Word: erdogan
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...Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas in June 2006. The rocket attacks have pretty much stopped and the arms smuggling - I am told - is an issue that can be negotiated, but the fate of Shalit has been an insane sticking point. On the evening before Clinton's speech, Recep Tayyip Erdogan - the Prime Minister of Turkey and an erstwhile ally of Israel's - was cheered when he raged against the conditions in Gaza, calling it "an open-air prison." (See pictures of George W. Bush in the Middle East...
...while Erdogan may appear to be striking out independently of his country's NATO partners, it's notable that his outbursts critical of Israel draw little comment from the U.S. and Europe. That suggests "there is a sense that Erdogan is saying things that someone needs to say to Israel," says a European diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity. Just last month, Erdogan left an upbeat meeting with President Barack Obama, rode to a downtown Washington hotel and gave a speech lambasting Israel for "inhuman" deeds in Gaza. "The timing doesn't suggest someone who is unaware of what...
...past six months, Turkey has scrapped visa requirements for Lebanon, Jordan and Syria and signed a raft of agreements with each country designed to improve trade and cultural exchange. Since publicly chastising Israeli President Shimon Peres over Gaza at a conference in Switzerland last January, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become a hero on Arab streets, and the latest diplomatic spat with Israel won't do his popularity any harm. Beirut daily Al Akhbar's headline on the Ayalon apology story praised "Sultan Erdogan" and exalted that "Israel understands only Turkish...
Turkey maintains some 35,000 troops in the north but the Turkish government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recognizes that divided Cyprus is a potential embarrassment to its new-found ambitions to become a regional power. It also threatens to derail Ankara's long-standing -albeit slow-moving - bid to join the European Union. The E.U. has frozen discussions on eight of the 35 policy chapters towards membership since December 2006 to punish the Turks for not opening their ports and airspace to Cypriot vessels as required. At a summit last week, the E.U. agreed to open just...
...also likely to discuss Turkey's decades-old bid to become part of the European Union, an ambition that Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government appears to have placed on the back burner. The Prime Minister and his ministers have racked up dozens of visits to the Middle East and gulf this year, shoring up trade deals and political ties. They have visited Brussels many fewer times. In part, this is Europe's fault. Germany's Angela Merkel and France's Nicholas Sarkozy have made little secret of their distaste for Turkey's eventual membership. "The U.S. must ... convince Erdogan that...