Turkish Navy and PM to accompany more aid ships to Gaza

[bc040400065]

Turkey pushes for condemnation of Israel
Tuesday, 08 Jun, 2010


ISTANBUL: Turkey sought a fresh condemnation of Israel over its deadly raid on Gaza-bound aid ships as regional leaders gathered in Istanbul Tuesday to discuss security in Asia.



Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan as well as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas attended the gathering, expected to end with a joint declaration later Tuesday.



Speaking on the sidelines of the summit, Putin said Russia would raise at the United Nations the controversial issue of who should probe into last week's raid by Israeli forces on a flotilla carrying aid to the besieged Gaza Strip, which claimed nine lives.



“We are deeply worried by such a crude violation of the universally recognized norms of international law,” he told reporters, stressing the raid took place in international waters in the Mediterranean.



“We can't allow a new flame to flare up in the Middle East... We will raise the issue at the United Nations, we're working at it,” he said.



Despite strong regional backing, Turkey failed to secure a joint statement slamming Israel as the Jewish state was part of the summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), a Turkish diplomat said.



Israeli leaders shunned the event, but Israeli ambassador to Turkey Gabby Levy represented the Jewish state and was part of the talks on a joint declaration, whose adoption required consensus, the diplomat said.



“We cannot expect the Israeli representative to condemn his own country,” he said. However, Turkish President Abdullah Gul, acting as summit chairman, was expected to make a statement denouncing Israel on behalf of the majority of member states, he added.



Nine Turks were killed in the May 31 raid, which sparked global outrage and plunged Israel's already strained ties with Nato member Turkey, once a close ally, into deep crisis.



“The consequences of acts undertaken with feelings of hatred and vengeance are obvious. Unfortunately, we saw a merciless example of that recently,” Gul said at Tuesday's summit.



“We must definitely say 'stop' to this tendency which is extremely worrying with respect to international peace and security,” he said.



Turkey said Monday that normalisation of ties with Israel would be “out of the question” if it failed to agree to an international probe into the bloodshed, a move the Jewish state has so far rejected.


Ankara has recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv and scrapped joint military drills, saying economic and defence ties with Israel would be reduced to a “minimum level.”



Tuesday's summit was to focus on issues such as nuclear disarmement, peaceful use of nuclear energy and confidence-building measures in Asia, the Turkish foreign ministry said.

DAWN.COM | World | Turkey pushes for condemnation of Israel

 

[gambit]

Turkey's Two-Faced Aid For Gaza - Forbes.com

From the fury with which Turkey's leaders are demanding carte blanche access for aid to Gaza, you might suppose the Turkish government had exhausted every available route for pouring its own bounty into the Palestinian enclave. Think again. While Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan whips up passions about Israel stopping a blockade-busting "aid" flotilla, his own government has racked up a record as one of the cheapskates of Gaza relief.

United Nations records show that if Gaza has been lean on aid from Turkey in recent years, it's not because Turkish relief donations have been blocked by the Israelis. It's because Turkey, relative to its size as a rising economic power, and despite its claims of regional leadership, has been surprisingly stingy about sending aid via the already existing channels of the UN. Apparently, Turkey‘s leaders are glad to enlist the U.N. full force for punishing Israel and stripping Israel's defenses against the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists who control neighboring Gaza. But the Turks are far less interested in the U.N. when it comes to handing over Turkish goods and cash for U.N. aid efforts.

The chief U.N. agency in Gaza is the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA. Love or hate it--and I am no fan--UNRWA, according to its website, is "the main provider of basic services--education, health, relief and social services--to 4.7 million registered Palestine refugees in the Middle East." Many of those Palestinians live in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank. But Gaza is the core of this operation. UNRWA‘s headquarters are in Gaza, where 1.1 million Palestinians--the bulk of Gaza's population--are registered on UNRWA's refugee rolls and eligible for its services.

UNRWA gets 98% of its funding from voluntary donations, mostly from U.N. member states. Turkey looks like a great candidate to be a big donor. In 2008 Turkey's economy was ranked by the World Bank as the 17th largest on the planet. Given the Turkish government's professed interest in the welfare of Palestinians, you might suppose that Turkey would be among the top 10 state donors to UNRWA? Or at least the top 20?

Turkey doesn't even make the cut.

The largest donor to UNRWA is the U.S., which in 2009, according to UNRWA's statistics, gave $268 million. Next is the European Commission, which in 2009 gave $232.7 million. Together, the U.S. and E.U. account for almost half of all UNRWA funding. Other major donors include the U.K., Spain, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and Germany. Or, if you want to measure in terms of donations per capita, notes UNRWA on its website, "Scandinavian countries top the list," with Sweden in 2009 giving $48.6 million, Norway $39 million and Denmark $19.9 million.

