Never trust a Turk

Turkey was one of Israel's main customers for military goods until Sheikh Erdogan started sucking up to Iran. Now, it appears, Israel has seriously reconsidered their relationship with the 'sick man of Europe'. As well they should.



FROM ARUTZ SHEVA:

Israel Rejects Turkish Request to Buy Arms
by Hana Levi Julian


Israel has declined a request by Turkey to purchase several different military systems, including an anti-tank guided weapon and a missile system for its navy.

The request by the Turkish government was rejected by Israel's SIBAT, the defense assistance and export organization, which is currently reviewing each order on a case-by-case basis.

Turkey said it wanted to buy the Spike non-line-of-site (NLOS) anti-tank guided weapon, the Namer heavy infantry fighting vehicle, and the Israel Aerospace Industries' (IAI) Barak 8 theater-defense missile system for its navy, according to UK-based Jane's Defence Weekly.

Israel did, however, deliver the last of 170 upgraded M60A1 main battle tanks (MBTs) to the Turkish military on April 7 through a joint contract between Israel Military Industries (IMI) and Turkey's Aselsan, shepherded along by Columbia.


The move is seen as a response to Turkey's increasing anti-Israel rhetoric and the pro-Islamic leanings in its foreign and domestic policies.


An Israeli defense official was quoted by the military publication as saying, “Ties with Turkey will never be the way they once were. We are being very careful which systems we sell them, due to the growing Islamic trends in the country.”

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan harshly criticized Israel during and following its counter terrorism Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, which ran from December 28, 2008 to January 20, 2009.

Since that time, relations between the two countries have steadily deteriorated, a trend reflected in Turkey's decision in October 2009 to bar Israel's Air Force from participating in the joint Anatolian Eagle exercises. Turkey ultimately chose to cancel the drill rather than back down in response to pressure from the United States and Italy, who were also set to participate.

As a result, Israel has also been searching for new air space in which to conduct long-range training exercises, since Turkey has refused the IAF use of its air space. Recently the Defense Ministry has been exploring the possibility of renewing a 2006 agreement to deploy IAF fighter jets in Romania.


SOURCE:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/news.aspx/137115




AFTERTHOUGHT


Turkey's relationship with Nato and Israel was always predicated upon countering the weight of Russia.
Since the end of the cold war, Turkey has attempted to position itself as a moderate, bridging the divide between the Islamic nutballs in Iran and Pakistan, the Europeans with their justifiable worry about the porosity of their southern borders, the Arab World, and the temporarily denatured Russian bear.
This was a careful and subtle balancing act - one at which Turkey was bound to fail.
Sheikh Erdogan has made sure, however, that Turkey stumbled, and that it would happen dramatically sooner than anyone even anticipated. International relations have never been the Turks' strong suit (consider their hamfisted performance during the last several decades of the degenerate Ottoman empire, and their offkilter mad-pig rampaging since the death of Ataturk), and their support for irredentist Turkic fanatics in Russian Central Asia and the far west of China has won them few friends.
Their obsequious approach to Tehran now proves the bankruptcy of their political ambitions; they are desperate, and they have lost the trust of even the most well-willing of their onetime allies.

It is time for the Western World to cut Turkey loose.

They have become a treacherous liability, and a danger to civilization. Their economy and their society have lost any promise, and their friendship, never sincere, is proving a snake in the bosom. They are ever more reverting to the perverse bigotries that informed their centuries-long savage repression the Greek and Balkan lands, and their 1915-17 brutal massacre of the Armenians.


The Turks have in recent years shown their true colors. The fantasy of Turkish modernization, the very idea that Turkey could ever become a liberal secular democracy, has been permanently shattered by their Islamic movement, and Erdogan's pimp-like pandering to the Persians and Arabs.
Turkey should NEVER be allowed into the EU.


-----Stephanie 周