Boycott Turkey!

The time has come to boycott Turkey! In Israel, all vacations to Turkey have been cancelled. Given that Israelis are the second largest national tourist group (after Germans) visiting Turkey, that means a lot. The Israeli Government has banned all military and government personnel from visiting Turkey, in case of attack or kidnapping, and several Israeli supermarket chains have banned further import of Turkish goods for sale. Since the Turkish Government under PM Erdogan and the AK Party became Islamist several years ago, Turkey has gradually become more anti-Israel and this has become a clear split as a result of the ambush of Israeli commandos on the Turkish flotilla to Gaza. Some postulate that since Turkey was not welcomed into the EU they have turned "east", but the reason many countries in the EU did not want Turkey included was precisely the possibility of this happening. In Turkey the Army was the guardian of Kemal Attaturk's secularism, but within the last year the Turkish Government has arrested about 100 senior Army officers and put them on trial for a suspected coup. So now they feel that they have a free hand.

Turkey has a terrible record on human rights, including the massacres of non-Turkic peoples, such as the Armenian Genocide in 1917-20, but also the constant attacks on the Kurds in eastern Turkey. The Kurds are considered the largest ethnic group in the world without self-determination. Since the Kurds are split between Turkey, Iraq and Iran, all countries with terrible human rights records, the Kurds have been attacked and massacred for years. Now that Iraq is under US domination and has a nominal democracy, the Kurds are finally fluourishing there, and the Turks are getting jittery. That's why the Turkish air force is attacking Kurdish villages in Iraq on a weekly basis and have killed dozens of Kurds, going on concurrently with their hypocritical "outrage" over the deaths of 9 Turks on the Mavi Marmara. The world, particularly the western liberal world, has averted its gaze and has little concern for the Kurds. The US and Iraq have not lifted a finger to stop this atrocity.

Now that Turkey has reverted from secularism to overtly Islamist policies and has openly shown its enmity to Israel, now is the time for the Jewish people to adopt a boycott of Turkey and all things Turkish. No more eating Turkish delight (try the Greek Lokum instead), no more sending Israeli rescue teams in case of earthquakes in Turkey, no more flying Turkish airlines to Israel because they are "globally yours," no more friends with Turkey. If the Jewish people in the USA took up this boycott we could have a greater effect than the constant DBS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaign against Israel. Find out what Turkey exports to the US and then boycott it.

PS. For the most complete picture of what happened aboard the Mavi Marmara go to www.vimeo.com/12555636