AKSAM- Retired Ambassador Coskun Kirca writes on the Middle East problem. A summary of his column is as follows:
When the efforts to make Palestine into a country for the Jews began in Europe towards the end of the 19th century, Zionists who wanted to buy land there were rejected by the Ottoman sultan. If Arabs had not betrayed the Ottomans during World War I, all of Palestine could have remained Arab territory. The claim that Ottomans hampered the freedom of Arabs is a lie made of whole cloth by the Arabs themselves which they then believed. The Arab states and Turkey could have formed a ‘commonwealth,’ in other words a group of independent states. Their envy against the Turks led the Arabs to accept mandates from Britain and France. Nonetheless, the Republic of Turkey voted against the UN plan to divide Palestine into two, for Jewish and Palestinian states, and showed a friendship towards the Arabs which they did not deserve. The Arabs rejected this plan and took the offensive to exterminate the Israeli state established in 1948. However, they were badly defeated and proved that they were incapable of defending their homeland. Israel was born and was going to live. Turkey would change its position according to the new conditions and it did so. Israel was the land the Jews had left thousands of years ago which had become an Arab land in the meantime. An Israeli citizen born in 1948 is 54 years old today and believes the land he is living on to be his own country. There is only one solution left, and that is to establish a Palestinian state right next to Israel, in the West Bank and Gaza strip. Today, there is no one left, including the Saudis, who do not recognize this country. Therefore, the only course to take is to enter into negotiations. However, these negotiations should be conducted by rational people. ‘You will accept the presence of Israel, demand a right to return to those who left the country when Israel was established, and turn Israel into an Arab state!’ This is not a proposal to be taken seriously. The nature of Arafat’s intentions can be clearly understood from the fact that, when the negotiations came to a standstill due to this proposal, he freed all the Arab terrorists he had arrested. If previously the Israelis voted Sharon into office rather than Barak, this is Arafat’s fault. As he hasn’t taken any measures to stop terrorist attacks on innocent people, he has reaped what he has sown when the Israeli army entered the West bank and Gaza.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION