Turkey now has missiles that can reach long ranges

It turns out that Iran's not the only Islamic regime that's had ballistic missiles being built. Turkey's also building them, and put an ICBM on display just recently:

Turkey's Ministry of National Defense research and development center unveiled the Yildirimhan intercontinental ballistic missile at the SAHA 2026 (Turkey's international defense and aerospace exhibition) expo, marking a public debut for one of Ankara's most advanced long-range missile systems.

According to the defense ministry, the missile can reach Mach 25 and has a declared range of 6,000 kilometers (3,728 miles). It uses liquid nitrogen tetroxide as fuel and is powered by four rocket propulsion engines.

It's entirely possible such devices could reach north America as much as Europe and Israel, if nothing's done about it. So we have to hope Donald Trump makes this an issue. Also, during Trump's first term of office, Turkey was misbehaving already.

Turkey's occupation in northern Cyprus does pose a danger to Israel as much as to the Cypriots

Shay Gal wrote about how Turkey's occupation of northern Cyprus is as much Israel's problem as it is for the Cyprian citizens themselves, in ways similar to Hamas in Gaza:

Cyprus recently marked the 51st anniversary of Turkey's 1974 invasion - a lasting trauma for Greek Cypriots. For decades, Israel treated this conflict as a distant Greek-Turkish issue, but must now clearly acknowledge: Northern Cyprus is not just a Greek-Cypriot problem - it is also an Israeli one. In practical terms, Northern Cyprus functions as an international no-man's land, enabling Turkey and terrorist groups like Hamas and Iran's Quds Force unrestricted operational freedom.

Since the invasion, which killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands, Turkey's presence has quietly transformed. The area is now a forward base for Turkey's military, hosting sophisticated weapons systems, cyber surveillance, and signals intelligence (SIGINT) infrastructure capable of intercepting both military and civilian Israeli communication, alongside covert terrorist facilities supported by Ankara. According to leaked intelligence documents, senior Turkish officials characterized Northern Cyprus as an ideal location "where anything can be done without interference by police or judicial oversight".

Turkey can deploy armed drones from Lefkoniko airfield - converted from an abandoned airport into a drone base amid regional gas disputes - far more rapidly than from its mainland bases. Since May 2021, Turkey officially stationed armed Bayraktar TB2 drones there, and more advanced Akinci UAVs were publicly showcased at a military parade in July 2024. These UAVs can rapidly target Israeli gas rigs, naval vessels, and strategic sites. In addition, Turkey's advanced ATMACA anti-ship missiles, with a range exceeding 200 km, could directly threaten Israeli maritime assets, including its critical natural gas platforms. Moreover, Turkey's new Typhoon ballistic missile is capable of precisely hitting targets up to 560 kilometers away. According to Western intelligence, missile bases in Kyrenia and Famagusta are already prepared for their deployment, posing Turkey's first direct ballistic threat to Israel, with the capability of striking Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa Bay.

That strongly hints Turkey's just as willing to declare violent war against Israel sooner or later, much like Iran. And for all we know, Turkish forces quite likely built underground tunnels and headquarters on the nothern end they occupy, and that too can be very dangerous. Why, who knows how many similar locations like that were built in secrecy in mainland Europe, and even in the USA and Canada?

I have to take issue with one part here though:

It is not Israel's role or desire to liberate Northern Cyprus. However, if the threat from the area reaches a critical threshold, Israel's strategic posture must shift. Israel, in coordination with Greece and Cyprus, must prepare a contingency operation for liberating the island's north. Such an operation would neutralize Turkish reinforcement capabilities from the mainland, eliminate air-defense systems in Northern Cyprus, destroy intelligence and command centers, and finally remove Turkish forces, restoring internationally recognized Cypriot sovereignty.

Oh for heaven's sake. That's ludicrous to imply Israel shouldn't play a part in seeking to free Northern Cyprus from the jihadist poison still lurking there. By Gal's logic there, Israel shouldn't have taken part in WW2, nor come to defense of Druze/Christian inhabitants in Syria. Let's be clear. While security forces in Cyprus obviously shouldn't ignore this, that doesn't mean Israel shouldn't be ready to act upon such an issue either. Islamic jihadism is everyone's concern, and the situation's only gotten worse everywhere, including in Europe. If we fail to act on behalf of innocent non-Jews, we're failing every innocent European during WW2. And failure to act only fuels antisemitic accusations that Jews "don't care" about anyone but themselves. We can't afford such possibilities, no matter what. So, Israel should help Cyprus put a stop to the Turkish monster at the north end of the island, and not just to protect Israel itself. Even non-Jews are in danger of Turkey's own atrocities.

