Turkey vs Israel
 

This has the possibility of escalating into a very nasty situation......

Defense News: Turkish Warships To Escort Aid Vessels To Gaza

DUBAI - Turkish warships will escort the country's aid vessels bound for the Gaza Strip, protecting them from Israeli ships, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late Sept. 8.

"Turkish warships will be tasked with protecting the Turkish boats bringing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip," Erdogan told Al Jazeera television, according to an Arab-language translation of his comments in Turkish. "From now on, we will no longer allow these boats to be the targets of attacks by Israel, like the one on the Freedom flotilla, because then Israel will have to deal with an appropriate response," he warned.

Erdogan was referring to the clash in May 2010 when Israeli commandos boarded a six-boat flotilla in international waters in a bid to stop it from breaching Israel's blockade on Gaza. Israeli troops killed nine Turkish nationals on the ship Mavi Marmara in the ensuing confrontation, sparking a diplomatic row between the two countries that has strained relations to breaking point.

"Turkey will be firm on its right to control the territorial waters in the east of the Mediterranean," Erdogan added. Ankara had also "undertaken measures to prevent Israel unilaterally exploiting" the region's natural resources, he warned.

The United Nations published a report last week condemning last year's Israeli intervention - but saying the blockade itself was legal.

Ankara expelled the Israeli ambassador and suspended all military ties, including defense-related trade contracts, in retaliation for Israel's refusal to apologize for the raid.

Turkey would have to solve the Syrian problem before it could attack Israel by land....

ppru(mour)ne has it that IDF Air Corps (aka IAF) overflew Turkey on mission to bomb Syria's nuclear plant. Turkey has bought H450 and previously allowed Israeli a/c to use its air-ground ranges.

I hope the spat over Gaza flotillas soon passes, but sense that the Turks won't let this one go for a while.

Cool heads needed all round.

Batco

Hmmm, I'm not sure that the Turkish General Staff (TGS) are too happy about confronting Israel, with whom they have had a close working relationship. Although Erdogan frequently harvests senior TGS who are allegedly 'plotting against the Government', there are some 340 General Officers in total and historically, the TGS prevail, as it is their constitutional duty to uphold the (secular) legacy of Attaturk.

i am pretty sure any ill relations between Turkey and Syria will be instantly cured if Turkish forces engaged the Israelis.

BATCO wrote

No doubt about it. Some of the Israeli F-15 crews jettisoned their external tanks in Turkey. Images at the following link.

Deneme blo

The fuel tanks were jettisoned in the southern Hatay province. See map link.

Hatay Province - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TJ

So, when Israel launches a premptive strike against the Turkish Warships I assume that NATO will leap in Turkey's collective defence? Could get interesting......:uhoh:

Erdogan is getting the upper hand in the internal struggle with the Generals. Islamists (like Erdogan) are on the rise since a number of years and Kemalists (secular) like what the TGS used to be are on the down or in alignment with Erdogan after the recent purges/appointment of favourable sons...

This can get interesting, fast, indeed.

As for a land invasion, that of course is a joke. An air-sea operation is another matter and one that would be equally serious, if it were to happen. Turkey have lost quite a lost of face over the flotilla event and Erdogan hasn't forgot...he needs to restore his new-Ottoman course to the perceived strength that he already had before this unfortunate chain of events.

Having said that, not unfortunate for Greece as it turns out who have already gone some way towards a strategic alliance with Israel in the last two years with a number of exercises having been carried out already. By the way, Greece have declared through the governement Vice President that any possible Turkish moves towards Cyprus won't go unaswered, in response to Turkish threats on the imminent natural gas enterprise between Cyprus and Israel.

Definitely, interesting (and worrying) developments are in the making. Hopefully, with Israel on one end of the confrontation Turkey's threats will remain empty in much the same way that they remained empty immediately after the Flotilla event when Erdogan declared that he would board a Turkish warship and sail to Gaza himself (prompting a reply by some not so calm heads in Israel that "if he does, we'll sink it!:eek:)

As I understand it the UN has declared the blockade of Gaza quite legal. So the question would be "Will the Turkish Navy breach Israeli Territorial Waters?".

If yes then a big mess ensues, if no, the convoy will get stopped inside territorial water and the increasingly Islamist Turks will have to lump it,IMHO.

By the way where is the US 6th(?) fleet going to be.....................

"As I understand it the UN has declared the blockade of Gaza quite legal. So the question would be "Will the Turkish Navy breach Israeli Territorial Waters?".

That was my thought as well. If it's legal, then Turkey is playing an interesting game.

how can the sea off Gaza be Israeli territorial waters?

Because Gaza is not a state under international law, neither is Palestine.

I guess you are asking a rhetoric question because of your generally well-infomed posts elsewhere, but in case you were being ironic, and to inform the ignorant, Palestine has applied for statehood and the vote is due in the UNSC later this month. The UNSC will certainly vote to give Palestine full statehood, but the USA will issue its unilateral veto.

Worldwide condemnation will follow (probably closely timed with a Turkish confrontation with Israel).

The credibilty of the US unilateral veto on the UNSC will thus be further weakened, NATO will be weakened (even though France and UK will vote for Palestinian statehood), and the hand of China, Russia and Al Quaida (in the sense of a loose Muslim disaffection with world affairs) will be further strengthened.

However the US will continue to pay US$billions in foreign aid to Israel, so we'll continue to dig our own grave...

You are underestimating the guile of the Israelis – all it takes to defuse the situation is to shatter Turkish public sympathy with the Palestinians by staging a pseudo terrorist event. Like back in 1988 – Greece had been a significant supplier of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians until Mossad's Abu Nidal group attacked the Greek ferry “City of Poros” - several killed by gunmen and it could have been much worse if the quayside bomb had not gone off prematurely – made the Achille Lauro incident look like a holiday cruise. :cool:

I wonder if SFFP (the "no-brainer" of the "Chinook" thread) spots this post.:}

Another conspiracy Walter :p

It seems the Journo's are just s**t stirring in a bid to get front page news for the next few months, regardless of how many would die from their irresponsible word games.

Erdo

Ah, yes... the Mossad group made up of Palestinians thrown out of PLO for being too radical, and called friend (and given shelter by) by Iraq's government, the Syrian government, and Gaddafi in Libya?

And you are talking of the attack on Greece that was funded and supplied by Libya?