Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s fiery exchange with Israeli President Shimon Peres on January 29 at the World Economic Forum in Davos may earn him votes in Turkey’s next municipal elections in March this year or sympathy on Arab streets. But it is hard to expect that it would not harm Turkey’s role as a bridge between the West and the Muslim world, a would-be mediator between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Ankara’s relations with Washington, and its bid for EU membership.
Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, passionately defended his country’s assault on Gaza last month and, raising his voice and pointing finger at Erdogan, asked him what Turkey would do if rockets were fired at Istanbul every night. Israel’s Gaza offensive, directed against the ruling Hamas group, has caused 1,300 Palestinian deaths, two-third of them children and other civilians, and a huge destruction of nonmilitary infrastructure.
The culmination of Erdogan’s emotional response that bordered on a scandal didn’t wait too long: “Mr. Peres” he said, “you are older than me and your voice is very loud. The reason for you raising your voice is probably the psychology of guilt.” That was to the address of the Israeli president personally. But using the Turkish informal word of “sen” (“you”) as opposed to the formal and respectful word of “siz” (“you”), the Turkish prime minister adopted the same way of talking in Turkey’s parliament, especially in addressing the opposition, a language with an undertone of bossiness that is understood in the West as arrogance.
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