Update: Middle East Forum, interestingly, says that Turkey's grip on the northern area is deteriorating, and we should not reinforce it. Absolutely correct, and all must be done to get Turkey's overlords off the island.

110th year since the Armenian Genocide by Turkey's Islamic Ottoman empire

This year marks the 110th since Turkey committed the Armenian Genocide during WW1, a horrifying history that Turkey and even Azerbaijan still won't clearly acknowledge and definitely haven't apologized for:

April 24 marked the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, during which up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottman Empire.

Tensions always rise between the Armenians and the modern Turkish government at this time of year, and many Armenians are now taking time during the day to reflect on Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Armenians from the Nagorno-Karabakh region in late 2023.

Modern historians look upon the events of 1915-1916 as the first of several genocidal events in the 20th Century, while Turkey disputes the allegation that its Ottoman predecessors were attempting to systematically eliminate the Armenian people, as Nazi Germany would later treat the Jews, or the Hutus of Rwanda would treat the Tutsis.

[...] There were numerous international witnesses to these atrocities, including foreign reporters and military officers. Modern Turkish politicians are generally willing to admit that Armenian civilians were killed and abused in great numbers, but they insist there is no documented proof that the Ottoman government was deliberately trying to exterminate the entire Armenian people.

The Armenians say the Ottomans wanted to eliminate them because they were an inconvenient Christian people standing in the way of the Young Turks’ vision for a mighty Turkic empire that would stretch from the Caucasus all the way to China.

[...] Many Armenians today accuse Azerbaijan of ethnic cleansing – eliminating a people by forcibly relocating them, rather than murdering them all – after its military conquest of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2023.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a swath of territory that fell inside the borders of Azerbaijan after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but most of its inhabitants were ethnic Armenians, who had dwelled in the area they called the “Republic of Artsakh” for centuries, ever since the height of the greater Armenian kingdom.

If the aforementioned Hen Mazzig were really concerned about forced relocation, he would've taken up topics like this, and thrown his support behind the community that really needs backing, here being Armenia's. Instead, he took the side of the savages.

Writing at the Christian Post last Sunday, religious freedom advocate David Curry urged the U.S. government to hold Azerbaijan accountable for abusing Armenians and other Christians, including the ethnic and religious cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The above columnist is absolutely correct. And it's vital to note that Armenia's current premier has to shoulder blame for much of what's befallen the country lately:

Some in the Armenian diaspora have criticized the government of Armenia for stepping back from its efforts to get the other nations of the world to formally recognize the 1915 genocide, in part because the government believes it is making diplomatic progress with Turkey and Azerbaijan.

In March, Armenian President Nikol Pashinyan told Turkish reporters that obtaining international recognition of the Armenian Genocide “is not among our foreign policy priorities today.” He hinted that insisting on recognition of the event was an obstacle to signing a treaty with Azerbaijan or normalizing relations with Turkey.

So not only did he allow Azerbaijan to take over Arsakh without a genuine fight, he's also selling out on the issue of recognition of a serious issue. This too is very chilling, and Pashinyan doesn't deserve to be a politician.

Here's some more history (via The Daily Wire) of some of the most obscene incidents during tragedy:

While the death toll is in dispute, photographs from the era document some mass killings. Some show Ottoman soldiers posing with severed heads, others with them standing amid skulls in the dirt. The victims are reported to have died in mass burnings and by drowning, torture, gas, poison, disease and starvation. Children were reported to have been loaded into boats, taken out to sea and thrown overboard. Rape, too, was frequently reported.

Just one more reason it's a disgrace anybody lets countries governed by the Religion of Peace off the hook. Of course, CNN is still making things worse by using that line "death toll in dispute". It is most definitely not.

Turkish MP dies after delivering anti-Israeli tirade

Looks like a most antisemitic member of Turkey's pseudo-parliament paid for his vulgar screeds big time:

Turkish lawmaker Hasan Bitmez of the hardline Islamist Saadet Party (SP) died in the hospital on Thursday, two days after he collapsed during a fiery tirade against Israel at the Turkish National Assembly.

Bitmez, 54, collapsed at the climax of a 22-minute speech on Tuesday in which he criticized the government of Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP Party for not taking a strong enough stance against Israel in the Gaza war.

[...] The parliament was reportedly debating the national budget at the time of his remarks. It is not clear from Turkish media reports if Bitmez’s anti-Israel attack was germane to the budgetary considerations at hand.

For many of these Islamofascists, nothing is ever enough. But here's one scumbag who sure wound up potentially facing the Lord's wrath due to his offensive tirade.

SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES

According to a new Pew poll:

... Islamist terrorist groups still command double-digit support, with Hamas being looked upon favorably by about one-third of respondents. About one-fourth do not have an opinion of the terrorists, leaving them up for grabs in the ideological war.

[...]

The country with the worst trend is Turkey. It is the only country where support for suicide bombings has increased....

More information HERE.

Watch for Obama to kiss up to Erdogan even more.

TURKEY'S ERDOGAN CONTINUES WITH HIS BIGOTRY

If you have a strong stomach, here's the latest of Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan's atrocious statements, where he trivialized/denied the genocide in Sudan while attacking Israel:

(IsraelNN.com) Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at Israel on Sunday as he came to the defense of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who faces worldwide condemnation for the genocide taking place in the Darfur region of his country.

Addressing members of his party, Erdogan said he preferred meeting with Bashir over meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. “I wouldn't be able to speak with Netanyahu so comfortably as I would with Bashir,” he was quoted by Turkish media as saying. “I would say to [Bashir's] face, 'What you've done is wrong.'”

Or would he? Because if the following tells anything:

Erdogan's remark joined several other recent anti-Israel statements that have led to a cooling of ties between Israel and Turkey in recent months.

Erdogan claimed to know that Bashir is innocent, and that there is no genocide taking place in Sudan. “A Muslim can never commit genocide,” he said in explanation. “It's not possible.”

The Turkish PM added that he had visited Darfur and did not see evidence of genocide during his trip.

So he denies any genocide took place, even against black Muslims in Sudan, does he? That disgusting man is just one more reason why sensible people should stay away from Turkey, clearly no longer a safe place to visit. And if this is what he says about Sudan, one can only wonder what his take is on Turkey's own crimes against Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians during WW1. As Eye on the World says, this is just why Turkey should not be admitted to the EU.

TURKEY IS LOST YET NO REAL LOSS

Caroline Glick writes about how Turkey is going downhill in their backtrack to Islamofascism, and even reminds of something very dumb the Bush government once did:

Once the apotheosis of a pro-Western, dependable Muslim democracy, this week Turkey officially left the Western alliance and became a full member of the Iranian axis.

It isn't that Turkey's behavior changed fundamentally in recent days. There is nothing new in its massive hostility towards Israel and its effusive solicitousness towards the likes of Syria and Hamas. Since the Islamist AKP party first won control over the Turkish government in the 2002 elections, led by AKP chairman Recip Tayyip Erdogan, the Turks have incrementally and inexorably moved the formerly pro-Western Muslim democracy into the radical Islamist camp populated by the likes of Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, al Qaida and Hamas. What made Turkey's behavior this week different from its behavior in recent months and years is that its attacks were concentrated, unequivocal and undeniable for everyone outside of Israel's scandalously imbecilic and flagellant media.

Until this week, both Israel and the US were quick to make excuses for Ankara. When in 2003 the AKP-dominated Turkish parliament prohibited US forces from invading Iraq through Kurdistan, the US blamed itself. Rather than get angry at Turkey, the Bush administration argued that its senior officials had played the diplomatic game poorly.

That's right, don't forget one of the Bush administration's poorer steps there.

Initially, this week Israel sought to continue its policy of making excuses for Turkish aggression against it. On Sunday, after Turkey disinvited the IAF from the Anatolian Eagle joint air exercise with Turkey, and NATO, senior officials like Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and Opposition leader Tzipi Livni tried to make light of the incident claiming that Turkey remains Israel's strategic ally.

But Turkey wasted no time in making fools of them. On Monday eleven Turkish government ministers descended on Syria to sign a pile of cooperation agreements with Iran's Arab lackey. The Foreign Ministry didn't even have a chance to write apologetic talking points explaining that brazen move before Syria announced it was entering a military alliance with Turkey and would be holding a joint military exercise with the Turkish military. Speechless in the wake of Turkey's move to hold military maneuvers with its enemy just two days after it cancelled joint training with Israel, Jerusalem could think of no mitigating explanation for the move.

Tuesday was characterized by escalating verbal assaults on the Jewish state. First Erdogan renewed his libelous allegations that Israel deliberately killed children in Gaza. Then he called on Turks to learn how to make money like Jews do.

Erdogan's anti-Israel and anti-Semitic blows were followed Tuesday evening by Turkey's government-controlled TRT1 television network's launch of a new prime-time series portraying IDF forces as baby and little girl killers who force Palestinian women to deliver stillborn babies at roadblocks and line up groups of Palestinians against walls to execute them by firing squad.

Yep, that was one of the most vomit inducing stunts they could pull. The Jerusalem Post tells that no Israelis want to fly to Turkey now with the way things are going:

With a new wave of anti-Israel sentiment in Turkey, and a furious response in Israel, the once-booming tourism trade between the countries is already feeling the effects.

