations understand that they need a more organic approach towards their view of the world?

When will the occupying armies stop labeling resistance fighters as "terrorists"?

When will humankind put the crimes committed by the colonialist powers into the correct perspective?

Well said, heval. Read the rest.

By the way, another, similar email--perhaps from the same "former US official"--made it's way to David Corn at the MoJo Blog. Go on over and have a read, bearing in mind that the first news from HPG-BIM clearly stated there were seven şehîds as a result of the attacks, five of whom were gerîlas. The contradiction on this point in the email may mean that the censored South Kurdistani media is not mentioning HPG casualties. There is also the detail of initial aerial attacks, a deliberate break in the attacks, and then, when the villagers returned to their villages, the Turks attacked again. This is clearly an attempt by the Turks to kill as many civilians as possible.

Yessiree, Yaşar! Mission accomplished!

Note also that the email claims the US supported Turkish F-16 with AWACS, which means that there was a lot more American military assistance in targeting Kurdish civilians than merely "opening Iraqi air space." American troops should start watching their backs as they walk around in Hewlêr.