Among UNRWA's top 20 donors for 2009, there are only two countries from the Middle East: Kuwait, which in 2009 gave $35.5 million, and Saudi Arabia, with $27.6 million.

And in 2009 UNRWA was clamoring even more than usual for donations. The year began with Israel sending troops into Gaza in Operation Cast Lead--an attempt to shut down the thousands of rocket and mortar attacks launched from the Hamas-terrorist-run enclave into Israel. The U.N. put out an emergency appeal for aid. Sympathy for Gaza ran high, and one of the most vocal figures was Turkey's Erdogan. That January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he made a public display of insulting Israel's President Shimon Peres and stormed off a shared stage.

But how much did Turkey donate in 2009 to UNRWA? According to an UNRWA spokesman, Turkey ranked 26th on the list, below Belgium, Finland and Ireland. With a Turkish gross domestic product well in excess of $700 billion, the Turkish government gave a total of $1.08 million to UNRWA, of which $578,058 was for the Gaza Emergency Appeal. Non-governmental organizations in Turkey provided another $318,413 worth of food and medical supplies.

This year, with Erdogan cheering for the Turkish-led terror-linked flotilla because it was "carrying aid to poor Palestinian people," how much have the Turks donated to UNRWA? According to the UNRWA spokesman, Turks have made "no private pledges," and for 2010 the Turkish government has so far pledged $500,000.

UNRWA statistics for the past decade show a similarly tight-fisted Turkey. Erdogan has been in power since 2002, but on UNRWA's list of the top 20 donors spanning that period, Turkey doesn't show up. In March 2009 U.N. Radio reported that Turkey's "steady" support for UNRWA from 2000-09 had stacked up to a total of $7.4 million. That's slightly less than Australia gave in 2009 alone.

In the U.N.'s sprawling bureaucracy there are of course other U.N. agencies operating in Gaza. In the U.N.'s database for overall contributions in 2009 to what the U.N. describes as "Occupied Palestinian Territory," Turkey looks slightly more generous, with donations totaling $2.6 million. But slice it how you will, Turkey is one of the penny-pinchers at the U.N. aid table. That's not for lack of appetite at UNRWA, which complains of being under-funded, with $1.2 billion budgeted for 2009, and $948 million received.

As for the terror-linked Turkish foundation that took the helm of the Gaza flotilla, the IHH, it has been accredited at the U.N. since 2004 as an NGO with consultative status at the General Assembly's Economic and Social Council. According to a January 2009 bulletin on the IHH website, the IHH has sent millions worth of aid into Gaza, including "monetary aids" of $3,988,048 million. Did the U.N.-accredited IHH donate any of this via UNRWA? Queried by e-mail about this, an UNRWA spokesman replied, "UNRWA has never received any monetary assistance from IHH."

None of this is meant to endorse UNRWA's aid empire in Gaza, which has a record of being too often entwined with the terrorist reign of Hamas. That ought to make the U.S. think twice, but it should hardly deter donations from Turkey, where the current government applauds the IHH and refers to Hamas as "brothers." What's jarring is that the Turks in the name of aid should be so urgently demanding right now that the U.N. help them break down all barriers meant to keep weapons out of Gaza, while for so many years the same Turks have made so little use of the U.N. aid corridors already in place. But then, it's not really about milk and medicine for children, is it?

 

[vishalgutsy]

i think the muslims in sudan , somalia and bangladesh are living a much miserable life that those in palestine , if turkey really wanted to help muslims , they should have sent aids to somalia and sudan and not to palestine. its clear , it was just a publicity stunt.

 

[SpArK]

http://www.unrwa.org/userfiles/file/financial_updates/2009/Total_Contributions_to_UNRWA_2009_All_Donors.pdf

 

[T-Rex]

i think the muslims in sudan , somalia and bangladesh are living a much miserable life that those in palestine , if turkey really wanted to help muslims , they should have sent aids to somalia and sudan and not to palestine. its clear , it was just a publicity stunt.

Your ability to measure misery is clearly stained by your prejudice against the Palestinians and your desire to please uncle sam or else you would have noticed that the great injustice against the Palestinians has been going on for half a century! When Bangladesh has a neighbour like India 'misery' is quite expected.

