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Barak visits Turkey, praises Ataturk
Roni Sofer
Published: 17.01.10, 11:19
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43 Talkbacks for this article
1. Please arrest the war criminal
Carl ,   United States   (01.17.10)
2. Lieberman's intrigueto face Barak to Turkish backlash failed
Tayfun_Turkey ,   Istanbul   (01.17.10)
Ayalon and Lieberman calculated they could get Turkish Government backlash to Barak, therefore they could gain in Domestics politics in Israel spoiling Israeli Diplomacy If they insult Turkish Diplomat they would make Turkey angry and then Turkey would retaliate insultingly to Barak in his visit to Turkey Turkey did not fell in such trap But Lieberman and his Ayalon who eats his word failed to achieve positive gains in domestic politics by driving Turkey agains Israeli Defence Minister Barak
3. #2
(01.17.10)
Lieberman/Ayalon were reacting to your Prime Minister's words. Also, why are you so proud to have Barak visit? Are you saying that Goldstone was lying when he called Barak a war criminal?
4. Of course a leftist like Barak would like Ataturk
Yaniv ,   Israel   (01.17.10)
and his love for centralized power and hate for the individual, the most persecuted minority in history. Ataturk changed Turkey from part of an Islamic fascist empire under the Ottomans to a secular nationalist fascist republic. One of the so called six arrows of Kemalism is nationalism. That's where we got article 301 of the Turkish penal code, which has put many in prison for criticizing Turkey, such as Taner Akcam, for speaking about the Armenian Genocide. It is because of the nationalism, Kurds were not recognized as a distinct people and were not allowed to be referred to as Kurds, but instead Mountain Turks. Turkey is indeed guilty of a cultural genocide of the Kurds. I have never seen a country more self-righteous and more in denial of its dark chapters in history than Turkey. Sorry, Turkey, both Islam and Kemalism failed. Try again!
5. Barak visits Turkey, praises Ataturk
Gerry   (01.17.10)
Dear Mr. Barak, in history lessons you sleped well I guess Who killed the Armenians? Your Hero of peace? who fight against the Kurds? Your Hero of peace?
6. rain
michel ,   france   (01.17.10)
Israel is becoming a "banana republic"more and more . How do you expect to be respected if they spite in your face and you respond "it's raining"?
7. I am waiting for the news in the Turkish media
Atheist Turk ,   Germany   (01.17.10)
Erdogan should listen to Barak´s word about Atatürk carefully. Even though Atatürk was no saint. What will this visit change in the ME? Nothing!
8. nice joke
Narina ,   Kurdistan   (01.17.10)
Within Turkey, the poison of anti-Kurdish chauvinism pollutes the political atmosphere, a racist and brutal state like Turkey attack Israel is a very nice joke..come on
9. same future like Iraqi Arab generlas
Narina ,   South Kurdistan   (01.17.10)
The Kurds in Turkey dream about the Arabs rights in Israel, however if it is not NATO and West assistance to Turkish racsit sate , the Turkish generlas future wioll be eaxct like their Iraqi Arab racsit generlas, they have to run away from Kurdistan in 24 hours.let us see history.
10. Turkey as a brutal state
Mazul Dogan ,   North Kurdistan   (01.17.10)
a brutal state like Turkey should be the last state in the world to critisize Israel, The Turkish state, even before its war against the PKK in particular and the Kurdish people in general began, had been practicing torture. The Ottomans left this legacy to the emerging new state that came to beknown as the Turkey
11. Translated from Swedish
Arina ,   Sweden   (01.17.10)
Agneta Norberg, journalist, and , serves as vice chair of the Swedish Peace Council, an umbrella organization for peace groups in Sweden. "When I am in Sweden I am a Kurd. When I go home to Turkey I am a Turk—otherwise I face a lot of problems." Selim, a Kurdish schoolboy of ten, introduced himself at my first lesson. I was teaching Swedish for immigrants in a school in a suburb of Stockholm in 1984. Asking Selim about his language and his country was a turning point in my life. I began to study the political situation in Turkey. I found out many things. Not only was his Kurdish language forbidden in Turkey, but his country, Kurdistan, was divided into five parts. The biggest part of the Kurdish population live in Turkey.. In 1980 there was a bloody military take over in Turkey and thousands of refugees, mostly Kurds, escaped to Sweden and other European countries. I also learned that the US and Germany are deeply involved in equipping and training Turkey’s police force, its secret police (MIT), its military, its paramilitary troops, and its torturers.