"I can't sell a Turkish Air ticket going via Istanbul," Mark Feldman, CEO of Zion Tours, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. Istanbul is a common stop-over point on the way to many other destinations.

"Nobody, but nobody, wishes to fly there... packages are very cheap, the airline is a good airline... [but] people are voting with their feet," Feldman said.

Relations with Turkey have recently been strained, due to Turkey's withdrawal from an international military exercise involving Israel, a series of verbal assaults from Turkish leaders, and the premiere of a new television series portraying IDF soldiers as murderers. The first episode of the series aired in Turkey on Tuesday evening and depicted IDF soldiers in the West Bank killing a baby and a young girl, and lining up Palestinians to be shot before a firing squad.

According to Feldman, "This [tourism decline] is getting intensified, and the television series will accelerate it. I expect this [Israeli tourist] boycott and this anger to last throughout the fall and winter."

Maybe even longer than that. But if I were him, I'd rather not rely on countries like Turkey to sell tickets for tourism. This is what happens when no serious attempt is made to make clear to a country with a horrific past like Turkey's that they must own up for their past evils and crimes and abandon all ideologies that could one day lead back to more of the same. That's why their backtrack is no real surprise, and come to think of it, their loss is yet no real loss. If they're going to boomerang to such mostrosities, it's hard for me to feel sorry to "lose" their alliance.

And if Jews in Turkey are afraid that the TV propaganda they launched will boost anti-semitic violence, which is quite likely to happen, that's exactly why they should start packing. No need to remain in a country that's backtracking to Islamofascism.

And Armenia's government made a serious mistake in accepting the deal to open wider relations with Turkey without their agreement to recognize the Armenian Holocaust in WW1, something I get the feeling much of the Armenian public is angry about, with good reason. I won't be surprised if it falls apart sooner or later, and if Turkey starts spewing similar racism against Armenians as well on their government controlled TV.

TURKEY BANS ISRAEL FROM MILITARY DRILL, AND WHOLE PRACTICE GETS CANCELLED

Turkey continues to signal its backtrack to darkness:

(IsraelNN.com) A multinational military drill has reportedly been cancelled due to Turkey's unwillingness to allow the Israel Air Force to participate in the exercise.

The cancellation came after the United States and other nations allegedly withdrew from the joint drill following Turkey's ban on Israel's participation.

The air force exercise, which has been held five times since June 2001, was to be hosted by Ankara and originally involved Turkey, Italy, the U.S., NATO forces and the IAF.

But Turkish military officials informed the IDF last week that the IAF was not welcome to fly in this week's "Anatolian Eagle" exercise due to the use of its planes during Israel's counterterrorism Operation Cast Lead in Gaza last winter.

The operation was launched by Israel on December 27, 2008 to end the thousands of rocket attacks fired at civilians living in towns and cities in Israel's southern region. It lasted until Janary 20, 2009.

Ah, so that's it. Again, we find a so-called ally discriminating against Israel's right to self-defense and blaming the victims instead of the terrorists who launched rockets at Israeli targets. In that case, I think it's better not to bother wasting time with Turkey, submerged as badly as they are in their selective memories.

OBAMA: TURKEY IN THE E.U.

Hat Tip: Bare Naked Islam

President Sarkozy "smackdown" of Pres. Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., and Islamo-Fascist rabble rousers protesting the Great Leader in Ankara???

What the f***? Didn't they get the memo???

America is now peace, love, joy and harmony and we are NOT racist or arrogant anymore, especially carrying out our "Overseas Contingency Operation".

HUMAN RIGHTS IN TURKEY ARE STILL A DISASTER

You would think that in Turkey, things are civilized enough for a country of their sort, right? Not so according to this item by Steven Plaut on FPM, which talks about Tayyip Erdogan's sick assault on Israel at the UN:

Brutal force has been used against Kurdish separatists and other political groups. Indeed, the operations of the Turkish military against the Kurds make Israel's recent incursion into the Gaza Strip (in Operation "Cast Lead") look like a May Day picnic. Until 2003, it was forbidden to speak Kurdish on the radio or television; the Kurdish alphabet still cannot be used. The state of human rights in Turkey, according to numerous human rights NGOs, continues to be atrocious. Women in Turkey are mistreated; until very recently women students applying to universities had to pass a virginity test. The Turkish military police routinely kill civilians. Journalists have been assassinated.

One such reporter was an Armenian named Hrant Dink. If you're one of those who didn't know about this before, now you do - how a country once thought to be a decent tourist attraction is really a nightmare behind the scenes.

I think the time has come to stop paying money to Turkey's tourism, though I got a feeling that, with dictatorships making a comeback, that may be moot already. Turkey's future does not look bright.

MORE PROOF THAT TURKEY IS BECOMING MORE ISLAMICIST: "PORK - THE OTHER INFIDEL MEAT"

BBC:

Today's governing AK Party is far more conservative than my workmates.

It is extremely popular in rural Turkey, and with the new urban, religious-conservative middle-class here.

But the AKP's leaders once belonged to a more radical, pro-Islamic party, and strictly secular Turks suspect their agenda has not changed.

To such sceptics, the fate of the pork business is proof.

A couple of hours' drive towards the Bulgarian border, I found a farm that seemed at first to be thriving.

Zafer, a farmer Trees heavy with honey-blossom did nothing to disguise the stink of some 300 pigs, snuffling through the mud for food.

"You'll find the smell addictive," Zafer the farmer laughed, as I tried in vain to block it out.

A lively man, with bushy brown curls, he invested heavily in his farm, spurred on by visions of British tourists breakfasting on his bacon, and diplomats barbecuing his pork chops.

But four years on, Zafer cannot sell a single animal for slaughter.

Just like Lazari with his abattoir, Zafer's farm has failed the new hygiene test.

On top of that the regulations now say you can only farm pigs if you say which abattoir will slaughter them: Catch-22 when they have already been closed.

"Back in Istanbul, the local Agriculture Ministry man denied the situation's anything to do with Islam"

"The government doesn't announce out loud that it has banned the pig farms," Zafer told me.

"But at the end of the day, that's what's happened here. They're trying to send a message to their religious constituents," he said.

Back in Istanbul, the local agriculture ministry man denied the situation's anything to do with Islam.

He insists the regulations were introduced to bring Turkey up to European standards.

"We've got no problem with pork," Ahmet Kavak told me. "The farmers just need to meet the criteria."

YEAH: THE QURAN AND SHARIA!

• THE AKP IS AN ISLAMICIST PARTY WITH A HAPPY FACE.
• AND THEY SCREWED US BEFORE THE IRAQ WAR.
• I HOPE THE TURKISH SUPREME COURT BANS THEM.

TURKEY AT THE FORK IN THE ROAD: WILL IT TURN TO MORE ISLAMICISM OR RETURN TO SECULARISM?

ESSENTIAL READING.

EXCERPT:

In 2002, Erdoğan’s Justice and Development party (Adalet ve Kakınma Partisi, AKP) won a plurality in parliamentary elections and, because of a fluke in Turkish election law, was able to amplify one-third of the popular vote into a two-thirds parliamentary majority. Erdoğan used this advantage to enact reforms which had the net affect of stacking not only the civil service, but also banking boards and the judiciary with his political supporters and religious fundamentalists. Erdoğan’s judges wasted no time. They placed liens against political opponents’ property, seized independent newspapers and television station including, not by coincidence ATV, and assigned sympathetic judges to hear appeals against earlier decisions levied against Islamists.

THE LEFT THINKS THIS IS BENIGN. BUT THEY WERE WRONG BEFORE:

In November 1978, Steven Erlanger, the future New York Times foreign correspondent, penned a New Republic essay arguing that Khomeini’s vision for Iran was essentially a “Platonic Republic with a grand ayatollah as a philosopher-king,” and predicting the triumph of an independent liberal left worried more about labor conditions in Iran’s oil fields than pursuing any theological tendency

• THE TURKISH SUPREME COURT WILL RULE SOON ON WHETHER TO OUTLAW THE RULING PARTY - THE AKP.

• (THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE; ERDOGAN WAS "IMPEACHED" AND HIS PARTY BANNED BEFORE - FOR THE VERY SAME CRIME.)

• IF THEY DON'T BAN THE AKP, THEN TURKEY WILL CONTINUE DOWN THE ROAD TO SHARIA.

TURKEY'S LOOMING CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

THE NYTIMES TODAY:

Turkey Court Takes Politically Explosive Case

Turkey’s highest court said Monday it had decided to take a case on closing Turkey’s governing party and banning its top political leaders, moving the country closer to a final confrontation between religious and secular Turks over who will rule Turkey.

Alifeyyaz Paksut, deputy chairman of the court, known as the Constitutional Court, said its justices had voted unanimously to hear the case, which was filed by Turkey’s top prosecutor on March 14.

The case calls for the closure of the Justice and Development Party, and the banning from politics of 71 party members, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erodgan and his ally, President Abdullah Gul, from politics.

