Mini-diplomatic row erupts over kippa

THE JERUSALEM POST
April 26, 2005

By Herb Keinon (keinon@netvision.net.il)

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not scheduled to arrive
in Israel until Sunday, but a mini-diplomatic storm is already brewing
over whether he will don a kippa at Yad Vashem.

Israeli officials said Wednesday they would look very unfavorably, and
not let the incident pass quietly, if Erdogan – head of the Islamic
based AKP Party – followed in the footsteps of Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul and refused to wear a kippa, or any other head covering,
during an official visit to Yad Vashem.

According to these officials, Erdogan is reticent about wearing a
kippa because of concern about how a picture of him in a kippa would
look to his constituents, many of whom are religious Muslims, if
splashed across the front page of Turkey’s newspapers.

This, they said, was the reason Gul refused to wear a kippa when he
visited in January. Although Israel did not make a major issue over
Gul’s behavior so as not to strain relations with Turkey, officials
said at the time they found the move “unacceptable.” One Israeli
official said that if Erdogan felt uncomfortable wearing a kippa, then
he should put on some kind of hat or cap, as other international
leaders have done when visiting the site.

Erdogan is scheduled to arrive Sunday for a two-day visit that will
also take him to the Palestinian Authority. He is expected to lay a
wreath at Yasser Arafat’s grave in Ramallah.

Erdogan’s long-discussed visit was actually made possible by Arafat’s
death, because while Arafat was alive, and Israel had a policy of not
meeting leaders who would meet Arafat, Erdogan refused to come to
Israel. This will be Erdogan’s first visit here.

Erdogan set Israeli-Turkish relations on a relatively tense course
last spring and summer with a series of anti-Israeli comments. These
statements included his remark after the killing of Hamas leader
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin that Israel was engaging in “state terrorism”; his
comparison of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to the way Jews
were treated during the Spanish Inquisition; and a comment that
“recent Israeli actions have given rise to anti-Semitism in the
world.”

Since a request by US President George W. Bush, Erdogan has
significantly toned down his rhetoric. The way for Erdogan’s visit was
paved by a visit here last August by a number of his top aides, and by
Gul’s trip in January.

Erdogan’s visit comes at a time of growing US-Turkish friction over
the situation in northern Iraq with the Kurds, and is being viewed by
officials in Jerusalem not only within a bilateral and regional
context, but also in the context of Ankara’s ties with Washington and
an attempt by Turkey to use Israel as a way of getting a more
sympathetic hearing in the US.

The US-Turkish tension centers around the situation in northern Iraq,
with Turkey concerned that Iraqi Kurds may try to set up an
independent state, with Kirkuk as its capital. The Turkish fear is
that this would then spill over to Kurds in southeastern Turkey who
may want to join them.

Last week Turkey’s chief of staff, General Hilmi Ozkok, said that the
US was not curbing Turkish Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, and warned
the Kurds against trying to take over oil-rich Kirkuk.

The US was also reportedly not pleased by Turkish President Ahmed
Necdet Sezer’s visit to Syria two weeks ago, and Israeli officials say
Erdogan’s trip to Jerusalem is designed to counterbalance that visit.

In the run-up to Erdogan’s visit, Turkey will host a three-way
Israeli-Palestinian-Turkish economic roundtable on Wednesday meant to
demonstrate the constructive role Turkey can play in the Middle East.

According to Israeli officials, the European Union’s interest in
Turkey eventually joining the EU has much to do with its view of
Turkey as a link between Europe and the Middle East. According to this
analysis, the economic roundtable is Turkey’s way of showing that on
this score it does indeed have what to offer.

The Israeli delegation will be headed by Alon Liel, a former Foreign
Ministry director-general and Charge d’Affairs in Ankara who now has
business ties with Turkey, and by Israel Manufacturers Association
president Shraga Brosh. The Palestinian and Turkish delegations will
include members of manufacturers associations.

;cid=1114481966769&p=1078027574097