Here We Go...Turkey Announces They Will Escort Next Flotilla To Gaza With Armed Turkish Naval Ships

So, Turkey has decided that it has the right to help break another country's legal naval blockade, that of Israel in this case, and so Turkey has announced that the next flotilla going to Gaza that will meet the Israeli blockade, will be escorted by armed ships from the Turkish navy.

Well, if I'm in charge in Israel, I would simply blow every one of the Turkish ships out of the water as a defense of my country due to an act of war by Turkey.

From the article at The Telegraph:

The threat, made by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, sharply escalated a diplomatic row with Israel that has seen relations between the two former allies plunged into their worst crisis in decades.

Incensed by Israel's refusal to apologise for its deadly raid on a Gaza bound aid flotilla last year, which led to the deaths of nine Turkish activists on board the MV Mami Marmara, Mr Erdogan has announced a series of sanctions against the Israeli government in recent days.

But it is his latest outburst that will cause most alarm in the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.

"Turkish warships will be tasked with protecting the Turkish boats bringing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip," Mr Erdogan told the Arabic television network Al Jazeera.

"From now on, we will no longer allow these ships to be the targets of attacks by Israel like the one on the Freedom Flotilla, because then Israel will have to deal with an appropriate response."

I've called for it last week when Turkey cut off diplomatic and trade relations with Israel if Israel didn't apologize over the last flotilla incident....and I'll call for it again:

1. Immediate and total economic sanctions against Turkey by all western countries 2. Immediate severing of political ties with Turkey by all western countries 3. Discontinuation of any foreign aid to Turkey by western countries

I say we let Erdogan have his world of islamic fundamentalism. I say we isolate this mutherfucker JUST LIKE the mullahs in Iran. Let Erdogan's economy crumble, let his people begin calling for his head on a pike.

Fuck him. I could be talked into a rather large arms shipment into the Kurdish area of Iraq, as a matter of fact.

Turkey to provide armed escort for new Gaza flotilla


The threat, made by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, sharply escalated a diplomatic row with Israel that has seen relations between the two former allies plunged into their worst crisis in decades.

Incensed by Israel's refusal to apologise for its deadly raid on a Gaza bound aid flotilla last year, which led to the deaths of nine Turkish activists on board the MV Mami Marmara, Mr Erdogan has announced a series of sanctions against the Israeli government in recent days.

But it is his latest outburst that will cause most alarm in the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.

"Turkish warships will be tasked with protecting the Turkish boats bringing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip," Mr Erdogan told the Arabic television network Al Jazeera.

"From now on, we will no longer allow these ships to be the targets of attacks by Israel like the one on the Freedom Flotilla, because then Israel will have to deal with an appropriate response."

Senior Israeli officials were quick to denounce the threat, while insisting that they had no interest in worsening the increasingly noxious rhetoric.

"These remarks are grave and serious, but we have no wish to add to the polemic," Dan Meridor, Israel's intelligence minister, told the country's army radio service. "It is better to stay quiet and wait. We have no interest in aggravating the situation by replying to such attacks."

But, while some in Mr Netanyahu's government are hoping to defuse tensions, relations could deteriorate still further with Avigdor Lieberman, the fiery Israeli foreign minister, expected to announce a series of retaliatory steps against Turkey over the weekend.

Reports in the Israeli press suggested that Mr Lieberman could even announce plans to meet and even finance Turkey's Kurdish rebels.

Last week Turkey announced the expulsion of Israel's ambassador, a downgrading of diplomatic ties and the suspension of a military relationship that was once much prized by the Israeli defence establishment.

The sanctions, which represented the culmination of a row that first began when the Mavi Marmara was boarded in May, 2010, followed the publication of a UN investigation last week into the incident.

The report found that Israel had used excessive force but, to Turkish fury, it also concluded that the blockade of Gaza, imposed in 2007 after the Islamist group Hamas took power in the territory, was legal under international law.

Turkey rejected the findings of the probe and demanded an apology and compensation from Israel for the deaths. Israel has offered compensation, but not an apology.

It is unclear whether Mr Erdogan's threat to give naval protection to future Turkish aid vessels trying to breach the blockade amounts to anything more than populist posturing.

He did not reveal whether Turkish naval vessels would enter the territorial waters of either Israel or Gaza. The raid on the Mavi Marmara took place in international waters just outside the blockaded zone.