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Turkey eventually falling into Israeli trap on Syria: Randy Short

An analyst says Turkey will have no control over Israel and MOSSAD activities once Israel is let loose in the expected NATO invasion attempt of Syria.

In the background of this, turkey has lifted a long term veto it placed against any cooperation with Israel, which will allow Israel into the attack on Syria saying it agrees for Israel to participate in ‘certain’ NATO activities. The concern to many is that of ensuring control of Israeli activities by Turkey and also the fact that Erdogan has shunned the majority of the Turkish population with this move. The Turkish people remember the deadly raid by Israeli commandos on the Turkish aid flotilla in 2010 that resulted in the slaughter of nine Turks and a national outrage. Israel has never apologized for that attack.

Press TV has interviewed Mr. Randy Short, Dignity Human Rights and Peace Organization, New York about this issue. The following is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Looking at Turkey’s policies in the past year or so, it is very different from what many had expected – Turkey to be rising up as an independent state, which resists against Israeli aggression as well as pressures from the West – A very different line now Turkey is taking, isn’t it?

Short: Well it depends. If you don’t look deeply perhaps, superficially you assume it is a country with a large Muslim population, it’s in the Middle East… But if you look at the fact that Turkey is a part of NATO, if you look at the fact that it’s in the Mediterranean Dialogue group and the Istanbul meeting they had in 2004 where they wanted to work with interoperability with different military forces in particular Qatar and other states, Turkey has been moving towards being a reactionary power.

It literally would be like a new Israel, if I could say, on behalf of its Western partners and its alliance with the Sheikhdoms and the reactionary puppet regimes within the Middle East. So, nothing that it’s doing would be a surprise if you are watching – the alliance and the deals they’ve cut.

I think perhaps their honor was offended when their ships were attacked and the efforts of the flotilla that was trying to go to Gaza. But aside from that Turkey is one of Israel’s principle allies and it has always been so.

Press TV: You mentioned that Turkey is a Muslim-majority country and we have seen time and time again the Turkish population as a whole does stand up against Israeli aggression, for example when we saw the war with Gaza. Do you think they are going to buy their government’s stance with regards to Syria and with regards to NATO and now with Israel?

Short: If you consider just this past week police were firing tear gas and water cannon at students that were protesting in Ankara. Someone was shot in the head with a tear gas canister.

The military of Turkey reminds me of the military in Egypt – its money, its support comes from Western countries. They are more aligned with who pays them than the people.

So I have my suspicions that the Turkish military is like many militaries in many developing countries more interested in how they eat than in justice and fairness for the very people they are supposed to protect.

Press TV: Turkey has said that it will agree to Israeli involvement in certain NATO activities. Any idea what these certain activities are going to be?

Short: Well, they are opening Pandora’s Box. They are going to say no. And how can you be certain given the trickiness of Shin Bet, MOSSAD Israeli operatives? They have no control once this thing is let loose. In reality they will have plausible deniability that we said they could do A B and C, but D through Z we didn’t know they’d do that.

To me it is a cowardly and hypocritical way for them to say they didn’t know, when in fact they do know. If you’re an imperialist, if you oppress the people in Palestine and Gaza, if you terrorize your neighbors why wouldn’t new operations be more of the same – they are certainly not trying to liberate or go back to pre-1967 borders.

So it has to be more aggression. They are liars. Turkey is in for what it can get for itself. Maybe they’ve promised a deal that may be they’ll be able to get the old Ottoman Empire back; if they stab their Arab and Muslim brothers in the back. That’s how I feel.

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