 

[Indiarox]

i think the muslims in sudan , somalia and bangladesh are living a much miserable life that those in palestine , if turkey really wanted to help muslims , they should have sent aids to somalia and sudan and not to palestine. its clear , it was just a publicity stunt.

Do you have a personal grudge with the Palestinians

 

[FreekiN]

Turkey's Two-Faced Aid For Gaza - Forbes.com

From the fury with which Turkey's leaders are demanding carte blanche access for aid to Gaza, you might suppose the Turkish government had exhausted every available route for pouring its own bounty into the Palestinian enclave. Think again. While Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan whips up passions about Israel stopping a blockade-busting "aid" flotilla, his own government has racked up a record as one of the cheapskates of Gaza relief.

United Nations records show that if Gaza has been lean on aid from Turkey in recent years, it's not because Turkish relief donations have been blocked by the Israelis. It's because Turkey, relative to its size as a rising economic power, and despite its claims of regional leadership, has been surprisingly stingy about sending aid via the already existing channels of the UN. Apparently, Turkey‘s leaders are glad to enlist the U.N. full force for punishing Israel and stripping Israel's defenses against the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists who control neighboring Gaza. But the Turks are far less interested in the U.N. when it comes to handing over Turkish goods and cash for U.N. aid efforts.

The chief U.N. agency in Gaza is the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA. Love or hate it--and I am no fan--UNRWA, according to its website, is "the main provider of basic services--education, health, relief and social services--to 4.7 million registered Palestine refugees in the Middle East." Many of those Palestinians live in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank. But Gaza is the core of this operation. UNRWA‘s headquarters are in Gaza, where 1.1 million Palestinians--the bulk of Gaza's population--are registered on UNRWA's refugee rolls and eligible for its services.

UNRWA gets 98% of its funding from voluntary donations, mostly from U.N. member states. Turkey looks like a great candidate to be a big donor. In 2008 Turkey's economy was ranked by the World Bank as the 17th largest on the planet. Given the Turkish government's professed interest in the welfare of Palestinians, you might suppose that Turkey would be among the top 10 state donors to UNRWA? Or at least the top 20?

Turkey doesn't even make the cut.

The largest donor to UNRWA is the U.S., which in 2009, according to UNRWA's statistics, gave $268 million. Next is the European Commission, which in 2009 gave $232.7 million. Together, the U.S. and E.U. account for almost half of all UNRWA funding. Other major donors include the U.K., Spain, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and Germany. Or, if you want to measure in terms of donations per capita, notes UNRWA on its website, "Scandinavian countries top the list," with Sweden in 2009 giving $48.6 million, Norway $39 million and Denmark $19.9 million.

Among UNRWA's top 20 donors for 2009, there are only two countries from the Middle East: Kuwait, which in 2009 gave $35.5 million, and Saudi Arabia, with $27.6 million.

And in 2009 UNRWA was clamoring even more than usual for donations. The year began with Israel sending troops into Gaza in Operation Cast Lead--an attempt to shut down the thousands of rocket and mortar attacks launched from the Hamas-terrorist-run enclave into Israel. The U.N. put out an emergency appeal for aid. Sympathy for Gaza ran high, and one of the most vocal figures was Turkey's Erdogan. That January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he made a public display of insulting Israel's President Shimon Peres and stormed off a shared stage.

But how much did Turkey donate in 2009 to UNRWA? According to an UNRWA spokesman, Turkey ranked 26th on the list, below Belgium, Finland and Ireland. With a Turkish gross domestic product well in excess of $700 billion, the Turkish government gave a total of $1.08 million to UNRWA, of which $578,058 was for the Gaza Emergency Appeal. Non-governmental organizations in Turkey provided another $318,413 worth of food and medical supplies.

This year, with Erdogan cheering for the Turkish-led terror-linked flotilla because it was "carrying aid to poor Palestinian people," how much have the Turks donated to UNRWA? According to the UNRWA spokesman, Turks have made "no private pledges," and for 2010 the Turkish government has so far pledged $500,000.

UNRWA statistics for the past decade show a similarly tight-fisted Turkey. Erdogan has been in power since 2002, but on UNRWA's list of the top 20 donors spanning that period, Turkey doesn't show up. In March 2009 U.N. Radio reported that Turkey's "steady" support for UNRWA from 2000-09 had stacked up to a total of $7.4 million. That's slightly less than Australia gave in 2009 alone.