12. Barak is a groveling idiot who strengthens Hizbollah/Hamas/
Jae ,   Lynn US   (01.17.10)
etc. Under his careful watch (sarcasm) these groups are 5x stronger than in 2006. Good job you feckless twit
13. Kurds rights in Turkey& Arabs rights in Israel
Rizgar ,   S. Kurdistan   (01.17.10)
Birth Certificate ,Traffic signs,Passport,ID cards, Goveremnt documents, allmost every thing in Israel is in Arabic,English and Hebrew, Can any Turk show us one simple document in Kurdish?????and this racist country attack Israel is a nice joke
14. Brutal pathetic American poppuet
M. Dogan ,   occupied Kurdistan   (01.17.10)
Last month there was another fight amongst the students at one of Istanbul University Actually, it wasn’t a fight, it was a case of bashing of a Kurdish student by Turkish racists but the media referred to the incident as “a fight.” Normally the Turkish media boycotts cases involving the bashing of Kurds but this one was so brutal and uncivilised that even the Turkish media could ignore it. In other words, attacks against Kurdish students are common practice but they often remain unreported in the media. Every year students conduct various activities at the beginning of the courses. Kurdish students play a big part in them. Music, dancing, theatre and other activities are organised by them. Turkish racists get very annoyed by these cultural activities organised by the Kurds. The Kurdish students and their guests listen to music, dance, play games, watch plays and eat together. In other words they do not act in any way against the interests of the Turkish people. Indeed many of our Turkish colleagues join in and enjoy themselves. Students belonging to racist organisations, however, do not like this. They report these activities to their superiors and watch the participants from the distance. When the students begin to disperse a group of racists follow an individual. They always make sure there are at least three or four of them before they attack one Kurdish individual. In this particular incident that was actually caught on camera and televised, there were about twenty racists bashing one Kurdish student. What is strange (not to us Kurdish students of course), during such incidents the police do not intervene. Just reverse the picture and twenty Kurds were bashing a Turk, then imagine what the Turkish police would do and how the media would react! (Also imagine Jews attacked by German gangs or a Turks attacked by a European gang and then imagine the reaction by the Turkish and the world media: Translator).
15. Ataturk`s legacy was...Laicism
NOra Tel Aviv   (01.17.10)
but today under Erdogan`s Islamism, it was wise of Barak not to mention it.
16. Turkey-Israel
Naim ,   California   (01.17.10)
I am a Turkish Jew and with what I read here makes me alarmed. first of all Turkey is more secular and democratic than Israel and when it comes to Kurds, I will dissapoint all you anti Turks because half of Turkey's cabinets have Kurdish heritage. Just to enlighten you further, Kurdish is no longer banned in Turkey, even state TVs broadcast in Kurdish. And my fellow Jews, Israel's reputation is suffering even in US. Most people in this world regards the current Israeli government an extremist and a vioelent one! So get real and let us put our house in order and safeguard Israel's future. Israel needs allies and not new enemies.
17. #16-Naim
Ronen ,   NY   (01.17.10)
Naim, You have been deluded by the distorted images you see on tv. Wake up! Israelis arent interested in fighting but in progressing! Just look at the israeli economy, it's booming. If Israel wasn't constantly being attacked, they wouldn't have to crush the palestinians all the time and subjected to the baseless criticism.
18. #17 Ronen, NY
Naim ,   California   (01.17.10)
I work for major multinational company and I was recently in Israel. Yes Israel's economy is booming but so is Israel's international debt as well as American aid to that country.
19. meeting
colin   (01.17.10)
The cowardly groveling wimp in Turkey to bow to the turks. Who gave this idiot permission to speak to the foreign ministry.??? Who does barak think he is assisting but for his leftest clowns.No body needs the fool barak to try override Lieberman or Ayalon.They are the Israeli foreign appointees and not an interfering wimp
20. Kurds talking about democracy & trying to ally with Israel?
Tal ,   Israel & UK   (01.17.10)
Is that why most of Kurdish mosques are full of Hamas and Hizballah posters? I saw it myself with my own eyes in Kurdish mosques in Europe and in Iraqi Kurdistan. Is that why Kurdish cultural code defends 'honour killing', 'forced-arranged marriages', 'female circumsitions', and exchange of woman for money? Is that why Kurds sell their children to PKK and street crime organizations? In Iraqi Kurdistan honour killings and female circumsition are not even considered as crimes! More than half of Kurdish women in Iraq are circumsized! Kurds, have you ever heard of anything called human rights, women rights, children rights? Kurds, sort out your primitive and wild cultural codes first.
21. TURKEY AGAIN RULES MIDDLE EAST BECAUSE OF GAZA !
ATİLLA KARAGÖZOĞLU   (01.17.10)
22. ISRAEL WILL NEVER ABLE TO RUN FROM WHAT SHE DONE IN GAZA
ATİLLA KARAGÖZOĞLU   (01.17.10)
23. Naim, thank you for your reasoned, sensible post...
BBSNews ,   Charlotte, NC   (01.17.10)
...the wingnuts live in a tiny bubble of denial and they know nothing of the world outside of their own hateful ideology. They want all of the land. They want all Arab Palestinians gone. That is what Israel has become.
