Turkey embracing Israel’s agenda for Mideast: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Barry Grossman, an international lawyer in Bali, about Turkey and Israel making progress towards the conclusion of an agreement aimed at ending a six-year freeze in their relations.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: First of all, ties between Turkey and Israel have been no secret in the past. However, what would you point to the main driving force behind this revival of relations?  

Grossman: Well it is really difficult to speculate. I think the starting point has to be that we assume whatever is going on between Turkey and Israel indeed most countries happens through back channels and in secret and what we are told through press releases only gives us a slight hint at the reality of relations between nations. Certainly I cannot think of any reason given Turkey’s recent position on Israel why Turkey, of all nations Turkey would be seeking to normalize with Israel.

Press TV: Well it also obviously raises a question regarding the lives of those activists, those Turkish pro-Palestinian activists who were killed. There were settlements, however never proper justice.

Grossman: Well I think the notion of justice is rather quaint these days. What we are seeing increasingly almost on a monthly basis is that the notion of human rights, of international law, indeed of domestic law in many countries has gone out the window and been replaced with rule by policy which in turn to make it only that much worse is based on the status of the people who come into contact with the system that is arguably abusing them.

So we see it time and time again. Of course the United States leads the way with its position on international law, it is too exceptional to be bound by international law but as it suits United States seeks to hold every other nation accountable for international violations.

Israel is another example and of course increasingly we are seeing it around the Atlantic World. Australia is a perfect example. It has not honored its obligations under the UN convention on refugees for a very long time and clearly is looking at what is happening now between Turkey and the EU as a bit of a windfall and a justification for its policies, violating the rights of refugees and returning them, sometimes out to sea to die. That is the direction we are moving in. So we should not be surprised when we see time and time again the basic fundamental human rights of individuals being violated en masse because it suits a policy that has been arrived there by the Atlantic World and its regional allies.    

Press TV: Well speaking of suiting policies in this game of basically international chess, if you might call it, for political leverage in the region specifically when it comes to the Middle East, what does Israel get by strengthening its relations with Turkey and vice versa?

Grossman: Well that is the magic question, isn’t it? I do not think it is any secret that certainly the Zionist occupiers in Palestine have for a very long time dreamt about realizing their Greater Israel policy. Certainly Israel has never sought to define its borders except that it includes in their view a lot more than they have at any given time already occupied.

When we look at the situation that is unfolding now, the normalization between Turkey and Israel if indeed it was ever anything other than normal, and we will juxtapose that with what is happening with Syrian refugees now being forcefully expelled en masse from Europe in violation of their basic human rights as guaranteed by the UN convention on refugees, we see a very dangerous situation being set up.

And let me be clear about this. There really has not been any doubt whatsoever in the legal community about the fact that this arrangement of convenience, this self-serving arrangement of convenience between the EU and Turkey is illegal under international law and the paradox of course is that the convention itself has always been championed by Europe which really never was shy about lecturing other countries about the need to respect the rights of refugees as guaranteed by the 1951 Convention on Refugees.

What we are seeing now, this is essentially the death now of the convention itself and with hindsight I think it is fair to say that it was probably there for never anything more than a tool to be used in the Cold War era to help to give refuge to Caucasians fleeing Soviet Bloc countries that is it was apparently never seen as anything more than a relative to Cold War.

But these refugees, let’s not be under any doubt about it, they are having as a matter of policy, a decision has been taken that their rights as guaranteed to them by international law are forfeited and they are being forcefully against their will repatriated, not repatriated but expelled en masse to a country which virtually any expert, anyone who has any knows of international law accepts is a very dangerous place for them to be sent - namely Turkey - because we cannot overlook the fact first of all that Turkey is a belligerent in the Syrian conflict and secondly Turkey itself does not respect the principle of non-refoulement that is the obligation not to refuse refugees entering and not to send refugees back to a place where they are in danger.

Turkey does not respect that right. It is now normalizing with Israel which introduces a whole other dimension since presumably that involves to one degree or another Turkey embracing Israel’s agenda for the region. So it is a very dangerous situation and there is really no way to dress it up. Turkey is putting itself in the position of being every bit as hostile to the rights of individuals and groups of people as Israel is.     

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