the politics of boners for erdogan

With all the hype about Turkey and Erdogan's angry words over Gaza in the past year people seem to have forgotten that the Turkish state is still one of Israel's biggest allies and supporters. So I was really pleased when I came across this statement from Turks calling them out on it:

Government cabinets of the Republic of Turkey have been important constituents of the alliance. Whereas the Turkish-Israeli relationships were extended to the military sphere under the Çiller and Erbakan cabinets, it was during the Ecevit period that Turkey organized the first air force exercises with Israeli participation under the code name “Anatolian Eagle”. The still existing Turkish-Israeli Inter-parliamentary Friendship Group in the Turkish parliament was formed by 289 deputies (183 of them from the AKP) during the first year of the AKP in government. After the attack on Gaza, many deputies, in the first place Nursuna Memecan of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), resigned from the Group. Among those, who have not, the CHP (Republican People’s Party) Deputy Onur Öymen is noteworthy. The AKP government, on the other hand, while enhancing relations on all levels, successfully employs the hypocrite discourse of “Our Muslim brothers and sisters are dying in Gaza!! One Minute!”

The Turkish capitalist hegemony, both its religious and secular wings, all of its institutions and foremost the Turkish Army are defenders of this alliance. The central pillars of this strategic alliance are military cooperation and arms trade. There are trade and cooperation agreements between Turkey and Israel on a broad spectrum reaching from agriculture to seed technologies, husbandry and irrigation, chemistry and energy allocation, telecommunication to tourism, to security and environmental technologies. The trading volume between Turkey and Israel in 2008 was app. 2.6 billion dollars. 1.8 billion dollars of this amount came from trade on military equipment and technologies. A boycott campaign in Turkey that will aim at the policies of adding new munition to the arsenal of the state of Israel, will be a step further on the road leading to true peace in the Middle East, a peace the people of the Middle East are so desperately waiting for.

What are we going to aim at? And how?

As a part of the people of the Middle East, we never hesitate to stand up against all forms of oppression and occupation of the imperialists. While the people of Palestine are resisting in our close neighbourhood and developing an important anti-imperialist front, we became natural allies in this front.

Turkey is the most important ally of Israel in the Middle East. To organize an effective boycott campaign here against Zionism and against Israel will be the most meaningful act of international solidarity with the Palestinians.

To defend their honor and freedom, the Palestinians are in a long process of total war against Zionist barbarism. In the name of all the labourers, the discriminated and oppressed of the world, Palestine stands at the target of the oppressors. It is the duty of all humans on the planet to stand by the side of the people of Palestine, and to support their resistance in all fields. We have to question ourselves at the first place. Today, everybody should be aware of the fact that, anyone who does not expressively take part in the struggle for the cessation of any partnerships and cooperation in the crimes committed by the Zionist regime and the imperialist powers behind, is an accomplice in the first degree in those crimes. We declare that we are not going to be their accomplices, and that we are going to boycott Israel, until this complicity is totally eliminated out of our lives!

Our word is open and clear: We are not going to be accomplices in the violation of rights of the Palestinians! We will crush Zionism appearing in any form in our lands! We will not let Israeli soldiers use the air, land, the sea of the lands we are living on. We will resist, following the example of the Palestinians, not only for one month or one year, but until the occupation is lifted and until the Palestinians of Israeli citizenship gain equal rights. We will expose the close bonds between Israeli and Turkish capital and boycott their products! We will focus our efforts on announcing to the public that research led in our universities should not flow into the development of technology and equipment that makes Israeli occupation possible. We will work on inquiring such research partnerships and announce to the public on specific examples, so that a public pressure can be organised, to lead our universities to gain distance to Israeli universities and companies. We will boycott cultural products and artworks supported by the Israeli State and so, frustrate Israel’s efforts of image restoration by using channels of cultural and artistic production.

End All Military, Trade, Diplomatic, Academic and Cultural Relations with Israel!

For:

The lifting of the siege on Gaza

Stopping Israeli racism

The right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their homelands

The end of occupation in the West Bank and Gaza

The end of the Apartheid System on Palestinians of Israeli citizenship

The right of self-determination of the Palestinian People

Well said, thanks guys.