24. To all Kurds posting here (#8, #10, #13)
Tahl ,   Ashdod, Israel   (01.17.10)
Where have you all been until now? Your voices were sorely needed. Please write here often and inform us about the situation in Turkey, from you side!
25. Turkey-Israel (loss of power)
erol ,   Aust.   (01.17.10)
Israel is running out of allies, Turkey instead is booming without the need of debt. Ataturks legacy will forever echo in our modern and powerful republic. It's true, we have Kurdish TV, speaking kurdish is allowed and our power will grow the more Turkey opens up... The real true power in the ME is Turkey. All the extremists in Israel are worried that they are losing the power in the region which they never truely had. I am a strong supporter of Turkish-Israel relations, but some people are putting this on the line... dont forget who needs who the most.
26. #22 ATILLA
shu ,   london   (01.17.10)
TURKEY CAN NEVER HIDE THE FACT THAT TURKEY KILLED OVER ONE MILLON ARMIENIN AND TODAY TURKEY KILLS KURDISH PEOPLE,TURKEY CAN NEVER RUN AWAY FROM THAT. NEVER.
27. Kurdistan and #20
Israel Israeli ,   Tel Aviv   (01.17.10)
Most of Kurdistan is occupied by Iraq. The US, following the Saudi dictate, has declared that they will "respect Iraqi territorial integrity" which means they will let the Arabs continue to oppress the Kurds and steal their oil. As for the Kurds of Turkey. They are allowed to live in freedom as Turkish citizens, just like Kurds in Germany. The problem is that the Arab-funded terrorist organization PKK gives the impression that the only Kurdish problem is the Turks. And #20, the reason Hamas and Hizbolla star in the Kurdish mosques? Ask who funds building these mosques. Hint, it is not Kurds or Turks.
28. Turkish Race Violence,
Rizgar ,   South Kurdistan   (01.17.10)
. Kemal ordered that scientific conferences be held in 1935. At one of these conferences, a theory (the 'Son-Language Theory') was accepted following 'scientific' discussions. According to this theory the Turkish language was 'the mother of all languages'. The 'Turkish history thesis' was accepted at another conference. According to this theory 'the superior Turkish race' was the 'mother of all civilisations and races' . While Nazi Kamlasim ideology was created within Turkey, friends and enemies were also identifed according to TURK'UN TURK'TEN BASKA DOSTU YOKTUR (The only friends of Turks are Turks). Internal enemies were identifed as communists, socialists, Kurds and other ethnic minorities such as Armenians, Lazes, Greeks and Suryanis. Attacks were launched against these groups. Anybody who opposed these ideas was immediately removed. As a result of the assimilation policy, anybody who did not speak Turkish was punished. BIR TURK DUNYAYA BEDELDIR (One Turk is worth all the world) and NE MUTLU TURK'UM DIYENE (What a happiness to say that I am Turkish) became the slogans of the racist state of Turkey. . Yet racism is prohibited by Turkish law. But this does not include 'Turkish racism'. Minorities, who oppose this and identify themselves as non-Turkish, are activeiy being portrayed as racist, and there are various legal measures directed against these 'racists'. In the Constitution of the Turkish republic, the following phrase is mentioned thirty-three times: 'Anybody who opposes the indivisibility of the Turkish Republic with its nation and its country, will be deprived of their basic human rights and freedoms
29. Nice Joke ,Turkey critizise Israel
Rizgar ,   South Kurdistan   (01.17.10)
In addition to this, and according to the Turkish Criminal Law (para.125), the Anti-Terror Law (para.8) and a number of other laws, anyone who tries to divide the country, who says that there is more than one nation in Turkey, who acts on or organises on the basis of this matter, can be punished by various penalties, including imprisonment and execution. It is also a crime to say 'Hurray to the Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood.' The Kurdish deputies who added this statement to their pledges at the opening ceremony of Parliament in November 1991 were first beaten and then taken to court for attempting to divide the country. and this country critizise Israel a lovely nice joke. However we hope that Isreal not liaising any more with the Turkish police and capture Kurdish activists .
30. Nilson Mandela according Turkish News
Rizgar ,   South Kurdistan   (01.17.10)
The 'Ataturk Peace Award', which has been awarded since 1984, was awarded to Nelson Mandela in 1992 for being anti-racist and a hero. When he refused the award because of the oppression of the Kurds, he was called 'an insolent African', 'an ugly African' and 'the terrorist Mandela'
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