Tuesday, January 12, 2010

It Is More Than A TV Show

There is a diplomatic crisis between Israel and Turkey as Turkey has summoned back its ambassador for negotiations for what they considered humiliation to its ambassador publicly in Israel because of TV show. kurtlar-vadisi-pusu1

The story goes like that ; the Israelis are angry from a Turkish TV series “The Valley of  the wolves : Ambush” that depicted Mossad agents kidnapping babies and killing old people !! I do not know why they are angry , is not this what the IDF has been doing since the Jewish gangs days in Palestine !!?? By the way ‘The Valley of the wolves : Iraq’ film from the same franchise caused a huge controversy from couple of years ago. This franchise is the Turkish version of 24 and it is currently shown on ART series channel.

The Israeli ministry of foreign affairs summoned the Turkish Ambassador in Tel Aviv , Ahmet Çelikkol to complain about the TV series . Last night the ambassador was Ambassador Celikkol called to the Knesset office of the Israeli deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon where there were Israel’s Ch.2  and 10 cameras filming the meeting.The Turkish Ambassador was seated on a low sofa , in front of him a table with one flag , the Israeli flag where as Ayalon was sitting on other side in higher chair. Ayalon did not shake hands with his foreign distinguished guest who is usually presented by the word “Excellency” nor did he present any refreshment. Now the Turkish made a huge mistake when they sent an ambassador who does not understand Hebrew ‘ or as we understand , he could pretend that he  because when the Ch.2 reporter asked Ayalon why he did not shake hands with the distinguish guest , he answered back in Hebrew which he knows that his guest does not understand :

Of course not, that is the whole point

Then he made sure that the cameras were filming because :

The important thing is that people see that he's low and we're high and that there is one flag here.

This was recorded on tape and was aired in both Ch.2 and Ch.10 in Israel.

Ayalon and Celikkol

The Israelis claim that it was the mistake of the reporters who did not understand that what he had said was off the record !!! The problem is not off or on the record but rather the humiliation; even if it were not recorded , this meeting was intended to humiliate the Turkish ambassador or rather the Turkish state that he represents.

This meeting alone should create a diplomatic crisis , it is very provoking and I know for sure that Israeli officials intended to force the Turks to take this reaction , Turks are highly dignified naturally. Turkey demands that Israel apologizes where on the other hand Avigdor Lieberman , who is a persona non grata in Egypt made sure to become persona non grata in Turkey too when he defended Ayalon and slammed Turkey “ They should not preach us on morals” !!

Anyhow this incident was just the last straw between Israel and Turkey whose relations began to suffer from AKP won the elections and started to mend their relations with their Arab neighbors especially Syria then came the Gaza war and Ragab’s moment to announce that the Ottomans return then its relations with Palestine, Iran and Hamas. Turkey seems to move apart from Israel to the wrong way and Netanyahu said it clearly :

Turkey is consistently gravitating eastward to Syria and Iran rather than westward .This is a trend that certainly has to worry Israel.

This is what is about , it is not about a TV series.

3 comments:

  1. I've seen this controversy on the news. It's interesting. When I went back to the States for the summer, I started watching NCIS, which has a female Mossad member, who's father runs Mossad. There have been numerous incidents, on the show, with negative portrayals of Mossad and it's agents. So, it's a wonder to me, that Israel has not protested against the show, as well, or previously. Zaveed David, the Mossad agent, quits Mossad, she hates her father since he tried to set her up for a murder, and this season has joined NCIS as a true non-Mossad, Americanized agent. I just can't believe this run of episodes involving her and her Mossad contacts has not been protested by Israel for it's negative portrayals. On the other hand, Turkey has been the only Islamic country to support Israel, so perhaps they consider this more of a betrayal. It's certainly an attempt to get Turkey's government to control the media. I'm not sure what requirements are involved in becoming a member of the EU, but if freedom of the press / media is a part of it, then Turkey will have to show some backbone, as they desperately desire membership.

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  2. yeah I remember Zaveed and NCIS , wow that TV series changes according to the American administration policies !! I remember when we were always the bad guys !!
    Regarding Turkey I think it is about the relations with Syria and Iran
    Israel wants to have Egypt and Turkey in its side, Egypt alone is not enough in the region

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  3. Well, I don't know why they bother (the Israelis) with all this trivial TeeVee stuff. They have nukes, isn't that enough?

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