In the U.N.'s sprawling bureaucracy there are of course other U.N. agencies operating in Gaza. In the U.N.'s database for overall contributions in 2009 to what the U.N. describes as "Occupied Palestinian Territory," Turkey looks slightly more generous, with donations totaling $2.6 million. But slice it how you will, Turkey is one of the penny-pinchers at the U.N. aid table. That's not for lack of appetite at UNRWA, which complains of being under-funded, with $1.2 billion budgeted for 2009, and $948 million received.

As for the terror-linked Turkish foundation that took the helm of the Gaza flotilla, the IHH, it has been accredited at the U.N. since 2004 as an NGO with consultative status at the General Assembly's Economic and Social Council. According to a January 2009 bulletin on the IHH website, the IHH has sent millions worth of aid into Gaza, including "monetary aids" of $3,988,048 million. Did the U.N.-accredited IHH donate any of this via UNRWA? Queried by e-mail about this, an UNRWA spokesman replied, "UNRWA has never received any monetary assistance from IHH."

None of this is meant to endorse UNRWA's aid empire in Gaza, which has a record of being too often entwined with the terrorist reign of Hamas. That ought to make the U.S. think twice, but it should hardly deter donations from Turkey, where the current government applauds the IHH and refers to Hamas as "brothers." What's jarring is that the Turks in the name of aid should be so urgently demanding right now that the U.N. help them break down all barriers meant to keep weapons out of Gaza, while for so many years the same Turks have made so little use of the U.N. aid corridors already in place. But then, it's not really about milk and medicine for children, is it?

The flotilla's were not a state-funded project. It was a private group working on it's own and gathering volunteers, the state of Turkey had nothing to do with it.

Turkey was brought in to this business because Turkish citizens were killed.

 

[gambit]

The flotilla's were not a state-funded project. It was a private group working on it's own and gathering volunteers, the state of Turkey had nothing to do with it.

Turkey was brought in to this business because Turkish citizens were killed.

Then there is no need for Turkey to make bellicose statements against Israel and shaking diplomatic relations over a foolish decision by a Turkish citizen.

 

[TrMhMt]

a foolish decision

You have thought like that when they have sink your battleship right? How many foolish soldier had died that time??

 

[amigos]

It was not only Turkey, but many peace loving people from many different countries who spoke for justice and freedom for the people in Gaza. The Israelis are trying to confuse the world. Its a pity that Israel can get away with such clear violation of human rights.

 

[GUNNER]

JERUSALEM, June 17, 2010 (AFP) - Israel approved on Thursday a plan to ease its blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip following weeks of international pressure, but provided few details on what new goods would be allowed in.

The security cabinet's decision was a response to mounting calls to ease the four-year blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory in the wake of a deadly May 31 raid on a flotilla of aid ships.

Under the plan, Israel would "liberalise the system by which civilian goods enter Gaza (and) expand the inflow of materials for civilian projects that are under international supervision," a brief government statement said.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Israel would maintain its naval blockade and inspect all goods entering by land.

"The intention is to ensure that more goods can enter, but always after an Israeli check, which will ensure that there is no weaponry, no arms and no materials which could be used for warfare," he said in a statement.

Hamas swiftly rejected the move, which senior leader Ismail Radwan dismissed as an attempt to "relieve the pressure" on Israel following the flotilla incident.

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority also rejected the move, with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat calling it a "public relations ploy."

"President Mahmud Abbas demands the complete lifting of the siege on the Gaza Strip," he told AFP. "He believes there are no partial solutions."

The plan is reportedly based on understandings reached by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair that call for switching from a list of allowed items to a list of banned goods.

It would also allow the entry of more construction materials for UN projects to rebuild homes and infrastructure destroyed during the devastating 22-day Gaza war, launched by Israel in December 2008 to halt rocket attacks.

Blair called the decision an "important step" and said in the coming days he would discuss its details on behalf of the Quartet, which consists of the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.

"Israel has the clear right to defend itself and protect its security. The best way to do this is to ensure that weapons cannot reach Gaza whilst allowing into Gaza the items of ordinary daily life," he said.

Currently thousands of products -- some as banal as toilet paper and ginger -- are listed by Israel as constituting a "security" risk and prevented from reaching the territory's 1.5 million residents.

The list also includes construction materials, such as metal pipes and cement, which Israel fears could be used for building rockets and constructing underground bunkers and tunnels.

An Israeli group that has closely tracked the closures said it was unclear whether the new plan would allow the kind of regular commerce needed to revive the economy in Gaza, where 80 percent of residents rely on foreign aid.

"I am definitely underwhelmed. Our concern is that Gaza residents have a right not just to consume but to produce and to travel," Sari Bashi, the director of the Gisha Centre for Legal Aid, told AFP.

