Monday, January 11, 2010

Ayalon summons Turkey's Ambassador over anti-Israeli show

(Jpost).Deputy foreign Minister Danny Ayalon summoned Turkish ambassador to Israel Oguz Celikkol to the Knesset Monday to express outrage over a new Turkish television show that depicts Mossad agents as baby snatchers.

After the meeting, Ayalon said he had told Celikkol that "these things, against the background of the very, very anti-Israeli rhetoric by the most senior officials in Turkey, not only harm relations, but also endanger the Jewish community in Turkey, the Israeli diplomats there - to say nothing of the Israeli tourists who visit there."

According to Ayalon's office, the deputy foreign minister told Celikkol the show - titled Valley of the Wolves - was "intolerable."

Celikkol, according to Ayalon's office, condemned the show and said he would pass on Israel's protests to Ankara.

Furor over this show follows fast on the heels of another show aired in turkey in October, this one a vicious show depicting IDF soldiers as child killers. That show was toned down after the furor caused in Israel by the first episode.

Ayalon's meeting with Cleikkol took place at about the same time Monday that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed Israel during a press conference with visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri. As such, Erdogan's latest harangue did not come up in the discussion between Ayalon and Celikkol.

Officials told channel 2 news Monday night that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, in response to the broadcast of the controversial program, is seeking to torpedo Defense Minister Ehud Barak's upcoming trip to Turkey.