Charlie Rose

Omerd  11/23/2011 12:45 PM Report

RTE's foreign policy was good until the Flotilla accident. PM is playing an unnecessarily dangerous game and is putting his own country at peril. There can be no double standards in matters of terrorism, because if there is then we will be giving legitimacy to other people saying that PKK is a freedom fighter group. So, it's time to go back to more rational politics.

Omerd  11/22/2011 07:01 PM Report

I do like the spirit in which this government tries to conduct its foreign policy. It's a position that requires a lot of vision, creativity but also it comes with a lot of responsibility in trying to strike a balance in how we deal with actual and concrete issues around the region. Recent raise of the tone from the prime minister and overly-passionate discourse in regards to the country's positions in the Middle East has started to hurt the country itself mostly having to do with the rise of local terrorism. This government has to lower its "passionate" rhetoric and be more rational and more gorunded in its choices of policies. The Turkish position in regards to Hamas and Hizbullah or even Chechnya is disgenuine and not sustainable. I strongly believe that there is a more balanced approach to be found between how we address our displeasure with Israel's policies our various regional issues and our position in regards to Hamas and Hizbullah.

The rise of terror at home is unacceptable, and should become the priorioty for this government. This is a problem that has direct links to their current policies in the ME. Prime Minister should find a way to balance out his rightful spirit of his vision in foreign policy and the realities he has to deal with. For that he has re-focus his own country and re-shaping his policy according to what that requires before trying to play the King in the Arab streets.

sinanosis  11/05/2011 08:19 AM Report

Dear Starfish How a good demagogia you are managing! Bravo! Brief answers to your puzzling word orders:

1) There is an Islamaphobia in the world. As the world natural resources are mainly placed in the undeveloped countries with Muslim population, to achieve this goal, presently all the Muslims are declared to be terrorists by invaders. Actually, relation between Islam and terrorism is like relation between white and black. So Erdogan says a Muslim can not be a terrorist.

2) After The Mavi Marmara massacre, Israil has achived again to become right and unpunished. Because, might makes right and the world is out of joint. Israil government demolish the innocence the same as what Germans did them. In the Mavi Marmara, there are dead civilians who were killed by several close shootings to the head from air.Your approach similar to Gaza strip blockade argument : We wont let Palestinian eat nutrition, If they eat food they will thrive and handle guns against Israil. So, food should be prevented.

3) Lets leave reading from the political magazine journals. Turkey is in Cypriot since 1571. Turks and Greeks of Cyprus had lived in peace and harmony till Enosis EOKA violence emerged which aimed coercion, killing and intimidation of Turks to force them leave the island. It would be so good and exciting film like Saw If Turkey didn't intervene. This film sounds similar to that of what happened in Kosovo and Bosnia which are in the very middle of Great Western Civilisation.

4) Does it make sense why Armenia has rejected joint historical research with Turks about what really happened in 1915. Have you ever hear about the Armenians in Armenia who fear to talk about 1915 events and fiercly pressed? Does anybody will know and hear about Armenia, If this issue is settled?

starfish  09/24/2011 10:50 AM Report

Charlie Rose should have asked Prime Minsiter Erdogan three important questions:

1) Acording to the prime minister's Wikipedia page, Mr. Erdogan has declared that the President of the Sudan who is wanted by the international community for the genocide in Darfur is not guilty because "a Muslim cannot commit genocide". Really Mr. Erdogan?

2) The Turks on the Mavi Marmara were filmed attacking with sticks and iron rods the Israeli soldiers who descended on the ship with paintguns in their holsters to enforce a legal blockade (and yes it can be done in international waters since the ship declared its intent to break the blockade). If you try to use violence against soldiers doing their work, they will shoot at you.

3) What of the cultural destruction, conversion of churches to stables and the desecration of cemeteries and churches in occupied Cyprus? What of the ethnic cleansing of the Greeks and the theft of their property and what of the fact that no country except the invading country of Turkey recognizes the illegal puppet regime in occupied Cyprus?

4) And when will Turkey apologize to the Armenians?

To interview Mr. Erdogan and not ask these questions appears hypocritical in the extreme.

Metin  09/24/2011 06:51 AM Report

I agree with the commenters about the sound of the interpreter. I'm glad I speak Turkish to be able to hear the PM's comments. One more thing: The interpreter was quite amateurish in his translation of some of the proper English and American usage of some of the things Erdogan said. Turkey would be best served hiring a Turkish-American who has is a master of American English rather than someone who sounded like Google Translate.

TINAZ  09/23/2011 05:15 PM Report

I had trouble understanding the translator, his voice sounded like a hurried and bad imitation of Mel Brooks. Could we have the written translation of what was said?

talleyrand  09/22/2011 10:25 PM Report

i never in my life thought i would ask this but is the turkish government a 'proud sponsor' of the charlie rose program?

i am beginning to worry about the obsession of CR with someone who is turning out to be an authoritarian neighborhood bully, with dangerous ambitions for his country and his region.

how can CR be so interested in interviewing twice in 6 months a leader who is issuing 'firmans' on how his countries neighbors should behave aka diktats with threats of military retaliation ? how can he not see the danger this man's simplistic , self centered approach is creating for the region, NATO, the US relationship to this country?

fyi charlie, hes not just threatening israel. take some time to see what hes saying and doing on cyprus, vis a vis greece, iraq,kurds etc..

SharkswithfrikingLazers  09/22/2011 05:11 PM Report

He mentioned something about a saying that a thief will speak louder than the police--sorry didn't quite get it.

Here, permit me to help:

Procrastination is the thief of time.

douglas252  09/22/2011 05:01 PM Report

I'll post this here and also go to the "Contact Us" and send it to that address.

