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Israeli-Turkish ties near collapse after humiliation of envoy http://www.smh.com.au/world/israeliturkish-ties-near-collapse-after-humiliation-of-envoy-20100113-m727.html JASON KOUTSOUKIS January 14, 2010 *JERUSALEM:* The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has fully backed the public humiliation of Turkey's ambassador to Tel Aviv as diplomatic relations between the once close allies teeter on the brink of collapse. With Turkey still deciding how to respond to the treatment of its envoy, Ahmet Celikkol, Mr Netanyahu warned that Turkey's warming relationship with Iran should be of concern to the West. The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, warned that Turkey ''will respond appropriately'' unless Israel ''stops provoking'' his country. The flare-up in tensions came after Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, summoned Mr Celikkol to his office on Monday to complain about a Turkish television drama that depicted Israeli security forces kidnapping children and shooting elderly men. In consultation with Israel's Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, Mr Ayalon sat Mr Celikkol across the table on a lower chair and refused to shake his hand. No refreshments were provided during the meeting and only the Israeli flag was on the table between them, rather than the flags of both nations. ''The important thing is that people see that he's low and we're high and that there is one flag here,'' Mr Ayalon said in Hebrew to journalists invited in to cover the meeting. When Mr Ayalon was asked to shake hands with the ambassador, he said: ''No. That's the point.'' Mr Ayalon later apologised for his treatment of Mr Celikkol, but did not back away from the words of protest he delivered during the meeting. ''My protest against the attacks on Israel in Turkey still stands,'' Mr Ayalon said. ''However, it is not my way to offend the honour of ambassadors and in the future I will make my position clear by accepted diplomatic means.'' Israeli media reported that Mr Ayalon's apology had been co-ordinated by Mr Netanyahu to try to minimise the diplomatic fallout from the incident. In comments that indicated he endorsed Mr Ayalon, Mr Netanyahu was quoted as saying: ''Turkey's move eastwards, that is what should truly make Israel worried. There are three strong non-Arab countries in the Middle East. Israel is always rooted in the West. Iran was once in the West and is now leading radical and dictatorial Islam. And the third country is Turkey, which used to look towards the West, and in the past two years has increasingly been looking east, towards Iran.'' In Ankara the Israeli ambassador, Gabi Levy, was summoned for a reprimand by a Turkish Foreign Ministry undersecretary, Feridun Sinirlioglu, in a meeting that followed normal diplomatic protocols. ''We are awaiting an apology by Israel in the near future,'' Mr Sinirlioglu told the ambassador. ''If there is no apology, we will weigh our steps.'' Turkey has adopted an increasingly hostile stance towards Israel in the aftermath of its offensive last year in Gaza that resulted in the deaths of 1400 Palestinians, and has moved to develop closer ties with Muslim states such Iran and Syria. One of only three Muslim-majority countries in the region to maintain formal diplomatic relations with Israel, Turkey has in the past proved a useful ally to it. -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