Turkey has shut down other parties in the past. In 1998, it banned the Welfare Party, an openly Islamist group that claimed Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Gul as members, and has also banned Kurdish parties. But Mr. Erdogan’s current party maintains that it is secular, having moved away from its earlier involvement with political Islam.

The court’s acceptance of the case significantly increases the chances that the party, which was elected to power in 2002 and remains highly popular, could be closed.

Erdogan and his islamicist comrades screwed us big-time just before the Iraq War - they failed to give us permission to invade Iraq from the north. And Iran ships weapons to Hizballah via Turkey.Turkey had been a good ally until he and his islamicist comrades took over. MANY Turks see this and want it to stop; they fear what may become of turkey if Erdogan keeps doing what he's been doing - like making the hijab legal.

• MY PREVIOUS POSTS ON THIS MATTER HERE AND HERE.

• I HOPE THE COURT DOES THE RIGHT THING: CLOSES DOWN THE PARTY.

TURKEY'S CONSTITUTIONAL SECULARISTS AND POLITICAL ISLAMICISTS PREPARE FOR MAJOR LEGAL BATTLE - AND PERHAPS A NATIONAL CRISIS

THIS IS OUR THIRD POST ON THE UPCOMING CRISIS IN TURKEY...

Bloomberg: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the nation won't accept the closure of his Justice and Development Party, elected in a landslide in July.

Attempts by prosecutors to shut down Justice and ban Erdogan from politics for undermining secularism ```can't be reconciled with the law or the conscience of the nation,'' Erdogan told regional chiefs of the party at a meeting in Ankara today.

``Extra-political interventions cannot determine the political order,'' Erdogan said. ``Only the nation determines the political order.''

Turkey's top prosecutor on March 14 applied to the Constitutional Court to close Justice and ban politicians including Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul. The prosecutor's indictment says that Justice has breached Turkey's constitutional commitment to secularism in measures such as the removal of the ban on Islamic-style headscarves at universities.

The Constitutional Court is due to decide within a week whether to hear the case, and a verdict is likely to take about six months if it does so, judges say.

THE NYTIMES - WHICH NORMALLY APPROVES OF JUDICIAL INTERFERENCE IN LEGISLATIVE MATTERS HERE IN THE USA - DEFENDS THE ISLAMICIST/ANTI-USA PARTY AND ATTACKS THE SECULARISTS:

What apparently provoked the latest legal action was the government’s decision this year to allow observant Muslim women to wear head scarves at Turkish universities. If the Constitutional Court accepts the lawsuit and Parliament leaves the law unchanged, Turkish politics face turmoil for the next year or more. Needed reforms to strengthen the economy and meet the entrance requirements for the European Union would languish.

Laws like this are an embarrassment and a danger to Turkey’s modern, democratic society, which has outgrown them. The Justice and Development Party should use its parliamentary majority to repeal them, and those secular party representatives who truly believe in democracy should support the effort.

• THE NYITMES IS VERY SELECTIVE ABOUT WHEN THEY CHOOSE TO SUPPORT JUDICIAL ACTIVISM OVER LEGISLATIVE ACTIVISM. ON GAY MARRIAGE THEY SUPPORT JUDICIAL ACTIVISM, FOR EXAMPLE.
  

• THEIR DECISION REALLY SEEMS TO COME DOWN TO THIS: THE NYTIMES WILL ALWAYS DEFEND ANY GROUP OR PRACTICE WHICH ADVANCES AN ANTI-WESTERN AND ANTI-TRADITIONALIST AGENDA.

• THE LEFT'S VIEW ON THE "LIVING CONSTITUTION" IS ALSO HYPOCRITICAL: IT'S ALIVE/MUTABLE VIA INTERPRETATION WHEN IT COMES TO THINGS THEY DON'T LIKE ABOUT IT (LIKE THE 2ND AMENDMENT), BUT WHEN IT COMES TO WHAT THEY DO LIKE - FOR EXAMPLE "ROE V WADE", THEN THE CURRENT INTERPRETATION WRITTEN IN STONE.)

• AND IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THE ANTI-WESTERN ATTACK IS HERE OR IN TURKEY: IF YOU OPPOSE THE WEST, THEN THE NYTIMES SUPPORTS YOU.

I'd like to see Erdogan's party banned.

One of the BIG errors the Bush Administration made the last six years was allowing Hamas on the ballot.

Blair didn't make this mistake with the IRA: he demanded they disarm FIRST.

You cannot be for democracy and and anti-democracy.

Islamicists - who want "sharia incorporated" in secular law, or want de-secularization to accommodate/appease their fundamentalist practices - are the ENEMIES OF DEMOCRACY.

They should be treated as such.

