Agora

So, to revisit events, what happened was that Information on the Morning of Friday February 24 published an article containing among other quotes, these:

"The Danish government ought quickly to announce that Denmark does not accept denigration of the Prophet Muhammed such as the cartoons in Jyllands-Posten gives voice to. Denmark should apologize for what’s happened and make it clear that the Danish government wants nothing to do with the cartoons." So says Namik Tan, official spokesman of Abdullah Gül, foreign minister of Turkey.
[…]
"This issue is not about Freedom of Speech. This is no different than if these cartoons had anti-semitic content. If Denmark persists in insisting that this is about Freedom of Speech, it will be very difficult to proceed," Tan is quoted as saying.

The Danish government responds harshly in parliament while frantically trying to get some sort of clarification or verification of these.

Jens Rohde, spokesman for the PM:

"The Danish government can under no circumstances apologize for the actions of a private newspaper," Jens Rohde is quoted as saying to Ritzau.

"This doesn’t exactly make them more qualified to be mediators - nor does it help them qualify to be members of the EU, to be frank," Jens Rohde says of the Turkish statement.

The Turkish government backpedals big time, the spokesman quoted in Information saying he was "misquoted":

The spokesman Tan, however, negated the quote referred to him:

"I said nothing of the kind in my written statements. In fact, anyone would be sure to know that Turkey would not adopt such an attitude towards the issue at hand."

Notice the weaseling going on here. How about his oral statements? Is this man going to claim that oral sex isn’t really sex like Clinton did? That would be funny.

Later in the day, Abdullah Gül, FM of Turkey says this to a DR reporter:

He could say that: "Definitely there is a freedom press in my country. But at the same time we are not happy with these cartoons. We are not happy to see that these cartoons are insulting to others. So the freedom of press doesn’t mean that insulting to others’ identity or religion."

So this man is supposed to mediate for us? That might be fine if he was the pope and anti-Danish statements weren’t leaking from his Ministry like spunk from a freshly fucked goat (no relation, I’m sure).

On with the story, the Ambassador to Denmark of Turkey on Deadline, a Danish news program, says of the Turkish position on a Danish apology:

The Turkish government does not wish to revisit this aspect of the question. And we think that we should be looking into the future, we should be trying to find ways and means to defuse the crisis and should exert all our efforts in that direction.

[…]

We think that we… I think that my answer is clear. We think we should just look at the ways to defuse this crisis right now and move on in that direction. I think it is quite obvious.

Pressed by the host, the Ambassador says this:

No, I am saying that we have never made such a request. We did not make a request.

No you didn’t, the government would have known about such a request immediately. But a ‘high-ranking official’ of yours - in fact as high ranking as they get below the level of ministers - leaked that you think Denmark should apologize. And when you were confronted with this, you didn’t deny it. You did the weasel-dance. Evaded responsibility. Watching that ambassador evade the question may be the most lying show I have seen since the Clinton tapes.

In conclusion, since Information has yet to accept that they ‘misquoted’ Tan the Spokesman, I am going to assume that they quoted the spokesman correctly. I think there is only one possible conclusion to this; that Turkey really does consider a Danish apology to be something they owe to Moslem countries around the world; that Turkey is playing this issue low-key because they do not want to get caught like a rock between a rock and a hard place; and that a considerable group in the Turkish Foreign Ministry has no sense of what to say and what not to say. The SPOKESMAN of the Turkish Foreign Minister ought to be able to know what it is proper to say to the press.

This whole affair has been handled horribly by the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Apart from the fact that this should never have been leaked, for Abullah Gül to go on the air and give fatherly advice to Anders Fogh Rasmussen is a reversal of roles the like of which I have not seen for some time. And it only acts to spread uncertainty about the true position of Turkey - and that just after uncertainty has already been spread.

Turkey claims to be a secular democracy and yet they persecute the brave Kurds and imprison people who say that the Young Turks committed a genocide against the Armenians, when in fact they did. For us to ask them to ‘mediate’ for us would be folly in the extreme. They can mediate for us when a Turkish journalist shouldn’t worry about imprisonment with no chance of habeas corpus if they even mention the atrocities committed in the name of Turkey. Sure, the Turks are probably better than the Iraqis at upholding basic human rights, but that isn’t exactly saying a lot. We should stop treating these people like equal partners when the only place they are the equals of us is on the Soccer field. And we should send them a note asking them to please shut up.

And when Turkey applies for membership of the EU, we ought to show them off the premises in a brisk and efficient manner. These are not the kind of people we want completely open borders with. These are Slick Willies by the boatload.

I think that the fact that the Turks have so far vacillated speaks volumes of the importance of being firm with the Islamists. The Turkish Ambassador was after all one of the people who started the cartoon protests. Turkey was the only country we might expect any vacillating from, and when we stood firm, they broke. Now that we are having fits of ‘initiatives’ and such things, the Turks are yet again trying to play us.