"We don't need cosmetic changes, we need to allow the free passage of goods and persons into and out of Gaza, subject only to reasonable security checks."

On Wednesday, Israel allowed eight trucks loaded with kitchen equipment to enter Gaza for the first time since 2006, following recent decisions to allow in snack foods and other household items that were previously banned.

Until now most such goods have been brought into Gaza through a vast network of smuggling tunnels beneath the border with Egypt and sold at inflated prices.

The border closures came under renewed criticism following Israel's deadly commando raid on ships trying to run the blockade, in which nine Turkish activists were shot dead.

Israel has argued that the closures -- imposed when one of its soldiers was seized by Gaza militants in a deadly June 2006 raid and tightened a year later when Hamas took over -- are needed to contain the Islamist movement.

In the cabinet decision, Israel said it "expects the international community to work toward the immediate release of Gilad Shalit," now 23, who is believed to be held by Hamas at a secret location in Gaza.

 

[turkaholic]

Gambit,

How could you still defend the Israeli cruelty? Nine of our citizens were brutally killed one of whom was also a citizen of the United States? Oh wait he was a dual citizen so he doesn't count. You have to be of Western European origin to be considered a true American so that the killing of an American can be condemned. Thank you all for that.

Israel is a total disgrace to humanity. The only so called 'existing channel' to send aid into Gaza that was outlined in the article is thru Israel. Wow! How convenient! Yeah they will surely deliver everything to their enemy, the Palestinians. We might as well send all the aid directly to the Israeli people. Be a little reasonable and use all the cells in your brain when trying to belittle the Turkish people.

Today, 8 more Turkish troops were killed, because the terrorists again came in from N.Iraq and ambushed them. Can we go in there and bomb the **** out of them in N.Iraq? Of course not. They are no threat to the USA's national security. No one else matter. you have no effin right to talk about **** like this.

 

[Jigs]

Gambit,

How could you still defend the Israeli cruelty? Nine of our citizens were brutally killed one of whom was also a citizen of the United States? Oh wait he was a dual citizen so he doesn't count. You have to be of Western European origin to be considered a true American so that the killing of an American can be condemned. Thank you all for that.

Israel is a total disgrace to humanity. The only so called 'existing channel' to send aid into Gaza that was outlined in the article is thru Israel. Wow! How convenient! Yeah they will surely deliver everything to their enemy, the Palestinians. We might as well send all the aid directly to the Israeli people. Be a little reasonable and use all the cells in your brain when trying to belittle the Turkish people.

Today, 8 more Turkish troops were killed, because the terrorists again came in from N.Iraq and ambushed them. Can we go in there and bomb the **** out of them in N.Iraq? Of course not. They are no threat to the USA's national security. No one else matter. you have no effin right to talk about **** like this.

Don't take Gambit too seriously. After all he thinks Turkey is comparable to Arab states and gets a kick out of annoying people.

 

[Rumporum]

Well the Israeli Navy investigation preliminary has determined that there was a serious ****-up especially from the intelligence angle on the people on the Mari Marmara. They were looking for a confrontation and were provoking us and we screwed up big big time in handling this.

The aim wasn't to kill people if that was the aim then it could have been done and the casualties would have been more. Furthermore I would like to add in my not so good Hindi/Urdu the Turks should know " Sheeshey key Ghar main rehneywale dosooron paar pathar nahii phektey or Phektaa....(not sure which is grammatically correct) hai.

Northern Cyprus and Kurdistan are there for all to see.

 

[Jigs]

Well the Israeli Navy investigation preliminary has determined that there was a serious ****-up especially from the intelligence angle on the people on the Mari Marmara. They were looking for a confrontation and were provoking us and we screwed up big big time in handling this.

The aim wasn't to kill people if that was the aim then it could have been done and the casualties would have been more. Furthermore I would like to add in my not so good Hindi/Urdu the Turks should know " Sheeshey key Ghar main rehneywale dosooron paar pathar nahii phektey or Phektaa....(not sure which is grammatically correct) hai.

Northern Cyprus and Kurdistan are there for all to see.

Not this again. There is no such thing has Kurdistan. This was formed out of some kurds that decided to take their nationalistic views to greater heights. Your right! Northern Cyprus is there for all to see so get a ticket and head there lots of cool stuff to see.

Last time i checked didn't Greece cancel their military exercise with you and set up a committee to investigate all this ?

Maybe if you ask nicely we may OK you for the Anatolian Eagle. Then again i wouldn't keep my hopes up.