LEGAL SHOWDOWN BREWING IN TURKEY BETWEEN ISLAMISTS AND SECULARISTS

BBC:

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised a proposal to ban his ruling AK Party as being against the "national will".

He was speaking after Turkey's chief prosecutor asked the country's Constitutional Court to ban the party, accusing it of anti-secular activities.

Turkey's secularist constitution does not allow any religious influence on the operation of the state.

The AK Party, which has Islamist roots, won last year's general elections.

In announcing his indictment, prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya said he believed there was enough evidence to show the party had contravened Turkey's secular constitution.

He also revealed the party had been under investigation for six months.

RTWT.

Ever since Erdogan took power in 2002 (just before the Iraq War) Turkey has been a half-assed ally: Erdogan's government denied us access to Iraq from Turkey, and has looked the other way as Iran shipped missiles via Turkey to Syria and Hizballah. Sarkozy opposes their membership in the EU for many good reasons. Recently they have been becoming less Western and more Muslim. (Just like Europe, sadly!)

I hope the Turkish Constitutional Court rules that the party violates the constitution and bans them.

Other Muslim nations should follow suit - and become MORE secularized. But they won't: Islam is at it's very core a political and martial creed as much or more than a religion.

STAY TUNED...

IRAN ARMING HIZBALLAH WITH MISSILES VIA TURKEY

HAARETZ:

Iran is arming Hezbollah with missiles sent via Turkey, according to intelligence received in Israel. Turkish authorities are unaware of the arms shipments, which are in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 that brought an end to the Second Lebanon War.

A senior Israeli government source said that Brigadier General Yossi Beiditz, head of the Israel Defense Forces research department, last week told European Union ambassadors in a briefing that Iran continues to transfer arms and equipment to Hezbollah, in spite of Tehran's denials.

Some of the weapons include long-range missiles that are being transfered through flights using Turkey's airspace, as well as overland though Turkey, under the guise of civilian cargo. From Turkey, the missiles are transfered to Syria and then Lebanon. Turkey has not permitted the use of its territory for such transfers.

The same source said that according to Beiditz, some of the missiles Iran transfered to Hezbollah have a maximum range of 300 kilometers, "capable of reaching the Dimona area from Beirut."

According to intelligence so far available to Israel, the maximum range of missiles in Hezbollah's arsenal had been 250 kilometers.

Beiditz said that the missiles currently in Hezbollah's possession are more accurate and capable of carrying larger warheads.

WHICH EXPLAINS THIS:

Israel buys supply of pills to protect against nuclear radiation

Defense establishment officials reported on Sunday that Israel has recently purchased a new supply of "Logol" pills against nuclear radiation.

The pills were first experimentally distributed in 2004 to residents of Arad and Yavneh in southern Israel, and were met with strong opposition from the mayors of these Negev towns.

The initiative to repurchase the pills was reported by officials on Sunday as part of a visiting delegation of Knesset Members to the Soreq Nuclear Research Center, located southeast of Dimona.

However, the defense establishment is still mulling whether to redistribute the pills to residents of communities located near the nuclear reactor or store them away for the time being.

• IF IRAN IF LEFT ALONE, IT WILL DESTABILIZE IRAQ AND TRY AGAIN TO UNLEASH A TERRIBLE WAR AGAINST ISRAEL - ONE WHICH WILL SEEK TO ANNIHILATE ISRAEL, NOT MERELY DEFEAT HER.

• WE MUST STRIKE IRAN AND NEUTRALIZE IT BEFORE THEY STRIKE US OR OUR ALLIES.

TURKEY IN MAJOR AL QAEDA CRACKDOWN: ARRESTED 25

PAKISTAN DAILY TIMES/AFP: 6 more detained in Turkey’s Qaeda crackdown

ANKARA: Turkish police have detained six more people in a crackdown on alleged Al Qaeda militants suspected of planning car bomb attacks in Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported on Sunday.

The detentions brings to 25 the number of people rounded up since Thursday when anti-terror police carried out simultaneous raids on 18 houses in Turkey’s southeastern provinces of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras. Four alleged members of the extremist network and a policeman were killed in a gun battle during the operation.

• THESE ARRESTS COME ON THE HEALS OF LAST WEEKS ARRESTS IN SPAIN.
• PACIFISTIC LEFT-WING APPEASING EUROPE - AND ISLAMICIST TURKEY - ARE UNDER MAJOR THREAT.
• WHICH PROVES THAT IT AIN'T ABOUT ZIONISM OR NEOCONS OR THE GOP - OR BUSHITLER.
• IT'S THE GLOBAL JIHAD, STUPID.

AND WHEN I SAY STUPID I MEAN ALL DEMOCRATS. ESPECIALLY THEIR THREE LEADING CANDIDATES FOR POTUS.

