On Monday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan received the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights. Past recipients of the award named for the Libyan dictator include such renowned human rights abusers as former Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
It’s hardly shocking that in a world where countries like Libya win seats on the UN Human Rights Council and Saudi Arabia is elected to a seat on the board of UN Women, that Gaddafi had the chutzpah to name a human rights honor after himself. However, I’m amazed that Erdogan can accept such a prize with a straight face. While he has proclaimed himself a champion against injustice, he is in reality the head of a country that sponsors the illegal occupation of northern Cyprus, persecutes its own Kurdish minority and has an appalling record on freedom of the press.
Monday’s award ceremony speaks not only to Turkey’s further movement away from the family of democratic nations and closer to totalitarian ones in the Muslim world, but also to Erdogan’s willingness to simply ignore reality. To claim he is a defender of human rights is simply absurd. It’d be fine if he lived in a fantasy world, but alas he lives in this real world, where he spends an inordinate amount of time slamming Israel for perceived rights abuses, while ignoring the actual crimes of his friends and neighbors. It comes as no surprise that in the recently released WikiLeaks, U.S. diplomats described Erdogan as a “fundamentalist” who “simply hates Israel.”
Libya giving the Turkish PM an award for human rights is like Exxon giving BP an award for environmental safety standards. It would be funny, if it weren’t true.
Meir Javedanfar offers these observations on the talks scheduled next week over Iran’s nuclear program - which, given the recent provocations on the Korean peninsula by the Pyongyang regime, will be of heightened interest and sensitivity.
Both the P5+1 and Iran are attending these talks because they are an essential part of their dual track policies toward each other. Without such an approach, their respective strategies would collapse.
Iran’s dual track approach involves a diplomatic channel that allows it access to direct negotiations with the P5+1, while also supporting foes of the West-especially those of the United States-in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon. Iran hopes this twin approach will gradually coerce the West into accepting its terms.
But the West also pursues a dual strategy. Despite the talks being widely seen as dead before they’ve even started, it still needs to keep the talks going as it provides Iran a channel through which come to the negotiating table. The second track consists of the sanctions that it hopes will coerce Iran into complying with demands over its nuclear programme.
With both sides pursuing dual but competing approaches, it’s going to be all about who has the most stamina.
The devastating forest fire in northern Israel which killed 40 prison wardens who were traveling through the area on a bus has brought forth an encouraging international response. Ynet reports:
Israeli authorities are expecting to receive some 20 firefighting aircraft Thursday night from Greece, Cyprus Spain, Croatia, Azerbaijan and Russia to help in the effort to contain the northern blaze that claimed at least 40 lives.
And this:
Despite the great diplomatic tensions vis-à-vis Israel, Turkish officials announced that they too will be sending two firefighting airplanes.
It should be recalled that Israeli rescue teams are usually among the first to arrive in disaster areas - as they did, for example, following the terrible earthquake in Turkey in 1999. Notwithstanding the political calculations that invariably contribute to a decision to send humanitarian aid, it’s heartening to see similar urgency in responding to Israel during its hour of need.
