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Psycho
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Quote:
Why did they change the flag of Mavi Marmara from Turkey to Komor Islands?
Wed, 06/02/2010 - 10:59
* International
The story of the leading vessel of the Gaza aid flotilla, Mavi Marmara, presents a peculiar move on the part of AKP government concerning the consequences of the initiative.
Mavi Marmara (Blue Marmara), the vessel that was carrying more than 600 activists on board to Gaza and was attacked by the Israeli elite commandos and helicopters resulting in 9 deaths and dozens of wounded, has an interesting history.
IHH, the aid organization that was the main organizer of the "Freedom Flotilla"*, had tried to reach to Gaza before from land, from Egypt. That attempt was not successful, thus, the new plan of going by the sea (which had already been tried by many pro-Palestine organization) came up.
IHH started looking for vessels to rent, but nobody seemed to be eager to rent their ships for such a dangerous journey. Thus, IHH decided to buy the ship. The organization bought Mavi Marmara from Istanbul Deniz Otobüsleri A.Ş. (IDO - Istanbul Seabus Company) for 1 million 800 thousand Turkish liras (approximately 900 thousand euros). Mavi Marmara was used as a ferry in Istanbul. IHH soon changed the national flag of Mavi Marmara from Turkey to Komor Islands.
A necessary note for non-Turkish readers should be written down. IHH, the humanitarian aid organization, was founded by the Milli Görüş movement, the far-right Islamic political movement in Turkey, upon the direct order of the historical leader of the movement, Necmettin Erbakan, back in the beginning of the 90s. The organization used to collect money from the Muslim community in Turkey and outside (especially in Germany) for humanitarian aid. The famous "Mercümek case" and the "Lost Trillion case", with the popular name of the case in Turkish, revealed that Milli Görüş movement had stolen billions from the aid collected.
This kind of aid organizations had always been used by Milli Görüş, and thus, by AKP, the governing party of Turkey, which was founded by a group of ex-leaders of the Milli Görüş line. Another similar organization, Deniz Feneri e.V., has been banned recently in Germany after the revelation of a huge scandal of financial fraud.
IHH, after the foundation of AKP, has been more under the influence of AKP line than the Milli Görüş line, though the organization still has members from both lines. The IHH's ex-chief of Europe, Eyüp Fatsa, is an MP of AKP. Therefore, IHH is an organization that is tied inorganically to AKP, and any possibility that the huge campaign of aid to Gaza was organized without the approval and support of AKP is out of question.
Another note to be written is the fact that a group of AKP MPs were planning to accompany the ships in April. But, curiously, starting from the beginning of May, AKP stopped all references to IHH from the party and cautiously erased all connection between the party and the Gaza aid campaign. The fact that AKP stopped its MPs from joining the ships is a sign that they were considering the possibility of an attack by the Israelis, which, for anyone that knows history even slightly, is easy to guess.
Why was the flag changed?
Coming back to the story of Mavi Marmara, if IHH had not changed the flag to Komor Islands and the ship had been attacked, it would have been recognized as an aggression against Turkish national territory, since the ship was on international waters. Thus, it would not only have resulted in a more fierce emotional reaction, but also in the coming up to the agenda of the famous (or infamous) Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which establishes that NATO states respond collectively to any armed attack against a member state.
So, the move of changing the flag seems to be the result of a neatly-adjusted and elaborately thought plan of AKP. The ship was an experimental attempt by AKP. The party, recognizing the possible consequences, restrained its MPs from joining the flotilla and supressed any implication of connections between the party and the flotilla. But still, the ties between IHH and AKP remove the possibility that AKP had no role in the plan. AKP sent the ships, with all the activists inside, to a dangerous journey without taking any necessary precautions as part of an experiment, to see the reaction of Israel.
The talk of Erdoğan after the attack in TBMM had much fierce discourse and no real, practical steps. The story of the vessel Mavi Marmara demonstrates that, from the beginning, AKP tried to avoid any real consequences anyway.
(soL)
* The name "Freedom Flotilla" was never used in Turkish with reference to the flotilla. The official name of the campaign was "Our route is Palestine, our load is humanitarian aid"
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This whole thing goes much, much deeper than were seeing. There is no excuse for killing, but their is an excuse for self defense, regardless of whether the "activist" perceived they were in the right or wrong, they attacked the IDF brutally FORCING the soldiers to defend themselves, period. These activists could just as easily stepped back, they knew the procedures, and they also KNEW that if they had not fought they would not have died (martyrdom is taught to be the greatest gift to Allah by Islamic extremists), but for many of the "activists" their intent WAS martyrdom for their perceived cause, had they not put themselves at deaths risk, and pushed an attack, then the attention this incident would have garnered would have been minimal, if any at all. This did not have to happen but the blame is buried far deeper than the surface issues that we are seeing, this incident is merely a symptom of what is really occurring. We watch, we look, we listen to the world and each other and learn more each day, but to condemn either side right now, especially based on this incidence, when bigger hands may be at play here using these "activists," as well as possibly the Palestinians, the Gazan peoples, as puppets, will solve nothing.
I realize the attention has now been turned to the embargo and the blockade, but before it is lifted, Israel, as well as the world, needs to discover the responsible parties and the full involvement of others in this incident. If some entity were truly trying to bring in terrorists or weapons, what makes any of us think that the minute the blockade is ended the gaza strip wont be flooded with weapons and terrorists whose singular wish is to bring about an assault on Israel that would then force Israel to respond which just ends in the deaths of more innocents on both sides. More answers are needed before the blockade should fall just yet, and I still believe that hamas should, at the very least, acknowledge Israel and all Israelis rights to exist before Israel should lower any defensive walls of protection.
---------- Post added at 02:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:34 PM ----------
Free Gaza did not organize this event, IHH did, they bought the ship because no one would let them borrow one.
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you can tell them all you want but it won't matter until they think it does
p.s. I contradict my contradictions, with or without intention, sometimes. 
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