{"id":20036,"date":"2010-06-24T09:24:01","date_gmt":"2010-06-24T07:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=20036"},"modified":"2017-11-28T18:13:39","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T15:13:39","slug":"turkeys-consul-general-speaks-of-its-friend-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/06\/24\/turkeys-consul-general-speaks-of-its-friend-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey\u2019s Consul General Speaks of Its Friend Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><small>une 22,  2010<\/small><\/p>\n<h1><\/h1>\n<p>by Jonah Lowenfeld, Contributing Writer<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\/\/ <![CDATA[\ntweetmeme_style = \"compact\";\n\/\/ ]]><\/script> <script src=\"http:\/\/tweetmeme.com\/i\/scripts\/button.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div>R. Hakan Tekin, Turkey\u2019s consul  general in Los  Angeles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Last week, while New York Times columnist Thomas  Friedman was in  Istanbul talking to businessmen, journalists and  academics about the  \u201cfight for Turkey\u2019s soul,\u201d R. Hakan Tekin, Turkey\u2019s  chief representative  in Los Angeles, offered up a local version of his  country\u2019s official  perspective.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a saying in Turkish:  \u2018Friends speak the bitter truth,\u2019 \u201d the  consul general said over an  afternoon cup of Turkish coffee in his  office on Wilshire Boulevard.  \u201cTurkey is a friend of Israel and is  speaking the bitter truth \u2014 that  their policies and practices in the  region are not helping them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With  Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling last month\u2019s   flotilla incident an example of \u201cstate terrorism\u201d and the nation\u2019s   ministry of foreign affairs saying that \u201cIsrael has once again clearly   demonstrated that it does not value human lives,\u201d it might be hard to   remember that the two countries had, until recently, long been steadfast   allies. Tekin, who has headed the Los Angeles consulate since April   2007, experienced the closeness of Turkish-Israeli relations firsthand.<\/p>\n<div>\n<table border=\"1px;\" width=\"215\" bgcolor=\"#e9e9e9\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong><big>RELATED:<\/big><strong><br \/>\n<strong>Wiesenthal  Center Advises Against Travel to  Turkey<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWhen  I first  started here, my first contacts were with the Jewish  community,\u201d Tekin  said. He connected with leaders of the  Anti-Defamation League, the Simon  Wiesenthal Center and The Jewish  Federation of Greater Los Angeles, to  name a few. Last November, he sat  on a panel at Pepperdine University  titled \u201cFinding Common Ground:  Reconciliation Among the Children of  Abraham\u201d with his Israeli  counterpart in Los Angeles, Jacob Dayan.  \u201cJacob is a very good friend  of mine,\u201d Tekin said. \u201cWe have a very close  relationship. Of course, we  are not agreeing on everything, especially  these days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But  even back in \u201cthe good old days,\u201d when Tekin spoke to audiences  at the  American Jewish Committee or at Hillcrest Country Club, the  Q-and-A  sessions weren\u2019t easy. Asked to recall some of the more  challenging  questions he was asked, Tekin didn\u2019t hesitate: \u201c \u2018Why is  Turkey so  against Israel?\u2019 Or, \u2018Why didn\u2019t we criticize Hamas as much  when they  were shooting rockets at Israel?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>But though Tekin used to  field questions about anti-Semitism in  Turkey or questions about Iran,  he is sure about one thing: \u201cIf I had an  event with a Jewish group  these days, the only issue would be the  flotilla incident.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And  from Tekin\u2019s point of view \u2014 which is to say, Turkey\u2019s \u2014 the   ramifications of the flotilla incident on the Turkish-Israeli   relationship could not be more severe: \u201cIsrael is on the verge of losing   Turkey\u2019s friendship,\u201d the veteran diplomat said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe flotilla  incident was a historic event for us,\u201d Tekin said.  \u201cNever before had  any group of Turkish civilians been attacked by a  foreign military. So  this is something serious. And this is not a  government issue. The  overwhelming majority of the public is furious  about this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Political  observers \u2014 including Friedman \u2014 have pointed out that  Erdogan has  used the flotilla incident to build political support in the  lead-up to  next year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLike every politician,\u201d Tekin responded.  He pointed to Rep. Adam  Schiff and the 43 other members of California\u2019s  congressional delegation  who co-sponsored a bill that would affirm  that the Ottoman Empire  committed genocide against the Armenian people  between 1915 and 1923.  \u201cWhy are they so enthusiastic about the Armenian  issue? And why are none  of the congressmen from Montana co-sponsoring?  Because this is  politics. It\u2019s a game of votes. There\u2019s a big Armenian  community here,  and they [California\u2019s representatives] want to cater  to that  constituency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tekin was also well aware that some Jews  in Israel and in the United  States had also begun taking a renewed  interest in \u201cthe Armenian issue,\u201d  particularly as the relationship  between Israel and Turkey became more  strained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no  connection between these two things, the controversy over  the events of  1915, the Armenian issue \u2014 a historical issue \u2014 and  Turkish-Israeli  relations,\u201d Tekin said. \u201cAnd if now we see some members  of Congress or  some Jewish organizations saying, \u2018It\u2019s payback time: Now  we should  punish Turkey by recognizing the Armenian Genocide,\u2019 and  moving toward  passing a resolution in Congress, I think it would be  really  shortsighted, counterproductive and a very opportunistic  approach. It  would seriously further damage the Turkish-Israeli  relationship. It  could cause long-term damages.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tekin continued: \u201cIf you look at a  historical issue, you have to  evaluate it within its context, within  its parameters. If you are  adopting a position on a certain historical  controversy, you have to set  your position according to what you think  is right and not according to  some irrelevant issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the  past three weeks, Tekin has seen the pro-Israel group  StandWithUs  protesting outside his building and was visited by members  of LA Jews  for Peace, who came to his office to offer their condolences.  But  without a more official apology from Israel, and without a  \u201ctransparent  and international\u201d investigation of what happened aboard  the Mavi  Marmara, \u201cwe cannot take any steps,\u201d Tekin said. \u201cIf a   confidence-building measure should be taken to improve Turkish-Israeli   relations, that measure should be taken at this point by Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>une 22, 2010 by Jonah Lowenfeld, Contributing Writer R. Hakan Tekin, Turkey\u2019s consul general in Los Angeles. Last week, while New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman was in Istanbul talking to businessmen, journalists and academics about the \u201cfight for Turkey\u2019s soul,\u201d R. Hakan Tekin, Turkey\u2019s chief representative in Los Angeles, offered up a local version [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":757203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,211],"tags":[3044],"class_list":["post-20036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","category-cyprus-trnc","tag-mavi-marmara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}