“I cannot just set aside the demands of my people,” Erdoğan told reporters in response to a question during a press conference ahead of his departure for an official visit to Baghdad, adding that heeding public opinion on this issue was an “obligation” for his government. “Turkey is a powerful country which makes its decisions on its own. Turkey doesn't make decisions based on some others' advice or orders,” he added. Israel has extensive defense ties with Turkey, a NATO member and one of the few Muslim nations to have built an alliance with the Jewish state.
Yet tension prevails in the ties between Israel and Turkey, particularly since Ankara's harsh criticism of Israel's three-week offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in December and January. Earlier this week, Erdoğan recalled once again in an interview with the Al Arabiya News Channel that Israel killed 1,500 people, including women and children, in Gaza and destroyed schools and hospitals.
Amid the tense atmosphere between the two countries, a Turkish TV series that portrays Israeli soldiers murdering children has reportedly added insult to injury, with Israel's foreign minister ordering Israeli Foreign Ministry officials to summon the deputy chief of the mission at the Turkish Embassy in Israel to the ministry in order to make a formal protest regarding the series.
A statement released by the Israeli Foreign Ministry on Wednesday quoted Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman as saying the program, screened by Turkish state TV, constituted incitement against Israel “at the most grave level.”
Israeli TV screened a clip from the series on Wednesday evening. It showed an actor dressed as an Israeli soldier taking aim at a smiling young girl and shooting her in the chest at point-blank range.
Israeli army radio said the show, about the tribulations of a Palestinian family, was aired on Tuesday on the state-run TRT 1 and also depicted troops killing a Palestinian newborn delivered after its mother went into labor at an Israeli roadblock.
“A series like this, which has not the slightest connection with reality, which presents Israeli soldiers as the murderers of innocent children, would not be appropriate for broadcast even in an enemy country and certainly not in a state which maintains diplomatic relations with Israel,” Lieberman said in the statement.
US says it worked for postponement of exercises
The United States and Italy were scheduled to take part in the exercise, called “Anatolian Eagle,” which has become the subject of controversy. Both countries withdrew their participation from the drill after learning Israel had been excluded, Israeli newspaper Haaretz suggested earlier this week, citing Israeli Foreign Ministry sources. Yet, Washington said on Wednesday that the United States worked with participating governments last week to postpone the upcoming exercise.
“We certainly value a broad range of important military cooperation with Turkey ... we certainly have every intention of continuing to foster even closer cooperation in the future. The next iteration of that is planned to be a bilateral exercise between Turkey and the US … in the spring of 2010,” Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters during a press briefing. When asked why the US was interested in canceling or postponing the exercise, Morrell said: “Well, there was a decision made by the government of Turkey to change the concept of the scenario in a way that would not enable the US to participate. I mean, frankly speaking, Israel was removed from the exercise, from the list of participating nations, and the US government believes it is inappropriate for any nation to be removed at the last minute.”
What had happened in Gaza?
 A hospital worker sits next to the body of a Palestinian teenage girl Heyam Abu Ayish before her funeral in the central Gaza Strip July 3, 2009. Abu Ayish was killed by a shell that was fired by an Israeli tank.  Relatives of a Palestinian teenage girl Heyam Abu Ayish mourn during her funeral in the central Gaza Strip July 3, 2009.  Palestinians react after hearing news that their mother had been killed in Israeli shelling in Beit Lahiya, Northern Gaza Strip.  Smoke from Israeli bombardments is seen in the Gaza Strip during an army operation as seen from the Israeli side of the border with Gaza, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009.  A palestinian boy prays over the bodies of members of the Al-batran family, of which five members were killed in an Israeli military operation, during their funeral in the Bureij Refugee Camp, Central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009.  A palestinian relative of four members of the Abu Eita family, carries one of those killed in an Israeli army operation past a destroyed building during their funeral in Beit Lahiya, Northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009. |
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