Turkeys Honour?

Once again the Turks have displayed why they are not European, and are in fact an Islamic oriented country with more in common with Syria than with Sweden.

At the economic forum at Davos, where the great, the good and the not so great and good meet to discuss the world economy, the Israeli's were making what was described as a vigorous defence of their actions in Gaza. This apparently upset Turkeys Islamic party Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, when he considered that he should have the 'right of reply' but either didn't get any, or only got a limited time span (accounts differ on this point).

He then pulled up his skirts and flounced out, declaring later that Mr Peres' language and tone had been unacceptable, so he acted to stand up for Turkish honour. "I only know that I have to protect the honour of Turkey and Turkish people."

Well unfortunately this blog is all too aware of 'Turkish honour' with its prosecution of writers, genocide denials (of Armenians), disrespect of Christians and Churches and their regular attacks on, and suppression of the Kurds (both in Turkey and Iraq).

The rise of "Violent Nationalism" fuelled by "Turkish Honour" and interlinked with Religious Bigotry is why so many Europeans fear Turkeys attempts to join the EU. The Turkish public who met the plane to proclaim their pride in the PM, had banners greeting Mr Erdogan as "a new world leader" and chanting that "Turkey is with you."

Sounds much like the Syrians, Libyans, Saudis and not much like Norway, Germany or Spain.