I ended up turning the channel because the sound was almost impossible to hear. I would have liked to hear Erdogan's interview but for some reason the producer or whomever thinks that having Erdogan's voice in the background with the translator's voice over is helpful. It was extremely hard to hear what the translator was saying with Erdogan in the background and his volume turned up so high. Why not add a French translator to the mix to make it even more impossible. This isn't the first time I have seen an interview from Charlie that was being translated and the conflicting voices made it impossible to hear what was being said. Why not just turn down, or off, the person being interviewed and let us hear the translator. Seems simple.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  09/22/2011 04:59 PM Report

By the way, for those playing the drinking game that requires a sip of Turkish coffee every time "indiscernible" pops up in the closed captioning, please take the blue pill for your arrhythmia.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  09/22/2011 04:53 PM Report

Here are the question he raises:

Is Israel the spoiled child of the West? (I say yes based upon what I read.)

Has Israel been disciplined like the others in the region? (I say no based upon what I read and see.)

Is Palestine an open air prison? (I say yes based upon what I read.)

Is Israel an occupant force now? (Perhaps, this one not so much.)

So what to do? Wait another twenty years?

Charlie, I do not know how you take this. Perhaps a massage every day? Perhaps Turkish?

netstoyou2011  09/22/2011 04:49 PM Report

I am interested in what PM Erdogan has to say, but the translation was much more subdued than the voice of PM Erdogan. It was all but impossible to understand, as I don't speak Turkish. I wondered if the translation had been deliberately jammed.

robdverity  09/22/2011 04:08 PM Report

Singularly peculiar how a charge against defending against ATTACKING Israeli soldiers can be construed as an ambush. An Israeli ship under siege would have been a lot more than murderous to any invaders. And to suggest that Turkey was anywhere near to causing the NY Jew engineered financial crisis of 2008 is the height of disingenuousness - if not pure unadulterated stupidity.

Hearts and souls that subjugate whole peoples are rampant a la Israel and Israelis grinding down of Pals. N.B.: the absolute rejection of a Palestinian UN mandate - the very legitimacy Israel hangs it's own hat on (plus USA blind, stupid support). How many more 9/11's do we have to endure for Israel?

ShalomFreedman  09/22/2011 02:57 PM Report

Charlie Rose is better than usual with this kind of leader. He actually mentioned the Kurdish rebellion in Turkey. He also raised the question of whether Erdogan has not been over- aggressive to Israel in his reaction to the flotilla incident. Of course Erdogan dismissed the Kurdish question as one of terror only and not that of a large nation one of thirty million seeking independence . He also mistold the story of the flotilla incident neglecting to mention that an ambush was laid for the bording Israeli soldiers, and they were attacked with clubs and axes by a murderous mob. Charlie Rose did not mention that Erdogan has threatened to put warships in the East Mediterranean and has also threatened to send warplanes in the area. He too did not say anything about recent economic reports suggesting that Turkey is about to go through an economic downturn as its success story economically is in part the result of its having used the kind of financial trickery which led to the global fall of 2008. Charlie Rose does credit for asking if Erdogan is not trying to win area leadership for himself by playing the role of champion of the Palestinians. Erdogan quite ridiculously refers to the statehood right of the Palestinians dating from 1947. He forgets to mention that the Palestinians totally rejected the partition and this led to war with the Jewish Yishuv.

A small side note regarding the comment on this site which preceded mine. It is a hate- filled and a quite stupid one. The person who made it does not divulge his name though he comments frequently often on matters he knows little or is mixed up about. 'A little learning is a dangerous thing' and this particular character spreads crackpot views with a whole mix of mixed- up learning. That in itself is not in my opinion the worst thing in the world. That he expresses such hatred for various groups of people, and such prejudiced dislike for those who he disagrees with indicates that it is not only his brain which is at his fault but his heart and his soul.

mcsconsult  09/22/2011 02:32 PM Report

I appreciate the President of Turkey's outrage at the Dictator's of Syria and Libya's wholesale slaughter of their own people. Oh, whoops! Must have been a different interview. I'm sure that's what he meant to say..

REMant  09/22/2011 11:21 AM Report

I have little doubt opposition to the Palestinian statehood issue is receiving the attention it is here is to pander to the ppl and place from which it originates, the current administration, of course, and to those who finance both. I think, however, that before long all of them are going to discover why both Jews and Whigs have been so long hated.

In the English language secular has two meanings, the first concerning with long term trends, and the other being "not religious, sacred or spiritual" according to the OED, so I'm not sure what he is talking about on that score, except that despite what the dictionary says, Anglo-American secularism is more accurately not the absence of religious behavior, but only a different sort of it, in particular the constellation of ideas we often nowadays call political correctness and sometimes "moderate."

If one wants to know why the West continues to pursue police actions around the globe supported and often instigated by their press' so-called investigations, one need only look at England and America in the 1820's, '30's and '40s where the same tactics were used by Whigs and evangelicals to "convert," correct the manners of, and otherwise control the populace, following a formula begun more than a century earlier with a century the Glorious Revolution. Islam certainly has no lock on "fascism." Just how these tactics are justified as being liberal and progressive, however, is one of the great paradoxes of human psychology. There's little doubt, however, they have issued in complete disaster for the world's economy, climate, health and peace.

Israel has always argued it is a polity re-established in a region with no such establishment. I doubt, however, the ppl who live and have lived there for centuries think of it that way. And there seems no doubt that Israel has been increasingly emboldened by being coddled by erstwhile do-gooders.

I don't know what the law of nations is supposed to be now with respect to trade with belligerents, but I really doubt there's any justification in it for what Israel has done in sequestering Palestinians, even if it can be said to be engaged in defense. We don't think interning the Japanese justified today. And, of course, Israel could never get away with it without American backing. If an American admin really wants peace there, I suggest it end that support.