MARTYRS VERSUS MURDERERS

HERE ARE TWO PHOTOS:

• ONE OF A GENOCIDAL MURDERER WHO THINKS SHE WAS A MARTYR.

• THE OTHER - THREE REAL MARTYRS.

• MANY CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE - JIHADISTS AND LEFTISTS (MORAL RELATIVISTS)
  

FACTS HERE - AT MICHELE'S.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON AGREES WITH RELIAPUNDIT: TURKEY NO LONGER RELIABLE ALLY

I HAVE BEEN BLOGGING THIS FOR A FEW WEEKS (SEE HERE AND HERE AND HERE):

• TURKEY HAS SINCE 2003 (COINCIDENTLY WHEN ERDOGAN'S ISLAMICISTS GAINED POWER) SHOWN ITSELF TO BE AN UNRELIABLE ALLY.

• AND AS A RESULT WE SHOULD BE REDEPLOYING OUT OF TURKEY

• AND END OUR SUPPORT THEIR EU BID

• AND EVEN BE PREPARED TO KICK THEM OUT OF NATO.

NOW VDH CHIMES IN - AND BASICALLY HE AGREES WITH ME. VDH:

nothing really justifies the elemental hatred that the present generation of Turkey seems to exhibit for America, or the perverted manifestations of anti-Semitism or things like the mega-hit, anti-American film and subsequent TV series Valley of the Wolves (replete with murderous American soldiers and an organ-harvesting Jewish doctor).

Where does that leave us? I believe we need to cool the resolutions, continue to talk nicely to Turkey, send out diplomatic peace-feelers, assuage Turkish wounded pride, hope for the best—and start making immediate contingency plans for a possible dramatic break from this erstwhile critical Nato ally.

And that would mean backup plans should it become necessary to abandon facilities inside Turkey, and seek closer relations with Armenia, Kurdistan, Greece, Cyprus, and other regional neighbors. Perhaps both sides have been clumsy, but there are developments going on in Turkey that are far larger than inept diplomacy, and we should quit denying the danger, or despair that without the old Turkey we are adrift in the Eastern Mediterranean. We are not.

We should never promote such divides, but recognize the current course of Turkish politics is not necessary ahistorical, but may in fact be a natural reaction against the historical aberration of Attaturk's secularism, as European Turkey begins to become overwhelmed, demographically and culturally, by anti-Western, anti-globalization Anatolian Islamism, and thus begins to replay the historical role of the Ottomans-whom, contrary to current orthodoxy, I don't find to have very been positive for civilization as a whole.

THIS PROVES - ONCE AGAIN, THAT YOU GET THE BEST IN ORIGINAL COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS RIGHT HERE AT THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS.

SPREAD THE WORD.

BLOGROLL US.

VICTORY FOR ARMENIANS: CONGRESS HAS PASSED RESOLUTION TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN HOLOCAUST

Despite Dubya's disgraceful attempts to discourage recognition of this important tragedy in history, Congress has done the right thing and has made a positive first step towards recognizing Turkey's mass murder of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915:

A U.S. House committee on Wednesday defied President George W. Bush by passing a resolution calling the 1915 massacre of Armenians genocide, a step the White House warns could damage U.S. goals in the Middle East.

The measure, passed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee by a 27-21 margin, will be sent to the House floor, where Democratic leaders say there will be a vote within weeks.

Turkey, a key NATO ally that has supported U.S. efforts in Iraq, has strongly opposed the measure and warned it could damage relations between the two countries.

At issue is the killing of as many as 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks around the time of First World War. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, says the toll has been inflated and insists that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest. It has threatened sanctions against countries that use the term genocide.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul called the measure's passage "unacceptable," said Reuters.

"Unfortunately some politicians in the United States of America have closed their ears to calls to be reasonable and once again sought to sacrifice big problems for small domestic political games," state news agency Anatolian quoted Gul as saying.

That disgraceful man can keep going with his obscenities that show nothing more than hatred for innocent people. The Turkish president, the first one from a Muslim background in many years, has only shown the true colors of people of his standing in Turkey, and why, contrary to the stupidity they blurt out about sanctions, they're the ones who're really asking for sanctions imposed by other countries, and not the other way around. I think a boycott of Turkey is in order here.

Update: and while we're on the subject of Dubya, check out the following comment someone at Dhimmi Watch found that Dubya made in 2000 (via Pedestrian Infidel).

Update 2: So Turkey's recalled its US ambassador (also via Dhimmi Watch). That's fine. Nobody needs villains who won't admit their wrongs. Hugh Fitzgerald writes them a note.