NEW FRONT IN TURK – ISRAEL WAR OF WORDS

Hurriyet
Feb 19 2009
Turkey

ANKARA – Before diplomatic friction between Ankara and Tel-Aviv
sparked by a senior Israeli general’s comments could be resolved,
Turkey and Israel face a new issue of contention with Prime Minister
Erdogan saying the recent remarks made by his Israeli counterpart
create a problem of confidence

Before already strained ties with Israel have had a chance to cool,
another front in the conflict opened yesterday when Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was asked about the way he was addressed
by his Israeli counterpart.

Erdogan said the recent remarks made by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert were inconsistent.

"Which part of his remarks will you believe in?" he said at a joint
press conference with his Croatian counterpart, Ivo Sanader, in Ankara.

In Jerusalem, Olmert said at a press conference last Sunday: "Why
should I say to any prime minister what the military plans of the
State of Israel are for defending its citizens?"

Olmert was speaking of Erdogan’s strong criticism for not being
informed about Israeli plans to launch a military offensive in Gaza
during an Ankara meeting that came a few days before the operation.

Problem of confidence

"I don’t find it appropriate right now to respond to this question,"
Erdogan said, referring to the remarks made by Olmert.

"All the facts are laid bare. You will first want a country (Turkey)
to act as mediator and then you will visit this country and discuss
the fifth round of (indirect talks between Syria and Israel). More
interestingly, you say you did not know about it (the timing of the
Gaza offensive) initially. Then you say ‘why should I inform you of
it,’" Erdogan said, addressing Olmert.

"These (statements) create problem of confidence regarding the
future. Leaders cannot create a problem of confidence. Politics is not
an institution that produces distrustÃ~I We’ve never had a tendency
to put a dent in international peace," he added.

Erdogan, who was frustrated by the Israeli operation into Gaza just
a few days after his meeting in Ankara, called the Israeli leader’s
failure to inform him an act of "disrespect."

The tension comes after another spark was lit by the recent remarks
of a senior Israeli general who called on the critical Erdogan to
look in the mirror, referring to the 1915 killings of Armenians and
the Kurdish conflict in Turkey. That caused a diplomatic rift between
Tel-Aviv and Ankara, which resulted in the Israeli ambassador here
being summoned by the Foreign Ministry and delivered a note of protest
demanding an urgent explanation.

On Sunday, Olmert had said there were two reasons why he did not
inform Erdogan about last month’s Gaza offensive during the meeting,
in which the leaders discussed Turkey-mediated indirect talks between
Israel and Syria.

Not the right thing to do

"One is that on Monday, I didn’t know that we would attack on
Saturday. How could I know? On Tuesday, Wednesday, they were shooting
50, 70 rockets and missiles a day against all our cities in the south,
and we just decided that enough is enough and we have to respond,"
he said.

"But I also said, quite frankly, I didn’t call the president of the
United States, my good friend, George W. Bush, at that time, and
say to him, I’m going to attack Gaza. I didn’t call my good friend,
Gordon Brown or Nicolas Sarkozy or Angela Merkel.

"Why should I say to any prime minister what the military plans of
the State of Israel are for defending its citizens? I don’t think
that it was the right thing to do. I don’t think that I had to do it
and I was quite unhappy with the feelings that were expressed by the
Turkish prime minister," he told Sunday’s conference.